Snapshots of Food Industry News
DS Group could buy out gourmet food retailer Le Marche
The Dharampal Satyapal Group (DS Group) is in talks with le Marche which is one of India’s largest independent food retailers. Le Marche is family owned and has a turnover of Rs.100 crore but has recently sailed into rough weather. While Le Marche says that they are in talks with several buyers the DS Group is hopeful of landing the deal. Le Marche on the other hand say they have not yet decided if they wish to divest Le Marche as a complete entity or as part equity and nothing is yet certain. If they succeed in this acquisition DS group will immediately be able to get a huge footprint into food retail that already has premium customers including expatriates.
Le Marche stocks a number of assorted products in their large format stores which range from daily staples, fresh vegetables, fruits, gourmet bakery, meats, poultry and seafood and frozen foods. Le Marche says that they have decided to sell the family owned food business so that they can concentrate on their other businesses like hospitality, luxury salons and real estate. This will be the cash loaded DS Group’s first venture into gourmet retail though they deal with other food products and own brands like ‘Catch’ spices, Chingles gum, Pass Pass mouth-fresheners, Rajnigandha and Tulsi pan masala, Baba tobacco and Dairymax and Ksheer dairy brands.
FYNE Superfood is now in Sattviko’s kitty
Sattviko, the vegetarian food chain, has acquired FYNE Superfood and the company will merge into Sattviko. Sattviko believes that the Delhi-based packaged food company will be able to give them a leeway to push their packaged food products. FYNE brand and products now belong to Sattviko and FYNE will also transfer intellectual property to Sattviko in the next few months and will still lead this space till the transfer is complete.
FYNE operated in the natural food space and owned products that were reputed to be natural and chemical free and owned some popular trendy foods like chia, quinoa and flaxseeds. This acquisition is in keeping with Sattviko’s vegetarian USP and it hopes to build up its own portfolio of packaged food products. Sattviko operates through its standalone restaurants and delivery centres in Delhi, Gurugram and Jaipur.
Australian coffee chain Di Bella has expansion plans
Di Bella, Australian coffee chain, presently operates in Mumbai where they own 11 outlets. The brand now wishes to expand their stores in Mumbai and move into Delhi and Bengaluru and for this they will invest about Rs.67 crore. The license for Di Bella Coffee for India, Middle East, Africa, European Union and the UK is held by Electel, a company that was founded in 2014 by Rahul Leekha and Ashish Akleker. The Di Bella flagship store is on Linking Road, Mumbai and is a 3000 sq. ft. space. The company plans for 20 stores in Mumbai by 2017 and also move into Delhi and Bengaluru.
The company requires around Rs.1.50 crore to set up one store and believes in a policy of breakeven after one month of operations. This could be possible because most of their rental agreements are based on the revenue-share. The company is also looking to expand into the Middle East through joint venture partnerships. Di Bella does not consider Café Coffee Day as competitors as they both target different customer groups.
Taco Bell embark on expansion drive to enter 12 more Indian cities
Fast-food chain, Taco Bell is all set to expand into 12 more cities in the next four years. Taco Bell is owned by US-based Yum! Restaurants and are specialists in Mexican cuisine. Presently they have a presence in three cities, Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru where they own nine stores. Burman Hospitality has the franchise for north Indian cities and some south Indian cities in Karnataka and Telengana. However, Taco Bell is planning multiple stores in Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Chennai, Pune and Ahmedabad. While they are happy with 2 to 3 stores in Chandigarh, in Bengaluru they would like to have stores that go into double digits. Though Burman Hospitality will remain their preferred franchise partners they are open to other franchise partners too because they feel multiple franchise works in India. In order to attract more consumers that prefer Indian palates, they are adopting local flavours into their menus. By the end of this year Taco Bell will also be sourcing their raw materials and the equipment locally fully.
Google and Zomato to partner for ordering on Google Search
With Google as a partner Zomato has made food ordering services even more convenient. Google Search will enable customers to place orders if they wish to avail of Zomato services from their 11,000 restaurants. Customers just need to click on the ‘Place an order’ option in the search results and click on Zomato to complete the order from anywhere, using their mobiles only. Besides being able to place orders customers will also be able to reserve a table at any of their favourite restaurants in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, and Chandigarh. Zomato has been able to offer consumers a handy and seamless convenience on their phones. They just need to search on Google for the nearest Zomato restaurant and click the ‘Place an order’ option. They will be able to have their favourite foods or a table booked at a restaurant in no time at all.
Patanjali Ayurved to invest in a food processing unit in Madhya Pradesh
The Madhya Pradesh government has managed to convince the Yogi turned entrepreneur, Baba Ramdev, to invest Rs.500 crore for food processing. Patanjali Ayurved will set up a food processing unit in MP’s Dhar district. It seems that the MP government was able to persuade Acharya Balkrishna to choose MP over Maharashtra. The Maharashtra government was ready to allocate 400 acres of land in Nagpur to Patanjali Ayurved and the MP government has likewise allocated 400 acres of land to the Baba in the Pithampur Industrial area, which is spread over 7000 acres, in Dhar district. The land has been allocated at the cost of Rs.25 lakh an acre and the government has offered the company tax benefits per state rules which will come into force once they begin production. However, there are substantial rumours about many more sops being handed to the company to get their investment. Patanjali Ayurved will begin production in the next three years and will generate employment for 700 people.
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