Selling Four-Wheeled Dreams

At the mere age of ten, a boy named Jatin Ahuja sold a pen and made a small profit. His vision soon led him on the path of being a successful entrepreneur, who runs a brand of luxury cars called Big Boy Toyz. The pre-owned high-end cars are sold to commoners and celebrities alike in large numbers today. In this interview, Jatin Ahuja, Founder & CEO, Big Boy Toyz, opens up about how he realised his dream of selling luxury cars by defying all conventions and norms

Tell us about the inception of Big Boy Toyz. How did such an interesting name come up?

In the early years, when people of my age were focused on choosing their colleges, I was the one who stepped out of the norm and thought of investing my time to bring those premium automobile brands to the Indian market that were not even present in the country through a dealership. Dealing with luxury automobiles has always been my ultimate passion which later, I converted into business.

Big Boy Toyz (BBT) came into existence in 2009 starting with merely 70,000 automobiles. Gradually, we sold a large number of Range Rovers, Land Cruisers. In fact, the first Porsche Panamera in the country was imported by us. So was the first BMW X6. This, at the time, was the stepping stone for our organisation.

The name is an amalgamation of a thought that struck my friend and I. The result was an interesting name of the organisation. The parental name of Big Boy Toyz was Magus Cars, which later got changed after the division of BBT from its old company. The notion of our brand is to match the individuality of the cars with your personality and the name speaks well for the same. We believe that the name of a brand is the very first thing which results in adrenaline rush, and then we work towards making the name a reality. And as far as Big Boy Toyz is concerned, the name alone speaks well for the whole brand.

Your passion for cars gave birth to a modest business venture in 2009. What are the challenges you faced during the time? How did people perceive this business idea back then, given that it wasn’t as organised a sector as it is today?

As said, “big dreams hold big challenges”. Ours was a newly sprouted idea and so for starters, our biggest challenge was that people weren’t even aware about luxury cars when we first started out. Due to low fan base and less awareness of luxury automobiles. Of course, the idea was unconventional and novel and we did not gain people’s appreciation back then. We were facing slow growth but we were still growing one step at a time even then. But by building continuous trust and faith among our customers, we were able to establish our roots deep in the market. People who were less aware of luxury automobile brands are now the ones who desire to own them. Purchasing trends of people is always dynamic. By increasing visibility, one can definitely attract masses towards the services that the organisation provides.

We have a team running left, right, centre throughout the country, every day. Our challenge is not selling but buying. Our rejection rate is 85%, a car driven above 25000 km gets rejected, cars that have changed spare parts get rejected. If the quality standards are not up to the mark, we reject the cars. Buying a car is not a problem but buying a good quality car is a challenge at the moment.

What are the business strategies that you adopted back in the day and continue to implement even today to script the success story of Big Boy Toyz?

Trust and faith are key to turning any plan into a successful business. We have built our customers and still building with efficient efforts. We have always tried to endorse BBT in every possible way. We have been sponsoring popular TV shows, such as Spiltsvilla on MTV. Later, we also organised a Big Boy Toyz Genx Fashion Show. On social media platforms, we have gained over two million followers on Facebook, more than 1.3M followers on Instagram.

Also, we have been focussing on building our brand value through TV commercials, online, newspapers, OOH and the list goes on. Our success story lies behind all these efforts which are still under process as per the current situation of the market. While seeding visibility among our consumers, we were able to get through a long run in a short span of time.

You have also stepped foot into the luxury bike market. What inspired you to? How has the market responded to it?

Yes, we stepped foot into the luxury bike market, but it was a trial venture project for us which we are not taking forward. We explored the market with a few luxury bikes like Ducati, Indian Motorcycle, Triumph to name a few but we didn’t take this idea forward. Big Boy Toyz has been known for its supercars, hence we never planned on taking on this project for the long term. But we are glad that we sold almost all the luxury bikes in store across the country.

"Big Boy Toyz has been known for its supercars, hence, we never planned on taking on this project for a long term. But we are glad that we sold almost all the luxury bikes in store across the country"

The market for luxury cars has always been dynamic. But how badly will the revenue ambitions and sales of BBT be affected following the pandemic? Do you have a strategy for recovery? What is the role of E-commerce at a time like this?

With the advent in time, the purchasing trends of people have been hugely influenced and their zest for luxury items is increasing day by day. But due to the COVID outbreak and the subsequent lockdown, all type of business activities have been drastically affected. In order to avoid any sort of social gatherings and the lockdown across the country, the stores are shut and there is no footfall. Both global and domestic markets have been disrupted due to the pandemic. The festive season was aligned in which we were assuming to have good profits but this doesn’t quite look like a possibility as such so far. Rising fluctuations in the economy have threatened both citizens and business activities across the nation. But being a densely populated nation, we have not even experienced what the rest of the world has gone through. With our effective measures and eminent medical staff, we are still able to control the virus. As such, we haven’t been as much affected due to the outbreak but yes, our economy is suffering. To us, health comes first and it’s been our topmost priority to first be safe, then only can we be strong enough to think about other tasks and decisions. Our team is all geared up to hit the market post lockdown. We all are prepared to face the post lockdown scenario as we all know this is not going to last forever.

The introduction of digitalisation was a result of our concept behind providing our customers with the ease and comfort that they long for. Our extended family consists of various celebrities and sportspersons like Virat Kohli, Shilpa Shetty, Yuvraj Singh, to name a few.

What would you like to say to entrepreneurs who want to join the corporate sector?

Work hard. Hard work never goes to waste! It surely pays off over time. Follow your passion and you are destined to meet your dreams.