Snapshots of Food Industry News
Yum Restaurants to Reorganise India Business
Yum Restaurants India Pvt Ltd has changed their franchisees and has sold 300 outlets to the newly formed Sapphire Foods India Pvt Ltd. This group is owned by CX Partners, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. a third unknown entity and is led by Samara Capital. Sapphire Foods has become one of the largest owners of Pizza Hut franchisees in India. With this move Yum Restaurants has split their business three ways. Gurgaon-based Ravi Jaipuria-owned R.J. Corp. will have close to 300 restaurants, about 100-150 restaurants will be directly with Yum Restaurants and the remaining 300 will be with Sapphire Foods. Yum restaurants feel this reorganisation will help them leverage the opportunity that India offers.
Yum Restaurants plans to open almost 2000 restaurants in the coming years. This is a huge jump from their present 800 restaurants and to realise their goals they needed bigger franchises instead of multiple small ones. With Sapphire Foods as their largest franchisee planning and harmonising operations for growth will be much more convenient and could perhaps see Yum India in profit lane in the very competitive market. Smaller franchisees with their limited capital would not have been able to scale the business like Yum wants. It also brings relief to Yum Restaurants from investing further and so is being seen as a smart move. Yum Restaurants India Pvt Ltd is the Indian arm of the American fast food company Yum Brands Inc. that run KFC and Pizza Hut outlets.
Bonhomia to launch their coffee machine called the BOHO
Bonhomia is India’s first coffee and tea capsule brand that was launched recently. Now the company is all set to revolutionise coffee and tea drinking trends with the introduction of their brewing machine – The BOHO. The brewing machine brews a perfect cuppa in just two moves. The first step is to place the capsule inside the machine and press the button with the option for long or espresso and you will get machine brewed coffee and tea with consistent taste, texture and flavour. The convenience of ‘instant’ and ‘freshly ground’ brew is an excellent coupling that will delight the coffee and tea enthusiast.
This latest technological endeavour in the form of the BOHO offers ease of use and a timeless design that will look pretty sitting anywhere, whether in your living room, office or bar. The BOHO has an extraction system that works under high pressure. It not only makes your tea and coffee but will ensure that each variant in flavour is brought out with body and crème. The brewing machine is presently available online at www. bonhomiaworld.com and selected outlets of Westside, Modern Bazaar, Needs and Barista – Midnight Black priced at INR 9995 and Passion Red for INR 12995.
Tata Chemicals to Debut New Foods Portfolio
Tata Chemicals will soon be launching a new umbrella brand for its food portfolio which presently contains branded salt, spices and pulses under the i-Shakti label. The new brand will be called “Sampann” a brand which will henceforth be used to launch all future products in the staples and food segment. The concept has been adopted from the ‘thali’ which is seen by the Indian consumers as providing the best nourishment. Just as the ‘thali’ contains nourishing food so too Tata Chemicals will launch food products that you find in a ‘thali’ but in a phased manner.
With the introduction of the umbrella brand Tata Chemicals hopes to treble their revenues to Rs.5000 crores over the next few years. They will be leveraging their distribution strength established by the salt portfolio which is a whopping 80 per cent of their consumer products and 69 per cent share of the market. For sourcing pulses Tata Chemicals partners with Rallis in the ‘Grow More Pulses’ initiative where it interacts with 1,50, 000 farmers across four states. The company has 1.43 million retail outlets which it will expand to 2.5 million in the coming years. Tata Chemicals had successfully converted lose salt market to branded almost 25 years ago and through Sampann they hope to achieve the same for food products. Tata sees this as a challenge for unlike salt there are regional players which are the preferred local brand especially in the spice and additives market.
ITC all ready to launch Aashirvaad ghee
Come Diwali and ITC will enter the dairy market with the launch of Aashirvaad ghee. The company is hoping to replicate the success of its Ashirvaad brand atta. It also sells spices, salt and other food products under this brand. With the launch of the ghee ITC will expand into its biggest non-cigarette portfolio. Aashirvaad is a
Rs.2, 600 crore brand and controls 74 per cent share of the country’s packaged atta market. Taking advantage of the popularity of Aashirvaad brand among housewives they have decided to launch the ghee.
India is the largest producer and consumer of dairy products and the market is likely to grow by 15 to 16 per cent in the next few years. Out of the Rs.75, 000 crore packaged dairy market in India, packaged milk alone accounts for around Rs.50, 000 crore, while ghee accounts for Rs.8, 500 crore. ITC entered the packaged food market around 2001- 02 including the ready to eat segment. Now they have planned several categories in dairy products that include ice-cream, butter, cheese, curd, milk-based drinks and ready-to-mix products similar to Complan and Horlicks.
Biryani Maker Arsalan to Expand beyond Kolkata
Kolkata’s famous biryani maker, Arsalan is looking to expand into the districts of North and South 24 Parganas. Beyond the city they have plans to enter areas like Howrah, Asansol and Siliguri. In Kolkata they will open three new branches during Durga Puja and are also planning branches at Dumdum and Baruipur later.
First started in 2002, Arsalan’s biryani, tender kebabs and their unique mix recipes composed of Mughlai and modern cuisine and fish and prawn delicacies have made them a popular food destination in Kolkata. The three new branches will come up near Ruby hospital on E M Bypass, Chinar Park in Rajarhat and one on Jessore Road and will take their tally of outlets in Kolkata to eight.
Odisha based Milk Mantra Dairy launches Functional Product MooShake
Milk Mantra Dairy Pvt Ltd has launched a first of its kind, milk and turmeric product called MooShake as a functional product in the ready-to-drink (RTD) segment. MooShakes is currently available in four flavours ‘Oh So Chocolatee’, ‘Nutty Badam’, ‘Peachy Strawberry’ and ‘Slurpy Mango’. The company says that the product has been developed in-house and contains 0.05% pure curcumin. The unique process used during manufacture of the product helps to maintain stability and solubility of curcumin in milk throughout its180 days of shelf life. The process also repels the taste and odour of curcumin out of the shakes. They are awaiting a patent for the processing. The product has been launched in Bengaluru and will be launched in Hyderabad next followed by Mumbai and Chennai and other cities in the coming 18 months. They will also be exporting to countries like US, UK and Japan at a later stage as these countries are well aware of the benefits of curcumin.
Since it is the only dairy beverage globally to contain curcumin, MooShake is a unique product. It offers health benefits of turmeric besides being rich in antioxidants. It has anti-inflammatory properties and also boosts immunity. Besides this the company offers fresh dairy products branded as Milky Moo and includes milk, probiotic dahi, paneer, lassi and buttermilk. Milky Moo products are currently available in Odisha and in cities of Kolkata, Ranchi and Jharkhand. The company is gearing up to expand its current processing capacity from 1 lakh litre a day to 3 lakh litre a day.
People and Placements
FSSAI chairman to hold additional charge of CEO, Churning in other posts
With the change of YS Malik as CEO, churning of posts is still underway in FSSAI. Chairman FSSAI, Ashish Bahuguna, appointed in July 2015, will now hold additional charge of CEO. He will continue to hold position of CEO of the organisation till a suitable replacement is found. Bahuguna is the former union agriculture secretary. The man allegedly behind Nestle’s Maggie ban, Malik has been shifted as additional secretary in Niti Aayog
Sandhya Kabra who was in charge of Product Approval division will now be replaced by Dr Rubeena Shaheen from J&K who is an MBBS doctor with MS in public health. Sandhya Kabra will look after QA/Legal issues. The newly-formed National Joint Action Committee of 12 different food industry organisations also wishes to shift out of FSSAI those officers who behave in an arbitrary manner. The present changes in posts are believed to be a result of the pressure from FBOs on health ministry. FBOs are still at a loss to understand if the changes will be of any help to them or not.
Further FSSAI has new advisors with Anil Kumar, formerly with the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) as advisor on standards while Sunil Bakshi, formerly with National Dairy Development Board, has been entrusted with the charge of advisor on regulations and Codex. Sanjay Dave, former advisor FSSAI is likely to remain with FSSAI in the same capacity.
FHRAI has Elected Bharat Malkani as President
Bharat Malkani, managing director, Hotel Transit, Mumbai, has been elected as President of the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India (FHRAI), at its recent Annual General Meeting (AGM). Malkani has also been president of Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI) and vice-president of FHRAI’s outgoing executive committee. The former FHRAI president, T S Walia has been appointed the new VP, Luv Malhotra, joint managing director, CHL Hotels, and Syama Raju, managing director, Hotel Maurya, Bangalore, will continue to hold the VP’s post for another term.
Vivek Nair, CMD, Hotel Leela Ventures, has been elected as honorary secretary. Garish Oberoi and K Murali Rao will be the joint secretaries, and Sudesh Poddar, the treasurer of the federation. The legal committee of the federation will be headed by Pradeep Shetty, while the classification committee will be headed by Nirav Gandhi. S M Shervani is the new constitution committee head.
The new president pointed out that FHRAI has made substantial progress to improve the hospitality industry in the 50 years of its existence. The Federation in the next phase is hoping to address issues affecting the industry and will take up the hotel classification issue with the government as top priority as that is a practice worldwide. They also intend to make tourism one of the pillars of the hotel industry as they wish to partner with India Inc. for growth.
jignesh bhatt says
very useful post