Indian Hotels Company (IHCL), the hospitality firm, recently announced the signing of its first hotel in Dibrugarh, Assam, operating under the Ginger brand.
The hotel is a new development project operating under a fully equipped lease. Its design will be centered on the brand’s lean luxe principles, aiming to provide guests with a dynamic, modern, and effortless hospitality experience.
Suma Venkatesh, Executive Vice President, Real Estate & Development, IHCL said, “This signing is in line with IHCL’s strong commitment to North East India where we have been rapidly expanding our footprint. Dibrugarh, an industrial city in Assam, is an important centre for tea trading and serves as a gateway to prominent tourist destinations in the region. We are delighted to partner with Vela Hotel & Resort LLP for this Ginger hotel.”
Vedanta Baruah, Vela Hotel & Resort LLP said, “We are excited to be associated with India’s leading hospitality company. This will be the first Ginger hotel in Dibrugarh.”
Dibrugarh, famously dubbed as the ‘Tea City of India,’ serves as a significant hub for tea trading, boasting expansive tea gardens. It also houses the renowned Dibru Saikhowa National Park, recognized as one of the globe’s 19 biodiversity hotspots. With the introduction of this hotel, IHCL will bolster its presence in Assam, marking the addition to its existing portfolio of six hotels, including four in various stages of development.
The burgeoning popularity of health-conscious consumers and the influence of social media personalities are driving explosive growth in healthy snack brands. Nevertheless, expanding these businesses into broader markets while maintaining profitability poses a significant challenge.
According to regulatory filings from the Registrar of Companies and Tofler, significant players in the sector, like ITC-backed Yoga Bar, achieved a 31% increase in revenue to INR 88 crore in FY23. Similarly, Tata Consumer Soulfull experienced a substantial 88% revenue growth, reaching INR 64 crore. Additionally, Marico-owned True Elements reported a 24% revenue growth to INR 57 crore.
Nevertheless, these brands, specializing in items like chocolate and protein bars, millet and dry fruit-based snacks, granola bars, oats, and breakfast cereal, also saw an increase in their losses over the course of the year.
“When we invested in The Whole Truth in 2019, it was just an idea, and the company was pre-revenue. We believe that awareness about what people are consuming is increasing, and that awareness levels will start influencing what people consume,” said Manu Chandra, Founder and Managing Partner at Sauce VC, a New Delhi-based early stage consumer-focussed venture capital firm. “The way it has panned out now is beyond what we had anticipated.”
Chandra emphasized that consumers are increasingly mindful of their consumption choices, attributing this shift to the wealth of information readily available on social media platforms.
“Earlier, your source of information would be a trainer or nutritionist but now there are influencers like Andrew Huberman, Cyriac Abby Philips (The Liver Doc), Revant Himatsingka (FoodPharmer) who are household names, and they are the ones who are perpetuating awareness and it’s becoming more mainstream,” he said.
While brands continue to invest in raising awareness, companies are actively exploring diverse strategies to expand their operations.
Suhasini Sampath, Co-Founder of Yoga Bar, stated that the brand anticipates its next phase of growth to come from offline channels. In January 2023, the cigarette-to-hotels conglomerate ITC announced its plan to acquire a 100% stake in Yoga Bar within a three-to-four-year timeframe.
“For Yoga Bar, which has the support of a strong distribution network, offline is a huge growth area. While you can be a brand that can primarily serve through quick-commerce, presence offline is critical. Food, as a category, has low gross margins of 30-40%, which makes it difficult to sustain growth either as a D2C brand or primarily serving online,” Sampath said.
“We’re actually cutting back on D2C because it is impractical to scale beyond a point. Once you cross the INR 100 crore scale, you have to make sure you’re sustainable in the long run and the focus is now moving away to getting the brand into DMart and Reliance Retail,” she added.
Yoga Bar expects to achieve a 50% revenue growth in FY24, surpassing INR 130 crore.
However, The Whole Truth, a relatively newer brand aiming to double its revenue growth in FY24, will continue to focus on the top segment of the market.
“All the brands (in this space) are premium brands and that’s largely because input costs for good ingredients are higher. It’s still largely a top 8-10 cities phenomenon,” said Shashank Mehta, Co-Founder and CEO of The Whole Truth.
In January 2023, the startup secured a $15 million investment round, with Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India) leading the funding.
“It’s not a mass offering that allows us to go to tier-II, tier-III yet, and it is largely being driven by quick-commerce, modern trade, and top general trade play. We can’t build a large food brand in India without going offline…but for brands like ours, the focus is not to go to 80 or 100 cities but to target top 8-10 cities and go deep,” Mehta said.
According to Chandra from Sauce VC, startups within this segment are poised to evolve into mid-sized brands, potentially being acquired by strategic investors if they offer something absent from their portfolio.
Apart from ITC, FMCG giant Marico acquired a 54% stake in Pune-based healthy snacks brand True Elements in May 2022, while Tata Consumer purchased Soulfull, a direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand, for INR 156 crore in 2021.
Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), a leading FMCG manufacturer, has announced top-level changes in its management committee, which oversees the company’s operations. As per a statement by the company, Shiva Krishnamurthy (49) will join the HUL Management Committee as Executive Director, Foods and Refreshment. HUL owns brands such as Rin, Surf Excel, and Dove.
According to the announcement, Srinandan Sundaram, currently serving as Executive Director of Foods and Refreshment, will transition to the role of Executive Director for Homecare at HUL.
Deepak Subramanian, the current Executive Director of Homecare at HUL, will be assuming a new position abroad. “The changes will be effective April 1, 2024,” it added.
HUL CEO and Managing Director Rohit Jawa said, “Krishnamurthy is an astute marketeer with strong business acumen and is known to craft great brands. I am glad to welcome him to the HUL leadership team and truly believe that his rich experience in foods and beverages will be of immense help to the business.”
Krishnamurthy, presently serving as the Vice President of Foods and Beverages for South Asia, has been with HUL since 2000. According to the company, he has held various leadership roles across multiple sectors and has been overseeing the tea business in South Asia since 2015.
Sundaram holds the position of Executive Director for Foods and Refreshment at HUL, as stated.
Kartik Chandrasekhar, who was set to join the HUL management committee as executive director, personal care, from April 1, has decided to move on from Unilever.
“The appointment for Executive Director, Personal Care, HUL will be announced in due course. Madhusudhan Rao, currently Executive Director, BPC, HUL, will continue to oversee the business in the interim,” the company said.
Moët Hennessy, the wines and spirits division of luxury giant LVMH, is expanding its product offerings in India to cater to the strong demand in one of its fastest-growing markets in Asia, as stated by CEO Philippe Schaus in a recent interview.
“Currently, we are focusing in India on Hennessy Cognac, Glenmorangie whisky and Chandon Sparkling wine, and to a lesser degree, on our champagnes which are purchased more outside India than within India,” Schaus said.
“However, we are introducing new categories as we speak. India is one of our five biggest markets for Glenmorangie single malt whiskey. We have about 27 in all Maisons in our global portfolio, as we call them because they are more than brands, which include wine brands, champagne brands, and some spirit brands. In India, we will focus on about 12 brands out of 27,” he said.
“We have become the leader in a very interesting category, which is Provence Rose, which is Rose wine from the south of France. We are also making inroads with some of our new spirits, such as our Volcan tequila and Belvedere Vodka which has been in the portfolio for many years. Not all of our portfolio is currently introduced to India, but we are progressively going to introduce more and more,” he added.
Schaus highlighted that one of the most notable investments the company has made in India, and continues to pursue, is in its Chandon winery located in Nashik.
“We have been developing and improving it, with ongoing investments such as the elimination of herbicides, the installation of a solar energy system providing 60% of our energy needs, and the implementation of a new water treatment system,” he said.
“Additionally, we are consistently working on expanding our production capabilities. This investment serves as a testament to our belief in the Indian market and the belief that India deserves its own high-quality sparkling wine,” he added.
The funding round propelled the startup’s valuation to INR 143 Cr, as stated by Upliance in a statement.
Upliance plans to utilize the fresh proceeds to ramp up the production of its first product, the AI-powered cooking assistant “Upliance,” to 20,000 units per annum in the next six months. The startup also aims to utilize the capital to scale up its revenue to INR 150 Cr by the end of 2024.
Upliance was also recently showcased on Season 3 of Shark Tank India.
Established in 2021 by Mahek Mody and Mohit Sharma, upliance.ai markets an AI-driven ‘Smart Jar’ capable of handling numerous cooking functions, including chopping, sautéing, blending, heating, and steaming.
Equipped with a touchscreen interface, the product utilizes machine learning and AI technologies to streamline cooking processes.
“We are extremely excited about having Khosla Ventures as partners. Their investment is a validation of both the potential of upliance.ai and the traction we have seen in the market,” said upliance.ai chief executive officer (CEO) Mahek Mody.
Commenting on the fundraise, Khosla Ventures partner Rajesh Swaminathan said, “Mahek and his team have built a product that early consumers love and has the potential to significantly change people’s daily eating routines. We are also excited about the health benefits and AI integration capabilities possible with upliance.ai. These are the bold bets we like to take.”
Earlier, the Bengaluru-based startup secured $1.5 million in its pre-seed round from Nikhil Kamath-led Rainmatter Fund, Draper Associates, Rukam Capital, Stanford Angels and Entrepreneurs India, as well as undisclosed cofounders of Ather Energy and Unacademy.
According to upliance.ai, they have recorded a revenue of INR 1.5 Cr as of January 2024 and have sold 750 units since the product launch in January of the previous year. The startup has announced its intention to sell 1,500 units by March 2024 and aims to increase its active community members to 10,000 by the end of 2024.
This comes at a time when deeptech startups have increasingly captivated investors’ attention. Despite the significant time investment required before product launches and the need for extensive research and development, the deeptech sector saw hefty capital inflow in 2023, defying the challenges posed by funding winters.
According to data, funding for Indian deeptech startups surged to over $496 million in 2023, a significant increase from $397 million in 2022. To date, the sector has amassed over $1.5 billion in capital, with notable mega deals, such as GreyOrange’s $100 million+ round, occurring last year.
The sector was notably highlighted in the interim Budget 2024. The government allocated a substantial INR 1 lakh crore corpus to support Indian startups, aimed at fostering research and development within burgeoning industries. Additionally, a new scheme was proposed to promote the adoption of deeptech technologies within the defense sector.
KFC has launched a new initiative dubbed KFC Rewards, aimed at offering points to American customers for each transaction conducted through its app or website.
The program enables customers to gather points that can be traded for free menu items from KFC’s Secret Recipe Vault.
Customers enrolled in the KFC Rewards program will earn ten points for every eligible dollar spent.
Customers have the option to redeem their points for various complimentary food rewards, such as an eight-piece Kentucky Fried Chicken Nuggets, a chicken sandwich, or a free side.
The Rewards program showcases a rotating assortment of items, guaranteeing members access to a diverse array of fresh and appealing choices.
Members of KFC Rewards will also enjoy personalized offers, potentially including discounts or complimentary items.
Additionally, the program introduces rotating challenges where members can earn extra points and exclusive offers by ordering particular menu items.
Members can access their options at any time by visiting the Rewards page on the KFC app.
KFC US chief marketing officer Nick Chavez said, “Through our new loyalty programme, we will serve even more joy to our guests with incentives and special experiences that are only for our rewards members.”
Last month, KFC introduced its new Smash’d Potato Bowls in the US.
The dish features mashed potatoes alongside crispy Secret Recipe Fries, cheese sauce, bacon crumbles, and a three-cheese blend.
With a price tag of $3.49, these bowls join KFC’s menu after a successful trial in Pittsburgh last year.
India, the world’s leading rice shipper, may consider extending an export tax on the parboiled variety as part of efforts to ease food inflation ahead of national elections. This move could potentially maintain tight global supply and drive prices to new peaks, as reported by Bloomberg.
According to sources familiar with the situation, the administration led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is vying for a third term in the upcoming elections in the first half of this year, is contemplating maintaining the export levy at 20%. These individuals, requesting anonymity due to the confidential nature of the discussions, mentioned that there is presently no immediate plan to prohibit the export of parboiled rice. The current tax is set to expire on March 31.
Such a decision could contribute to the surge in benchmark Asian rice prices, which have remained close to a 15-year peak since India initiated limitations on the sale of crucial varieties in 2023. This development would pose challenges for certain nations in West Africa and the Middle East, as they heavily depend on India to fulfill most of their essential food staple needs.
A spokesperson representing both the food and commerce ministries declined to provide immediate comments.
Extending the levy would form a component of the government’s proactive strategies to manage food inflation, which surged to nearly 10% in December compared to the previous year. India has already restricted exports of wheat, sugar, and the majority of rice varieties, while also implementing measures to combat hoarding. Additionally, it has prolonged the period of low import duties on edible oils for another year.
However, rice retail prices in Delhi remain approximately 11% higher than they were a year ago. Food Minister Piyush Goyal launched a program on Tuesday to provide subsidized rice to retail customers across the country. The government is already selling wheat flour and chickpeas at rates cheaper than those in the market.
Before the restrictions, parboiled rice constituted roughly 30% of India’s total exports. This variety undergoes a process involving partial boiling of paddy prior to milling, enhancing its nutritional content and altering the texture of the cooked rice. In the 2022-23 period, India held a share of approximately 40% in the global rice trade.
V-Mart Retail Ltd, a value retail chain, reported a 41.36% surge in net profit to INR 28.23 crore for the third quarter ending in December 2023, aided by the festive season, according to a regulatory filing. This represents a significant increase from the INR 19.97 crore net profit reported in the same period of the previous year, spanning October to December.
During the quarter under review, its revenue from operations increased by 14.43% to INR 889.05 crore, compared to INR 776.88 crore in the corresponding quarter.
“Good festive demand in the quarter helped increase footfalls by 23 per cent reflecting an improved consumer sentiment. Winter season was delayed and remained muted during the quarter. Working capital improved with a decrease in inventory by 12 per cent from last quarter,” said an earning statement from the company.
In the December quarter of FY24, V Mart’s total expenses rose by 15.18% to INR 865.20 crore.
Parag Milk Foods Limited (PMFL), an Indian manufacturer and marketer of dairy-based branded products, has reported a significant increase of 268.8 percent year-on-year (YoY) in consolidated profit after tax (PAT) to INR 34.16 crore for the third quarter ending December 2023. This marks a substantial rise from the consolidated PAT of INR 9.26 crore reported in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year, as stated by the company in a filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
In the third quarter of FY24, Parag Milk Foods Limited saw an 8.8 percent year-on-year increase in its consolidated revenue from operations, reaching INR 800.84 crore, driven by robust growth in the ghee and protein categories. This compares to the company’s consolidated revenue from operations of INR 735.89 crore in the third quarter of FY23.
The company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) grew by 80.5% year-on-year, reaching an EBITDA margin of 8.6% in Q3 FY24, a notable improvement from the 5.2% margin in Q3 FY23.
The company witnessed a significant increase in its gross profit margin due to lower milk prices and enhancements in the product mix. The gross profit margin surged by 520 basis points year-on-year, soaring from 21.1% in Q3 FY23 to 26.5% in Q3 FY24.
PMFL is continuously investing in strengthening its brand through an innovative mix of marketing strategies. The company is actively expanding its distribution network, with the goal of tripling its reach to over 1.5 million retail outlets.
Commenting on the results Devendra Shah, Chairman, PMFL said, “Over the last two quarters, the milk procurement prices have been benign and we expect it to remain stable ahead. Improving consumer sentiments coupled with our continuous focus on the value-added products and the health and nutrition segment is expected to drive healthy performance in the future.”
Shah further said, “We are in the midst of a transformation journey aimed at driving efficiency across the value chain. With an ensuing expansion and acceleration of the distribution footprint, we are confident to show robust growth in our revenues and profitability.”
Tata Consumer Products Ltd recorded a consolidated net profit of INR 301.5 crore in the quarter ending December 2023, marking a 17 percent decrease from the INR 364 crore in the year-ago period.
The company’s net profit for the period is also lower compared to the previous quarter in September 2023, which was recorded at INR 363.9 crore.
During the quarter under review, the company’s revenue from operations totaled INR 3,804 crore, marking a 9 percent increase from the INR 3,475 crore reported in the same period last year.
The FMCG giant’s third-quarter revenue has surpassed expectations, as brokerages anticipated it to reach INR 3,731 crore.
The revenue is also slightly higher compared to the INR 3,734 crore recorded in the quarter ended September 2023.
Tata Consumer stated in a media release that the consolidated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) for Q3 FY24 reached INR 576 crore, representing a 26 percent growth. The margin grew by 200 basis points to 15.1 percent.
“We delivered strong operating performance with a revenue growth of 9 percent and EBITDA growth of 26 percent…Our sales and distribution buildout is progressing well, our total reach has expanded to 3.9 million outlets as of December ’23. We have been focused on driving depth in existing geographies and widening our distribution in lower population strata towns and urban areas and will now focus on rural areas as well,” Tata Consumer’s managing director and CEO Sunil D’Souza said.
In the trading session on February 7, the company’s scrip settled at INR 2,160.00 apiece on the BSE, higher by 1.34 percent as compared to the previous day’s close.
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