Giving Wheels To His Dreams

My daily drive is a Range Rover Vogue Autobiography Supercharged and you’ll be surprised to know that everything — right from its clean­ing to servicing — is taken care of  by me and this also translates into my fondness for cars,” says Jatin Ahuja, Founder and Managing Director, Big Boy Toyz (BBT). “I am somewhat of a bike aficionado at heart,” he goes on to say, adding, “I  have a magnificent Harley Davidson Soft tail Deluxe parked in my cabin.”

Ahuja took the audacious step of starting a specialty Web portal for pre-owned super luxury automobiles in India. Big Boy Toyz, a hub for buying luxury cars, was launched in 2009 with “unfazed dedication, conviction and love” for doing what you’ve fantasied about since adolescence. “I invested a lot of time and energy to study the market and get the lo­gistics right. Of course, my career began at the age of 17 and I have thoroughly en­joyed every bit of it,” says he. “Listening to my gut instinct and inner voice made me believe that it will be a right move for sure and above all, the never ending support of my family members propelled me further,” he adds.  

In 2007, when a venture called Magus Cars was launched to import high-end luxury cars into India. “At one point we were selling more Porsche Panameras and Toyota Land Cruisers than the firms themselves!” ex­claims Ahuja, who is also a director of Magus Cars. “This gave us the right im­petus to further make this big.” The idea of Big Boy Toyz was born. The Web portal allows car lovers access to information on exotic pre-owned auto­mobiles from brands such as Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Maserati and the like. A show­room in Gurgaon and studios in Mumbai and Delhi bring these much-loved brands under one roof.

The new concept has made a lot of dif­ference to the market, particularly be­cause of the way Big Boy Toyz operates. What works most for the company is the fact that the cars that it showcases have travelled relatively fewer kilometres and have a good track record on the road. Big Boy Toyz gets an edge in the market from the fact that its area of business has no re­strictions.

The 100-150 member organisation is the only one in the world to work on a fixed price policy. Every car offered on the Web­site is subjected to a stringent “151 check points”. The pre-owned cars come with a warranty of six months and a one-year buyback agreement.

Jatin Ahuja obviously, is the venture’s top decision maker. Ahuja says he person­ally answers all his LinkedIn and official Facebook page messages even if it means staying up late at night. He says Big Boy Toyz has contributed to society and the na­tion in its own way, simply by being “most definitely a progressive vision of the cen­tury”.

Any profit-making organisation adds to the GDP of the nation, he points out, when we persist on how the venture had impact­ed society and the na­tion, adding, “And so it is with BBT!” He empha­sises that the company has revolutionised and standardised the busi­ness of pre-owned cars.

The market for such high-end products is turning increasingly competitive, Ahuja says, when we ask him about competition. He emphasises that Big Boy Toyz had its own way of staying ahead in the market. Asked about the company’s plans for the decade ahead, Ahuja says that Big Boy Toys was “working with top minds” who were “helping with expansion plans”.

His inspiration and mentor was obvi­ously his father. “I must say that my father stood behind me like a rock,” says Ahuja. He says being in the BW Businesswold’s list of the 40 best under 40 entrepreneurs has given him “a boost to perform better in future”. “You have to follow the passion and the energy comes from inside,” he says.

Prabodh Krishna

BW Reporters The author is correspondent with BW Businessworld