Ishen Paran has spent over 20 years scaling challenger food and drink brands, including Oatly and Bear, before taking on the task of bringing a restaurant brand into retail for the first time. As Managing Director of Gymkhana Fine Foods, born from JKS's winning restaurant group, Ishen has led the brand's launch into UK grocery, securing listings across more than 2,000 stores in its first two years, spanning both premium and mainstream retail: Waitrose, M&S, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Ocado and Whole Foods, alongside hundreds of independents. Over the last 2 years the focus has been taking the Gymkhana brand to make the leap from table to shelf: translating restaurant credibility into retail distribution, balancing premium provenance with mainstream reach, and building a supply chain and retail strategy that keeps the integrity of the original brand intact. I have an operators view of what actually works, and what doesn't. Navigating how a hospitality brand steps into a retail landscape built for very different rules.