ITC Foods is gearing up to expand into fresh packaged foods such as cookies, cakes, and chapatis, in a move designed to tap India’s rapidly growing quick commerce market. The initiative reflects the company’s bid to align with shifting consumer preferences for convenience-led foods with short shelf lives, delivered quickly through hyper-local supply chains.
Hemant Malik, chief executive of ITC’s food division, said the company has extended its flagship Sunfeast and Aashirvaad brands into these categories. “Consumers today are looking for products that combine freshness, quality, and accessibility. The rise of quick commerce has made it possible to reach them faster with foods designed to be consumed within days rather than months,” he told ET.
To deliver on this promise, ITC has built a small-batch production and hyper-local distribution model that enables next-day delivery from oven to doorstep. The system bypasses long-haul logistics and warehouse storage, common hurdles in a country where 75 percent of FMCG sales still flow through local kirana stores.
Industry analysts, however, warn that scaling such a model will require more than quick commerce. Devangshu Dutta, founder of retail advisory Third Eyesight, said products with limited shelf lives “must move fast,” making inventory management on quick commerce platforms a challenge. He added that ITC will eventually need to extend these products into modern and general trade to achieve scale.
For ITC, the push into fresh packaged foods comes on the back of steady growth in its food business, which reported gross sales of ₹18,270 crore in FY25, up 6 percent year-on-year. The company joins peers like Hindustan Unilever, Marico, Adani Wilmar, and Parle, all of whom are creating dedicated portfolios for the fast-moving quick commerce channel, now dominated by Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, and Zepto.
