Case Study (Chapati Man)

The Client

Chapati Man is a street food brand from the UK whose journey began at festivals and has never stopped. The brand was launched by husband-and-wife team Chris and Andrea in 2007 with the idea that true family recipes should be portable, accessible, and truly good. What started as a food stall at a festival soon became one of the most famous Indian fast-food names in the UK.

Over the years, Chapati Man has been voted No. 1 food caterer at Glastonbury (in their first year), in Morrisons and Waitrose supermarkets, and on Dragons' Den, and has even provided meals for city workers at Broadgate Circle, Paddington Central, and Chiswick Park in London.

In November 2023, the brand's biggest step yet was taken with the launch of its first permanent premises in Whitechapel, East London, comprising both a restaurant and a Central Production Unit, aimed at time-crunched lunchtime crowds as well as dine-in diners. The Whitechapel store is also the launchpad for a broader franchise rollout.

The Challenge

The festival trailer simply didn't have to navigate a communication challenge when it opened its doors as a physical location. When you have 500 people at a music festival, a chalkboard does the job. Static content creates friction in a high-foot-traffic, high-velocity restaurant environment, for both the team managing the content and customers deciding what to order.

The dishes that are served at Chapati Man are not fixed. Specials change, ingredients move in and out of the menu seasonally, and as the franchise network grows, offerings can differ by location and time of day. Maintaining the accuracy of printed displays through this was a continual ongoing task.

The grab-and-go format relies upon customers’ rapid decision-making at the counter. When the display is unclear or visually indistinct, the whole process slows down, which a lunchtime queue cannot afford.

Every change, from a price adjustment to a new dish to an item that was sold out, meant redesigning, printing, and physically swapping display materials. There was no magic solution; each correction began with the same tedious process all over again.

As franchise development became a reality, it was impossible to create a scalable solution to ensure that all future stores displayed the correct content simultaneously. A lot of what worked for one store wouldn't work for ten.

The Solution

To control all the content on the screens in the store from a single source, Chapati Man deployed Disploy, the cloud-based digital signage platform, at their flagship store in Whitechapel. Disploy's support for a variety of display hardware allowed the team to begin work without needing to change anything in their existing setup.

The key elements of the rollout were:

1. Centralized Dashboard: All screens across all Whitechapel stores, and in future stores, are now controlled from a single Disploy dashboard. No print replacement, no manual change, no site-to-site coordination.
2. Real-time Menu Updates: If a special goes on sale, its price changes, or a new special is added to the menu, the change is reflected across all screens within seconds. No turnaround in design, no printing cycle, no waiting.
3. Daypart Scheduling: Chapati Man is open 10 am - 11 pm daily. Different menus and promotions can be automatically scheduled to run in the morning, at lunch, and in the evening without any human interaction.
4. Add new outlets to the same dashboard: Each new outlet can be added to the same dashboard as the Franchise-Ready Multi-Location Control is set up. Content can be sent out simultaneously or customized by outlet for consistency and flexibility as the brand grows.
5. On-Brand Visual Displays: Chapati Man is loud and colorful, the sort of energy that originated on festival land. With Disploy's content tools, the team can bring that same vibe to the screens in their stores, using visuals that truly represent their brand.

The Results

With Disploy at their Whitechapel shop, Chapati Man has redesigned how in-store communication works and laid the groundwork for the future.

• There is no more manual content management. A single print cycle can now be made in real time, thanks to a single dash instead of a full print cycle, without requiring any physical effort.
• The grab-and-go experience is quicker and smoother. Clearly visible, up-to-date menu information means that customers arriving at the counter can see what they want and make a decision more quickly, and it keeps lunchtime queues moving.
• There's no need to pay a periodic print fee. All changes that used to require design and print cycles can now be applied in seconds.
• Daypart menus operate automatically. The right content is displayed at the right time of day, every day, with no one having to remember to change it.
• The basis of a franchise scale is set. As new Chapati Man stores pop up across London and the UK, every location is instantly under the same brand and the same Disploy dashboard, with no extra hassle.

What Chapati Man Says

"Our brand has always been about energy and freshness, from the food to the experience. With Disploy, our screens finally reflect that. We can update what's showing in seconds, schedule different content throughout the day, and as we open more locations, we know every outlet will look the way it should. It's the kind of control we didn't know we were missing."

— Team Chapati Man, Whitechapel

Key Takeaway

Chapati Man has been founded on movement, from festival to festival, city to city, trailer to flagship store. Static displays just couldn't keep up. Disploy provided them with a content system that is as fast as their brand: instant content updates, automated scheduling, and a foundation for a network of brand franchises that will remain consistent wherever it goes.

It's more than just a prettier menu board. It's a team that can focus on serving good food while the screens take care of themselves.