Mainland China and Oh! Calcutta operator Speciality Restaurants is in advanced talks for its first set of acquisitions, Anjan Chatterjee, chairman of Speciality said, adding that the listed company has set aside a corpus of Rs 125 crore for M&As this calendar year. On the other hand, Rebel Foods, owner of Faasos and Mandarin Oak, is preparing for an initial share sale early next year, the first cloud kitchen company to go public.
“India’s young population is a key growth driver for food services now – that’s going in our favour; data says younger people are dining out or ordering in a lot more,” said Rohit Aggarwal, director at Lite Bite Foods, which operates Asia7 and Street Foods of India restaurants. “Many of these people will soon enter the earning bracket as well, which would also contribute to the growth story,” he said, adding Lite Bites is looking to double its network of restaurants from the current 200 over the next 3-5 years.
The positive consumption outlook is being flagged despite inflationary concerns and higher competitive intensity.
“Food services is a high growth potential sector, with socio-economic reasons such as significant increase in the numbers of nuclear families with more incomes, as well as people preferring established brands over unorganised ones – a trend that took off during the pandemic and has since stayed,” Chatterjee said.
Sagar Kochhar, co-founder of Peak XV-backed Rebel Foods, which also runs food court format EatSure along with its cloud kitchen network, said the company is accelerating expansion across each of its brands.
“We expect our category-leading brands to continue growing 20-25% in 2024. This trajectory points to innovation and adaptation, setting the stage for multiple, successive S-curves as we expand,” he said. EatSure plans to open 100 offline stores in the next two years.
Kochhar added that Rebel Foods posted its best-ever performance this New Year’s Eve, clocking more than 30% same-store volume growth over the previous year.
Others large chains including Social operator Impressario Handmade Restaurants and Zorawar Kalra-led Massive Restaurants said they are either in the process of public listings or expansion.
Wow! Momo Foods raised ₹350 crore in its largest-ever fundraise from Khazanah Nasional Berhad, the sovereign wealth fund of Malaysia last month. Sagar Daryani, co-founder of Wow! Momo Foods said the chain will infuse the fresh capital to expand to another 100 cities with more than 1,500 stores over the next three years, from its existing 630 stores across 35 cities.
A January report by Wazir Advisors, a consulting firm, said India’s organised food services sector is outpacing the growth of the unorganised sector, riding on the influx of new brands and strong investor interest.
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