IKEA, a Swedish multinational group of companies that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture appliances and home accessories, is all set to open its restaurant store in Hyderabad. The store will feature 7,500 furniture and home furnishing products and a 1,000-seater restaurant serving healthy and nutritious Indian and Swedish cuisine.
The company, which received Government approval in 2013 to invest Rs 10,500 crore in India under the 100 per cent foreign direct investment route, plans to open its second store in Mumbai.
And going further, it plans to open 25 stores in nine Indian cities. However, the size of all the stores will be different just like its other 328 stores around the globe.
Henrik Österström, Country Food Manager, IKEA India, said, "We are planning to serve healthy food at affordable prices to attract more people to our store.” He further added, “As the restaurant will open within half an hour of opening of the store, we may give coffee for free and then thereby attract people little bit earlier than the normal time."
Österström said, "We won't be serving the traditional meatballs just like the rest of the world. We will only be serving Chicken and Veg Balls in a traditional way with mashed potato, cream sauce and lingo berries."
He further added, "We will never force anyone to eat Swedish food, there will always be an option of either eating global or local food. The prices of the dishes available at the restaurant will be affordable. We plan to have the lowest prices of the comparable products. Our local range will be open to price comparison whereas the global range is an exclusive range which the consumer won’t be able to find anywhere else."
Globally, the restaurant business accounts for 5.4 per cent of the total revenue of IKEA whereas in India, the furniture giant is expecting the restaurant to contribute 10 per cent of the total revenue.
Zydus Cadila Group will acquire the consumer brand business of Kraft Heinz in India, which includes the children's milk drink Complan, for Rs 4500-4600 crore.
Once the group gets selected, it will hire a private equity partner for financing support. The company had sent feelers to PE groups like True North, Temasek, Warburg Pincus and Carlyle to partner them and may place its equity in a back-to-back deal.
Zydus Cadila, India's fourth-largest pharmaceutical company, is the frontrunner for the Kraft Heinz's India portfolio.
Kraft Heinz consumer business in India comprises Complan, talcum powder Nycil, glucose powder drink Glucon-D and Sampriti Ghee.
Biscuits and confectionery maker Parle Products has set its target to increase its market share to 18-20 percent in fiscal 2017-18 from 15 percent, in the premium biscuit category.
Mayank Shah, Category Head, Parle Products, said, "We will be expecting decent dividends coming in from our premium range. While we are very strong in the mid-tier or popular range and the mass range, premium is one place where we have started making our mark felt."
He further added, "We have brands like Hide & Seek and Milano and of late we also launched their variants. Having done that, we are seeing an increase in market share in that particular segment. We have seen our market share going up by almost 4-5 per cent in premium segment in last one year."
The premium biscuit category is estimated to be worth around Rs 5,000 crore, growing at 15-17 per cent. Shah said the company is expecting its market share to increase to 18-20 per cent in fiscal 2017-18 from 15 per cent at present.
Its premium offerings include Milano, Simply Good, Happy Happy and Hide & Seek, while the mass brands are Parle G, Parle Marie, KrackJack and Monaco, among others.
He said, "While we would like to improve our share by focusing on premium biscuits, we would also like to consolidate our position in mid-tier and low price range."
Parle Products has a market share of 28 per cent in the overall Rs 36,000 crore biscuit market.
The company has expanded its portfolio over the last two years by launching new products and would be consolidating them before launching new items.
On overall rural demand, Shah said there would be an impact of 2-3 per cent on growth in this segment due to demonetisation.
Shah said, "This year, with a good monsoon, we were expecting good growth coming in from rural but with demonetisation, growth across urban and rural has taken a hit. While we are seeing recovery in urban India, rural will take a bit of more time.
While we expect rural to be the growth driver, the impact of rural growth coming in would only be seen in the next fiscal. This fiscal, we will not be able to realise the full potential of rural demand."
He added, "We were expecting category growth in rural to be in double digits but after demonetisation there would be at least 2-3 per cent impact in rural growth."
The company, which has presence in confectionery and snack segments with brands like Mango Bite, Melody, Fulltoss and Mexitos, among others, said it cut its advertising budget by 15-20 per cent post demonetisation.
Adding that the company spends 7-10 percent of its revenue on advertising, Shah added, "From mid-November to end December, there was hardly any advertising that was done and on an average it would have been 15-20 per cent cut in advertising as a result of demonetisation."
Danone, a global food company with a mission 'to bring health through food to as many people as possible', has announced plans to strengthen its Nutrition business in India starting with the launch of its globally popular Infant formula brand Aptamil.
Rodrigo Lima, Managing Director, Danone India said, "The introduction of Aptamil range in India is a landmark step since this is the first time we are bringing our global infant formula products range to India. We have aggressive plans to introduce many new products in India this year to strengthen our Nutrition portfolio. At Danone we ensure that our products are tailored to meet the nutritional needs of different consumer groups, based on the latest science and local nutritional insights."
He added, "For us Make in India is central to our growth strategy and Aptamil will also be manufactured in India at our world class facility at Lalru, Punjab. We have invested over Rs 150 cr to upgrade the machinery at this plant that we acquired from Wockhardt in 2012."
Danone engages with farmers in Punjab through a Program on Sustainable dairy farming to improve the quality of milk and ensure a sustainable supply of good quality milk.
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