Snapshots of Food Industry News
Hamdard Announces Tie-Up with Barista Coffee
RoohAfza, makers, Hamdard Laboratories announced a tie-up with Barista Coffee Company. Over 100 Barista stores will now serve RoohAfza-based drinks in coffee and other beverage blends including hot drinks. This is part of the transformational path that Hamdard is currently pursuing. The key focus of this move is also to connect RoohAfza with the increasing millennial population. The millennial have a natural inclination to go for what is natural and herbal products like RoohAfza sit naturally in this positioning. As part of its expansion plans, Hamdard is also planning to launch some snack foods in the near future.
Havmor launches 24-carat gold flakes ice-cream – The Mighty Midas
Havmor, a pure milk ice-cream maker, has launched The Mighty Midas ice-cream dessert at Huber and Holly in Ahmedabad. Made with 24-carat gold flakes it is priced at Rs.1000 and is India’s most expensive ice-cream. Huber and Holly are known for its innovative offerings and the 24-carat ice-cream comes topped with a swirl of golden chocolate ice cream, raspberry rose sorbet macaroon, a pipette of passion fruit and a caramel chocolate bar and is finally wrapped with 24-carat gold. The uber-premium ice-cream dessert also contains other exotic ingredients, made in-house like brownies, caramelized almonds, nutty pralines, Rocher balls, hot fudge, Belgian dark chocolate and hazelnut chocolate.
Huber and Holly are calling The Mighty Midas their most ambitious project, which is likely to remain their flagship as they plan to expand in India. Mighty Midas is presently available at Huber and Holly in Ahmedabad and is slated to be launched in Hyderabad by Diwali. The launch of the product will be supported by an aggressive advertising campaign on digital and print media platforms. Changing lifestyle trends is likely to bring a positive momentum for business growth for this gourmet ice-cream dessert targeted at customers who have a preference for gourmet desserts for special occasions.
Indian Gourmet Market in the Radar of Norwegian Seafood Industry
Norwegian seafood has been served at high-end eateries in India for more than 20 years but because of high customs duties, the imports have been rather small. The Norwegian Seafood Council, which is part of Norway’s Ministry of Trade and Fisheries, promotes their country’s seafood around the world now wants to make a push in India. The Council feel that there has been an increase in the affluent class in India and according to their analysis there are 20 to 30 million Indians who can afford to buy their products. Salmon and Atlantic cod are priced almost similarly to Pomfret, the local fish and so the market is wide open. The Council in conjunction with fish exporters will explore the potential for Norwegian seafood in the Indian market.
Annual consumption of seafood in India is around 9.4 million tonnes, with 50 percent coming from the sea and the rest from freshwater aquaculture. Till recently Norwegian exporters have not focused on the Indian market but with a change in trend, salmon is now being sold in modern retail stores. With the aim of raising interest in Norwegian seafood, the Council recently hosted an exclusive, Seafood from Norway dinner, in the capital. The dinner with Nils Ragnar Kamsvaag, Norway’s ambassador to India, was a grand buffet of delicious seafood from Norway fused with Indian culinary and had delightful eats like achari salmon, spicy tamarind-glazed salmon, salmon coconut malai curry, smoked salmon with green olive chutney and more. Norwegian Council’s home-work tells them that Mumbai and Chennai are vastly vegetarian so they will shift focus to Bengaluru and Goa.
LT Foods sets up ready-to-heat organic rice plant in the US
Leading basmati rice company LT Foods has set up a plant in the US for ready-to-heat organic rice with an investment of US $5 million. The plant will produce 20 million pouches of ready to eat organic rice initially and expand to 70 million pouches by 2018. The product will be sold under organic food brand ‘EcoLife.’ The total market size for organic ready-to-heat rice is US $265 million in the US and growing at 14 percent. This plant is the company’s fourth facility outside India and is expected to generate revenue of US $21 million in next 5 years.
Changing consumer lifestyles, including longer working hours and multi-schedule household, is leading to unstructured meal times so the convenient, ready to heat rice option appeals to millennial. LT already has a presence through their ‘Royal’ basmati rice brand and they intend to leverage that to grow in the US market. LT Foods’ US plant will import all required ingredients from India, including basmati rice.
The US is a big market for the company as it contributes to Rs.1, 000 crore to overall turnover.
Kohinoor Foods Launches Monsoon Brand Basmati Rice
Kohinoor Foods Ltd. envisions bringing authentic Indian flavors to its customers in the purest and most authentic form and so it has now launched the Monsoon brand. Monsoon is expected to usher in a new era in the Indian Basmati Rice industry with is different and unique packaging design and top of the range quality. Kohinoor is one of the most recognized food brands globally which has customer trust. Kohinoor Foods Ltd. is also one of the oldest food companies from India and has been in operation for more than four decades. The company’s products command immense customer loyalty and this has helped Kohinoor to grow considerably and establish their presence in over 65 countries. The brand has become a household name in India and abroad.
Drupe Food India Launches Lactose-Free Vegan Milk
Drupe Food India, a registered start-up company, has recently launched lactose-free vegan milk in India. Lactose-free milk and milk products are beneficial for people suffering from lactose intolerance. A drupe is the first natural real almond milk manufacturer in India that bottles the milk without the use of preservatives, sugar or additives or any artificial flavoring substances. The company does not include these ingredients as they can degrade the food’s nutrient content and original flavor. In fact use of sugar brings the immunity down by 50% even though it might make the milk tastier.
Sugar often takes the place of important nutrients and so the body does not absorb other essential nutrients. Children are given sweet- flavored milk and they are the ones who need the maximum nutrients for growth. Drupe Foods manufacturing plant is located in Noida, Uttar Pradesh and it produces 6,000 liters of almond milk on a daily basis. Drupe Food has recently launched the drupe online and offline retail chain. Consumers can buy the milk online from Amazon.in and from drupepower.com.
EazyDiner Raises 30 crore in Fresh Round of Funding
Online table reservation start-up EazyDiner has raised Rs.30 crore in a fresh round of funding led by its existing backers Deepak Shahdadpuri-led DSG Consumer Partners and Saama Capital along with new investors Singapore-based early-stage venture capital firm Bee next and a Middle-East-based family office. The Series-B round values EazyDiner at a pre-money valuation of Rs.250 crore and till date the company has raised Rs.51 crore across rounds. EazyDiner will use the new funding for improving their technology stack and expanding their footprints within the country and outside. EazyDiner operates in nine cities, including Dubai, and expects to be in six more locations by the end of the current fiscal. As part of its international expansion, the start-up is targeting to set up operations in Abu Dhabi by the second or third quarter of next year.
EazyDiner was founded by Rohit Dasgupta and six other professionals who have a background in food and beverages and hospitality and also includes media personality, Vir Sanghvi. EazyDiner combines the services of Google-owned dining guide Zagat and NYSE-listed restaurant reviews firm Yelp and Priceline-owned restaurant booking service OpenTable. In India, it competes with online food ordering platform Zomato. The company lists 56,000 restaurants on its platform, of which 2,500 are instantly bookable. It claims to place more than 1 lakh diners monthly, across its restaurants, charging establishments between Rs.75 and Rs.150 per diner. It also has a partnership with travel site TripAdvisor so the travel company’s users can make restaurant reservations in India.
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