Snapshots of Food Industry News
Del Monte Launches Premium Soy Sauce in India
Del Monte has unveiled their premium soy sauce in India in partnership with Kikkoman, which is a Japanese heritage brand. The soy sauce is available in 200ml and one-liter bottles and is priced at Rs.140 and Rs.465 respectively. The soy sauce is brewed with the help of a Japanese brewing process that takes months to mature. The basic ingredients used in the soy sauce include soybean, wheat, water, and salt but it can have in addition over 300 individual flavors and aroma components. The soy sauce is, therefore, used as a flavor enhancer in foods. The dark-colored Purple Label soy sauce unveiled by Del Monte will be available in major stores in metropolitan cities. The soy sauce has a shelf life of 18 months.
Coca-Cola’s Fruit Juice Blended Aerated Drinks to be Launched this Summer
Coca-Cola’s signature soft drink brands Limca, Sprite, and Fanta will have a new taste this summer as they will be blended with fruit juice. Coca-Cola has already experimented with orange juice blended in Fanta but it is now planning to expand the plan to other brands as well in keeping with PM Narendra Modi’s request to blend fizzy drinks with 5 percent fruit juice. This expansion is in keeping with Coca-Cola’s virtuous fruit circular economy initiative. They will also use as many Indian fruits in as many beverages as possible. Going forward they will also explore the possibility of mixing fruit juice with other carbonated beverages and a number of products have already been developed. Already Coca-Cola has added fruit juices to their non-cola aerated drinks. Besides broad-basing its beverage portfolio, the company is hopeful that added fruit juices will bring back consumers who have turned away from the sugary aerated beverages. Coca Cola’s existing products will be available alongside its fruit-based drinks.
Pink City to get Home Delivery on Swiggy Platform
India’s largest food ordering and delivery platform Swiggy has launched its operation in Jaipur and has tied up with 300 restaurants. Swiggy has become a go-to app as far as online food ordering goes because it is convenient and reliable. People in the Pink City will now be able to have food delivered right to their doorstep. Some of the well-known restaurants that have tied up with Swiggy are Burger Farm, Brown Sugar and Marky Momos, Kanha, Doodh Mishthan Bhandaar and Tapri. Areas already on Swiggy’s food order delivery platform are C Scheme Vaishali Nagar, Malviya Nagar, Raja Park and Jawahar Nagar.
Since people in Jaipur have a penchant for sweets and desserts Swiggy has brought popular local mishthan bhandars on board. Restaurants like DMB and Agrawal Caterers, that did not do home deliveries previously, can now be enjoyed exclusively though Swiggy delivery. In Jaipur, Swiggy will deliver from a wider radius of as much as six km and will deliver free on order values over Rs.99. Swiggy stands out among the other food delivery apps as it has features like recommendations, personalization and super quick delivery.
Jubilant Shrinks Dunkin’ Donuts Store Size by Half
Jubilant Foodworks has reduced the store size of the new Dunkin’ Donuts outlets by almost half as it wants to reduce the company’s losses in 2018. The average size of the stores varied between 800 and 1200 square feet earlier, but the new stores that have opened measure anywhere between 300 to about 700 square feet. The company is also looking at a model that is focused on donuts and beverages and simple food. While Jubilant Foodworks has reported an increase in its year-on-year net profit in the quarter ending December 2017 it wishes to grow further in profitability in the new financial year. Opening new stores with smaller format stores has been encouraging for the company and they are seeing growth on account of both the portfolio and the size of the store. During the past quarter, Jubilant opened only one Dunkin’ Donuts outlet and closed 9 existing outlets. In the financial year 2017-2018 the company will open 5 Dunkin’ Donut stores according to their new strategy.
Zomato Raises $200 Million From Ant Financial
Zomato, the online restaurant discovery and food delivery firm has raised $200 million from Ant Financial, the payments affiliate of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. The deal values Zomato at $1.1 billion with a pre-money valuation of $945 million. Ant Financial will hold around 18% stake in Zomato post the investment. Alipay will invest $150 million as primary capital besides other secondary share transactions. Existing investor Info Edge will dilute its holding worth $50 million in Zomato but will continue to retain its position as the single largest shareholder in the company with 31 percent share.
Zomato has a strong presence in South East Asia and the Middle East and this has been crucial for sealing the deal with Ant Financial. The fundraising is expected to be completed by April and is likely to bring in a significant turnaround for the once-beleaguered food tech. Zomato has been steadily fortifying its balance sheet with revenues surging to Rs.332 crore in FY17. Zomato claimed to have delivered over 3 million monthly orders for the first time in July 2017 compared to competitor Swiggy’s claims of over 4 million monthly orders. Zomato has been looking to increase its share of self-fulfilled deliveries through its acquisition of hyper-local delivery start-up Runner to over 10% of its deliveries.
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