My Passion converted into profession: BBT’s Jatin Ahuja

Luxury car retailer Big Boy Toyz is all set to make its mark in Maharashtra as it opens its first showroom in Andheri East, Mumbai. In a bid to make high-end cars more accessible to customers across India, the company has invested a total of Rs 15-20 crore at the state-of-the-art location, which offers a digitally enhanced experience to customers.

The brand has two major outlets; one is a 36,000 square foot showroom located at Hero Honda Chowk, Gurgaon, and the other, a 5500 square foot glistening studio located in Sultanpur, New Delhi. With an ambitious expansion strategy, Big Boy Toyz is poised to further strengthen its position as the biggest name in the Indian luxury car market with the launch of this new showroom in Mumbai. 

Founded by a maverick entrepreneur Jatin Ahuja, Big Boy Toyz caters to a niche target audience. He has been essential to the company’s success in dealing in pre-owned luxury cars.

Adgully spoke to Jatin Ahuja, Founder and MD, Big Boy Toyz about the company’s journey, his passion for cars, marketing collaborations and much more. Edited excerpts:

Tell us about the BBT Journey so far.

The journey started in 2003 when I was 17 and now i am 32, it’s been 15 years in the business. You can call this a passion converted into profession and so at BBT we do business with passion. We are sometimes passionate about that we forget all the commercial aspects of business and do it by heart which is primarily the reason that not a single customer in the history of last 15 years turned out to be dissatisfied. Every single customer till date has been satisfied.

I started this and now my father has also become a part of the business as it grows. The BBT family is now 150 strong and everyone is contributing towards the growth of this organisation.

What was the nature of the business back in 2003?

Back in 2003 it started with a college project with buying a Fiat Palio at 70000 rupees and into serious business after completing my mechanical engineering. I started working in first year of my college and 2007 I graduated and then onwards got serious with my business.

Big Boy Toys came into existence in 2009 starting with merely 70000 and now it has clocked 235 crores and has a target to reach 500 this year. We sold a lot of Range Rovers, Land cruisers, the first Porsche Panamera in the country was imported by us and the first BMW X6 was imported by us and this at that time was the origin of our organisation.

What is the market size of luxury cars in India?

So Audi, BMW and Mercedes put together sells around 35000 units every year but we don’t get into the A4, A6 or the E class C class segment. Out of these 35000 units there are about 10000 units which come under our segment. This segment starts 50 lakhs onwards.

Tell us about the demand in the markets you are currently operating in.

We have a physical front in Mumbai and Delhi. 40 percent of the cars that BBT sells, the customer dont come to the showroom. They see the pictures, look at the quality through the pictures, then payment is made and the car is then delivered. We have got customers both in rural and urban markets and in markets like Kolhapur, Nasik, Jammu Kashmir and PAN India.

Where do you drive more traction from—online or offline?

Both online and offline is great where online is 40 per cent and also most of the offline customers are converted through online and so getting the right percentage is always hard to analyse. We have about 75 to 80 enquires a day.

What kind of footfall do you see in these showrooms?

We see about 20 to 25 people at every location within a day.

What percentage of footfall do you convert into sales?

We sell one or two cars every day. So the cars that we sell today has been enquired for a week, a month or a year back and so I would say our conversion rate is 1 per cent because BBT is an open showroom to anyone, even the ones who want to come click pictures at any given point of time. Generally you have to take an appointment or you have to ask before you come and we were also one of them who have been outside a showroom just to click pictures and i totally get the feeling.

What is the kind of change in consumer behaviour that you have seen in the years that you have been in business?

In the last couple of years what we have seen is that initially every customer used to come, see the car, test drive it and then buy the car and now we don’t give test drives and the customer does not feel the need of taking a test drive. You won’t believe that most of the customers today have started buying cars without even seeing them. People have become confident with the product that Big Boy Toys is selling.

There is not one customer till date who is not satisfied and a customer doing 2 crore rupees RTGS without even seeing the car is the kind of trust you can see from customers of BBT. Our retention rate or the satisfaction rate is similar or more than any other luxury car brand.

What kind of marketing strategy have you implemented for BBT?

We market BBT in every way possible. We have been sponsoring a few shows like Splitsvilla in MTv, Big Boy Toys GenX Fashion Show. When it comes to online, on Facebook we have 2.1 million followers and Instagram is around 400k and you can see these across Tv commercials, online , newspapers, OOH, you name it and we do it.

We have our own merchandise like perfume, T-shirts and caps and this is because when I was a kid I wanted to buy a Mercedes and I had bought a Mercedes keychain and so a lot of kid enthusiasts who may want to have a very small portion of the cake.

What kind of collaborations have you undertaken so far?

We have done about 35 to 40 music videos till now. We have done collaborations with Sonakshi Sinha, for DJ wale babu and many more.

We are a part of the first supercar movie with Dharma in India which is called Drive and is launching soon. You see our brand there and a character playing my role Jatin Ahuja.

What is your business philosophy?

My business philosophy is that I will only sell a product which I can recommend to my family, if I can or will use it myself and If I cannot use this product myself I don’t have the confidence of selling it.

The BBT perfume that we have as merchandise if what I wear and I am wearing right now. What ever I sell has to be of the quality that I will use.

How do you source these cars?

We have a team running left, right, centre throughout the country, everyday. Our challenge is not selling but buying. Our rejection rate is 85%, a car driven above 25000kms gets rejected, cars that has changed spare parts gets rejected, quality standards are not upto the mark and it gets rejected and so our rejection rate is 85%. Buying a car is not a problem but buying a good quality car is a problem.

Any partnership with dealerships?

We work very closely with a lot of brands like BMW, Maseratti, Mercedes.

What is the inventory that you have?

Our inventory is 100 plus cars right now.

Which is your favourite car?

My favourite car is Range Rover Autobiography – 5Litre.

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