NRAI Opposes Zomato and Swiggy’s Private-Label Food Delivery in India
NRAI Opposes Zomato and Swiggy’s Private-Label Food Delivery in India

The National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) has raised concerns over Zomato and Swiggy's entry into quick commerce through private-label food delivery, citing threats to fair competition and the retail food industry in India. The industry body argues that this shift could negatively impact thousands of restaurants across the country that rely on these platforms for business.  

Originally operating as marketplace platforms, Zomato and Swiggy are now using their market dominance and access to restaurant data to launch private-label food offerings, either directly or through subsidiaries. This strategy includes launching private-labelled food products on their own quick commerce platforms, such as Blinkit Bistro by Zomato and Swiggy’s Snacc and Swiggy Café. NRAI claims this approach compromises platform neutrality and unfairly disadvantages restaurant partners.  

The NRAI also highlighted potential violations under the Copyright Act, asserting that the use of restaurant data to develop competing products creates a conflict of interest. The association plans to explore legal avenues to protect the restaurant industry from market monopolization by these delivery platforms.  

Sagar Daryani, President of the NRAI, stated, “Quick commerce in food is here to stay, grow, and add more zing to the food delivery space. People want more convenience, and so it will add an edge to the restaurants that can adapt to it. We are completely for it. What we are absolutely not okay with is Zomato and Swiggy doing private labelling and selling food by themselves. In Zomato via Blinkit’s separate Bistro app and Swiggy launching Snacc for quick food delivery.”  

Daryani further expressed, “They have all our data which they do not share with us. For us, there is complete consumer masking. We have no reason to not believe them migrating our customer to the products they sell as private labels on their apps. Be it data from a tea brand, biryani, or momo. We are definitely considering taking a serious legal route. As long as these aggregators are okay working with restaurants and enable restaurants to go quick, we’re absolutely fine with it, but we will not want to be demolished as an industry where they end up selling our similar products. This has not been allowed for even larger e-commerce players operating in the marketplace.”  

The NRAI also claimed that previous verbal assurances from these platforms indicated they would not pursue private labelling, making this move a breach of trust. The association warns that restaurants could face severe business impacts if these practices continue.  

The NRAI is urging all industry stakeholders—restaurants, customers, and regulators—to collaborate in maintaining a fair and competitive food delivery ecosystem in India. The association remains committed to protecting the future of the country’s dynamic culinary sector.

 
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Swiggy Launches XL EV Fleet for Bulk Orders in Gurugram
Swiggy Launches XL EV Fleet for Bulk Orders in Gurugram
 

Swiggy, one of India's leading on-demand convenience platforms, has officially launched its bulk order service, the Swiggy XL EV fleet. This fleet, which consists of electric vehicles (EVs), is designed to handle large food orders in a single trip, enhancing the efficiency of food delivery. After running a pilot in recent weeks, the service was formally introduced in Gurugram on the day of the Haryana elections.

To mark the launch, the Swiggy XL EV fleet delivered 3,500 meals to electoral officials at over 580 polling booths across the Gurugram and Badshahpur constituencies. The delivery service was provided free of charge to the District Administration, supporting the election process.

Sidharth Bhakoo, National Business Head of Swiggy Food Marketplace said, “The food delivery services are helping in the overall growth of the F&B sector in India by driving new consumption occasions, promoting supply proliferation, and enabling expansion of the consumer base. The festival season is perhaps the best time to launch this service... Swiggy XL will ensure that there is no interruption in parties and gatherings and no delay in large orders.

Bhakoo also highlighted the environmental benefits of the service, stating that the entire fleet is electric, reducing the need for multiple delivery trips and minimizing the environmental footprint. The service’s temperature-controlled compartments ensure that large orders arrive fresh and on time.

In the coming weeks, the Swiggy XL EV fleet will expand to more cities, catering to growing demand for bulk orders. The fleet's inaugural delivery during the Haryana state elections is a significant milestone, serving meals to officials in the two largest constituencies by voter count. 

Dinker Vashisht, Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Swiggy said, “It is a privilege for us to assist in the election process. We have previously run awareness campaigns with the Election Commission of India in the Lok Sabha election. But this is the first time we are offering our food delivery services... Our services, which offer consumers a wide spectrum of alternatives with the right information, are a tribute to the spirit of Indian democracy.

On the first day, a fleet of 20 Swiggy XL EVs delivered three meals—dinner on October 4, and breakfast and lunch on October 5—to polling officials.

Gurugram Deputy Commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav praised Swiggy's efforts said, “More than 1,507 polling stations were set up in the four constituencies in the Gurugram district. It is heartening to see young homegrown tech start-up companies such as Swiggy recognize their citizen responsibility and support the electoral process in their way. I hope they continue to work in the same spirit in times to come.

Swiggy’s initiative not only highlights its technological advancements but also showcases its commitment to sustainability and civic responsibility.

 

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Swiggy Rolls Out Ambulance Service for Delivery Partners
Swiggy Rolls Out Ambulance Service for Delivery Partners
 

Bengaluru-based online food delivery platform Swiggy has made ambulance services available to delivery partners and their dependant.

Delivery partners can immediately get in touch with the ambulance service, by pressing the SOS button on the partner app or calling a toll-free number. The average response time at the moment is 12 minutes.

“We are committed to the safety of our delivery partners and over the years have been investing in products and procedures that prioritise their safety and well-being. By providing ambulance service, we ensure that our delivery partners are safe, at ease, and have access to assistance when they most need it,” shared Mihir Rajesh Shah, Head of Operations, Swiggy.

The service is free for delivery partners and their dependents, spouses and two children who are covered under the Swiggy's insurance.

Delivery partners can also choose to avail the ambulance for family members not covered under their insurance at a subsidised cost.

The platform currently has over 300,000 delivery partners across the country.

It has partnered with Dial4242 Ambulance Services. Delivery partners will simply need to validate their partner ID; no documentation will be needed for the procedure.

After being piloted in Bengaluru, Delhi, NCR, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, and Kolkata, the service was made available throughout all of India. Depending on the seriousness of the situation, Dial4242 can deploy a variety of ambulances, including BLS ambulances, cardiac ambulances, ALS, interstate ambulances, Covid-19 ambulances, and hearse vans.

"We have 10,000+ ambulances across 500+ cities in India with diverse capacities and on-ground support to reach the victim in a matter of minutes, saving a valuable life. For Swiggy's partners, "the closest cashless hospital will also be found, ensuring they get quick care,” added Jeetendra Lalwani, Co-Founder, Dial4242.

The programme was launched a few weeks after a Swiggy delivery partner lost his life in Noida after his scooter and a car collided.

 

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Now get your booze deliver at home in Kolkata with Dooze
Now get your booze deliver at home in Kolkata with Dooze
 

With the onset of the festive season, consumers in Kolkata have another reason to celebrate with the launch of Dooze, an alcohol delivery app that promises fast and convenient home delivery of beers, wines, and spirits.

The app offers widest selection of alcoholic beverages with over 300 options of premium beer, wine and spirits to choose from.

The app is supported by a large network of carefully chosen retailers ensuring smooth delivery across Kolkata within 60 minutes, at a flat delivery fee of INR 49.

“Kolkata is amongst the most forward looking cities in the country and so are the consumers – they are young, tech-savvy and looking for new experiences with convenience and safety as must-haves. We are thrilled to launch Dooze, India’s premier tech-enabled alcohol marketplace, and to bring to the consumers in Kolkata the safest and most convenient way to get alcohol delivered at their doorstep,” shared Shikhir Magan, Director, Dooze.

The app offers an intuitive design for consumers looking for a seamless experience with quick and safe delivery of alcohol. It provides consumers with a curated list of beverages for specific occasions, making for a personalised experience, while ensuring safety protocols like legal drinking age (LDA) checks through AI enabled KYC verification.

West Bengal government has been at the forefront of introducing progressive alco-bev policies. It creates a level playing field for all players working towards meeting the consumer demand with underlying factor of convenience and safety,” he added.

Dooze has partnered with licensed retailers across Kolkata to ensure fast and hassle-free alcohol delivery. The app will provide retailers the capacity to bring their shelves online, target new consumers and gain strategic insights into the market and consumers.

 

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The Tummy Section opens their 6th outlet in Faridabad
The Tummy Section opens their 6th outlet in Faridabad
 

Every good story starts with three good friends sitting down to do something together. And that is exactly the story of The Tummy Section. Three foodie friends sat down on a fine day and their common passion for creating and serving great food led to the birth of Tummy Section.

A casual and chic outlet in West Delhi known for its quirky shawarmas, which they call Shawario, The Tummy Section started in 2009, and now has six outlets in Delhi and NCR.

The Tummy Section had a vision of fusing desi and videsi cooking styles to create something that was unique and finger-licking good. And that is how their new menu was created for the Faridabad outlet as well.

“We are sure that with our newest outlet, we’ll be able to have more Happy Tummies in Faridabad now. This is our 6th outlet and we’ve expanded our menu as well,” said Nikhil, Co-owner at The Tummy Section.

In addition to their classics, they are introducing items like Dustbuster Lavender Syndrome, Hazelnut Jacuzzi, Crunchy Chapp Pocket, Egg Rings Rice, Al Arabia Falafel Wraps and many more in their revised menu.

The brainchild of Yash Suri, Pankaj Arora, and Nikhil Arora, The Tummy Section’s newest outlet is their most spectacular and beautiful property till date and we can’t wait to go there and check it out!

 

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Berco's to launch three new cloud kitchen brands
Berco's to launch three new cloud kitchen brands
 

The pandemic has affected every industry and the food industry is one of them. After the Covid-19 hit, the sales and footfalls in the restaurants are abysmally low.

The pandemic has made businesses realize that they need to realign their business model to include deliveries as now the restaurants are fully open, the sales completely depend on the deliveries, takeaways, and dine-in.

Chinese food restaurant Berco's is planning to launch three new cloud kitchen brands.

Also Read: Anjan Chatterjee owned Speciality Restaurants plans to set up 26 cloud kitchens across the country

"It’s been more than two decades being in this food and beverage industry but this type of recession is something that has never been seen. But to fight with this we have to keep innovating our services and our work. Berco's feels more than happy to announce its launch of three cloud kitchens and I believe that keeping in with the traditional methods for your sales and marketing is not enough,” shared Kabir Advani, Managing Director of Berco's.

The restaurant has seen a steady growth after the lockdown, dine-in and home deliveries are one of the reasons for this. From the safety point of view, the restaurant is taking all the precautions of sanitization and maintaining social distancing.

May Interest: How Cloud Kitchen is changing the Dine-In Scenario in India

“In this time of uncertainty, this is something that I believe will bring a big change for the brand, and cloud kitchens are being a promising future in this industry. We are more focusing on innovative double-layered and eco-friendly packaging and also most importantly to maintain social distancing,” he added.

 

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Restaurant-tech platform Dineout launches Takeaway services with restaurants
Restaurant-tech platform Dineout launches Takeaway services with restaurants
 

With the global pandemic altering our lifestyle and our eating out habits, restaurant tech platform, Dineout expands its services and has launched contactless ‘Takeaway’ on their app.

This will enable users to pre-order food and choose for safe self pick-up from their favorite restaurants to increase safety measures for their diners.

With an initial launch featuring over 5000 leading restaurants across Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Indore, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Nagpur and Vadodara, these services will be available in over 10,000 restaurants by September.

Also Read: India’s Top QSRs takes Takeaway, Delivery route to fight against Coronavirus

“With the introduction of contactless Takeaway services, our users can now enjoy food from their favorite restaurants in the safest way possible and also help our restaurant partners increase their offerings on the dineout app to stay relevant in these challenging times. Our goal is to make Dineout the go-to app for all dining occasions,” said Ankit Mehrotra, Co-Founder & CEO – Dineout.

80% of top delivery brands sign up for contactless takeaway services from Dineout, creating a new revenue channel for restaurants and an opportunity to grow profitably and sustain during this transition.

With contactless Takeaway, food-lovers get access to their favorite restaurants like Mamagoto, Farzi cafe, Cafe Delhi Heights, QLA, Havmor, The Deli, Byg Brewski Brewing Company, China Gate, Urban Tadka, Pop Tates, Empire Restaurant to name a few.

May Interest: Unlock 1.0: Over 10,000 Restaurants Sign Up For Dineout’s Contactless Dining Suite

Diners can also pick-up their food at specially created drive-thru windows or curbside at partner restaurants and malls for a safer contactless experience. These drive-thrus are live and available to experience at DLF Shopping malls in NCR region. To further ease availing offers at restaurants, Dineout users can now enjoy instant discounts of up to 25% of the total bill on bill payments using Dineout Pay.

Premium restaurants at ITC Maurya, Roseate House, Le Meridien, Four Seasons Bangalore, Andaz Hotel, Intercontinental Chennai, JW Marriott, Holiday Inn Chennai  & Leela Palace Bangalore & more are offering special 15% off offer on takeaways and home delivery exclusively to Gourmet Passport members, making it one of the best and most luxurious Takeaways/Delivery services in the country. Members can order food from these top restaurants using the Dineout app in the safest way possible.

Ankit Chona, founder of Havmor said, “With Dineout as our partner, we are working to improve the end to end customer experience with Takeaways because a lot of diners still are not very comfortable dining out. We are laying more focus towards food that travels well, that is value for money, fresh and delicious.”

Adding to the same, Devesh Rawat, GM, Marriott Hotel Indore said, "Takeaway has become a significant part of our F&B portfolio in times like this when dine-in services are completely shut. It is a new revenue stream that contributes 25 to 30% of our overall revenue and with Dineout partnership we expect it to go up further."

 

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Swiggy, Dunzo tie up with wholesalers to power their hyperlocal delivery operations
Swiggy, Dunzo tie up with wholesalers to power their hyperlocal delivery operations
 

Food delivery company Swiggy and personal concierge startup Dunzo have partnered with wholesale stores to power their hyperlocal delivery operations.

Dunzo and Swiggy’s partnership with wholesalers will help them in keeping a track of the stores’ inventory, which was not possible in the case of Kirana stores partnerships.

Earlier this month, Food delivery major Swiggy forayed into the Dunzo’s hyperlocal delivery space with the introduction of its Swiggy Go vertical.

The company earlier said in a statement, “Swiggy Go was designed to keep up with today’s modern, busy lifestyles that are ruled by tasks, chores and to-do lists.”

The company’s Swiggy Go vertical launch came after the roll out of its Swiggy Stores, earlier this year. Swiggy Stores enable users to place orders from nearby stores to be delivered to their place.

Swiggy store service was initially available in Gurugram. But now, the firm claims to be partnering with over 3,500 stores in the national capital region, including merchant-partners such as Ferns and Petals, Le Marche, Needs Supermarket, Licious, Zappfresh, MomsCo, Apollo and Guardian Pharmacy. This service is likely to drive the stores’ order volumes.

Want to invest in a food delivery franchise? Visit Franchise India 2019, Asia’s Biggest Franchise & Retail Show, and give wings to your entrepreneurial dreams.

 

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With latest funds, premium gelato brand Mama Mia! plans to open 100 delivery service outlets across India
With latest funds, premium gelato brand Mama Mia! plans to open 100 delivery service outlets across India
 

Mama Mia!, the Kolkata-based premium gelato brand, has raised an undisclosed sum in a Pre-Series A round of funding. The round has been led by Pareto Capital, along with a bunch of High Net Worth Individuals based out of Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi, for about 20% stake. 

With this fundraise, the company is looking to launch over 100 delivery service outlets (DSO) across India in the next 12 months. 

At present, Mama Mia! has more than 25 touch points across 5 cities through online and retail store formats. The company has achieved over 100 percent growth in online sales on a Q-on-Q basis ended June 2019, driven by 8 delivery service outlets (DSO) in Kolkata and Bengaluru. 

Vikash Agarwal, Co-founder and Managing Director, Pareto Capital, said, “With the ever-increasing health consciousness, Mama Mia! is perfectly poised to take on the dessert industry and become a household name.” 

Established in 2005, Mama Mia! was taken over by Akshat Singhania and Adhiraj Thirani in 2014. It provides a diverse product portfolio that includes low-fat gelato (vegan and sugar-free options too!), gelato cakes, mouth-watering sundaes, thick milkshakes, mousses etc. 

 

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Delivery startup DailyNinja buys Hyderabad-based WakeupBasket
Delivery startup DailyNinja buys Hyderabad-based WakeupBasket
 

The hyperlocal subscription-based delivery startup DailyNinja has acquired WakeupBasket, a Hyderabad-based firm, for an undisclosed amount in a cash and equity deal.

This deal is DailyNinja's second acquisition in Hyderabad after the acquisition of 4amShop in August 2018.

Post this acquisition, all of WakeupBasket employees will join DailyNinja platform. While the Founders of WakeupBasket, Satendra Pratap and Sai Varaprasad, will lead Hyderabad team of DailyNinja.

Anurag Gupta, Co-founder of DailyNinja, said, "Satendra and Sai are a dynamic duo with hands-on experience in scaling a similar model in Hyderabad. We thought they would be a great fit for our core team when we first met them and decided to go ahead with this acquisition."

DailyNinja was founded by Sagar Yarnalkar and Anurag Gupta in 2015. It runs a grocery and milk delivery service. The delivery startup is operating both a marketplace and an inventory-led model, and is earning revenue from subscriptions.

"We are growing at 20% MoM. This has been made possible by the launch in three new cities Chennai, Mumbai and Pune where we are seeing the excellent response. We are looking to reach 20,000 daily transactions from Hyderabad in the next six months, as we currently stand at 5000 transactions a day," Anurag added.

 

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Taco Bell launches delivery service across 200 locations in the US
Taco Bell launches delivery service across 200 locations in the US
 

Taco Bell, the Mexican Chain is planning to start delivery services at around 200 outlets in three cities in the US.

The fast food chain has partnered with Palo Alto-based tech start-up DoorDash to roll out deliveries at its outlets.

Taco Bell has started the testing delivery services at around 200 outlets in Dallas, Los Angeles, Orange County, Calif., and San Francisco Bay markets.

After placing order on the Palo Alto, DoorDash will put in the order at the nearest Taco Bell, pick it up and drive it to to the preferred location.

The app will also notify Taco Bell customers when the DoorDash driver is nearing their home or office.

According to USA Today, there's no minimum order, but a $3.99 flat fee is added. However, Taco Bell officials declined to detail how much DoorDash is being compensated as part of the deal.

“During limited testing at stores in Dallas, Orange County, Palo Alto and San Jose, Calif, orders took roughly 38 minutes from when they were ordered to arriving at the customer's door,” said Tressie Lieberman, VP, Innovation and on demand, Taco Bell.

The company also mentioned that it will also promote its delivery on Periscope, Snapchat and Twitter in the coming days as delivery the number one thing demanded by the customers.

 

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