The ceremony was graced by Amb. Jawed Ashraf, IFS (Retd.), Chairman, India Trade Promotion Organisation, as Chief Guest, and brought together leading figures from the culinary and hospitality industry. The awards comprised six Top Chef Awards recognising professional achievement, leadership and contributions to the culinary field, alongside Master Chef competition categories that tested participants’ technical skills, creativity and adherence to professional standards.

Among the top honours, the Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Chef Ajay Kumar Sood, while Chef Vivek Saggar received the Golden Hat Chef Award and Chef Sanjay Babu Dasari was honoured with the Silver Hat Chef Award. The Academic Chef of the Year Award went to Chef Pawan Ailawadi, the Pastry Chef of the Year Award to Chef Jaideep Singh Rana, the Shri Anil Bhandari Memorial – Chef of the Year Award to Chef Vaibhav Soni, and the Lady Chef of the Year Award to Chef Richa Johri.

Commenting on the awards, Chef Davinder Kumar, President, Indian Culinary Forum, said, “The Annual Chef Awards are an opportunity to recognise the dedication, skill and professionalism that chefs bring to their work every day. The competitions allow participants to test their abilities, learn from their peers and demonstrate the standards they uphold in professional kitchens. By recognising established professionals alongside emerging talent, we aim to encourage continuous learning and strengthen the culinary profession. Our philosophy remains ‘from chefs, by chefs and for chefs’.”

Chef Vivek Saggar, General Secretary, Indian Culinary Forum, added, “Culinary excellence requires more than creativity; it calls for technical precision, discipline, continuous learning and a commitment to professional standards. The Master Chef competitions put these qualities into practice, while the Top Chef Awards recognise experience, leadership and contributions to the industry. We hope the achievements celebrated at this year’s awards inspire young chefs to keep developing their skills and contribute to the future of India’s culinary sector.”

The Master Chef competitions brought together chefs from across the country across categories spanning Indian and international cuisines, Indian sweets, kebabs, international confectionery, baking, butchery, vegetable carving and student chef competitions. Held at Banarsidas Chandiwala Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology on 21–23 October and the Institute of Bakery and Culinary Arts on 26 October, the competitions were judged by a panel of professional chefs led by Chef Rajeev Janveja, Chief of Jury. Participants were assessed on personal and workstation hygiene, food wastage, mise-en-place, visual appeal, culinary skills, and the taste and texture of their dishes and accompaniments. Eligible Master Chef category winners received cash prizes of ₹20,000.

The Master Chef competitions recognised winners across various culinary disciplines, including:

·       Master Chef International Confectionery: Mohd. Saquib Hussain, The Westin Gurugram

·       Master Chef Oriental Cuisine: Chef Dilraj, Radisson Blu Plaza

·       Master Chef North Indian Cuisine: Chef Mohd. Rabbi Khan, The Ashok

·       Master Chef South/East/West Indian Cuisine: Chef Maqrub Alam, The Ashok

·       Master Chef Indian Sweets: Chef Ravindra Raut, The Westin Gurugram

·       Master Chef Kebabs: Darshan Rawat, India Habitat Centre

·       Master Chef International Cuisine: Chef Deepak Bisht, Le Méridien

·       Master Chef Baker: Chef Sajid, Lemon Tree Aerocity

·       Master Chef Butcher: Chef Vikas Kumar, Radisson Gurugram Udyog Vihar

·       Student Chef of the Year – Male: Chef Suhail Khan, BCIHMCT

·       Student Chef of the Year – Female: Chef Nandini Gupta, BCIHMCT

The awards were presented in the presence of the ICF Awards Presidium, comprising Chef Ritu Dalmia, Sonali Mitra, Vikrant Batra, Chef Sanjeev Ghatak, Chef Ajay Chopra and Smriti Nambiar.

The post ICF Announces 23rd Annual Chef Awards Celebrating India’s Culinary Talent appeared first on Business of Food.

Prateek Sharma, Director – Business Development and Head, Coffee Island India, Vita Nova Group, announced the launch in a LinkedIn post, stating that the store is located at Aswan Plaza on 20th Main Road, Koramangala 8th Block.

With the Beyond concept, the European coffee brand aims to offer an experience that extends beyond specialty coffee, focusing on sustainability, mindfulness and community engagement.

Coffee Island, which describes itself as Europe’s No. 1 specialty coffee brand, currently operates approximately 9–10 cafés across India. The Bengaluru opening adds a new market to its domestic network while introducing its Beyond format to the city.

The store is located at No. 580, Aswan Plaza, Ground Floor, Satyakrupa, 20th Main Road, Koramangala 8th Block, Bengaluru.

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The appointment was approved by the company’s board at its meeting on November 2, 2026, following a recommendation from the Nomination and Remuneration Committee. Jawa’s tenure will extend until December 31, 2031, subject to shareholder approval. Marico will seek consent through a postal ballot, with details of the voting process and schedule to be announced separately.

Jawa brings more than 38 years of corporate leadership experience across consumer businesses in India, Southeast Asia and North Asia. His expertise spans business transformation, international expansion, brand building, digitalisation and premiumisation.

He joined HUL as Whole-time Director and President, Unilever South Asia, in April 2023 and was appointed Managing Director and CEO in June 2023. He held the role until July 2025 and also served on Unilever’s global executive leadership team, the Unilever Leadership Executive.

Before his India assignment, Jawa served as Chief of Transformation at Unilever in London, where he led an end-to-end transformation programme. He also served as Executive Vice President, North Asia, and Chairman of Unilever China, where he helped transform the business into Unilever’s third-largest global market through digitalisation, premiumisation, and portfolio development.

Earlier, as Chairman and CEO of Unilever Philippines, he oversaw the business’s emergence as one of the company’s top 10 markets globally. Jawa has also held several industry and institutional positions. In India, he was an Executive Member of the CII National Council and FICCI Executive Council, besides serving on the Executive Committee of Vikaasa, the UN SDG Accelerator in India.

His previous engagements include serving as founding secretary of Food Industry Asia in Singapore, Co-Chair of Grow Asia Philippines, a World Economic Forum initiative promoting inclusive agricultural business models, and a member of the Consumer Goods Forum China Board.

In its regulatory filing, Marico stated that Jawa is not related to any of its existing directors and is not disqualified from holding the position under any SEBI order or other regulatory authority. He currently holds no directorships, memberships, or chairpersonships of board committees in other companies.

The post Marico Appoints Rohit Jawa as Independent Director for Five-Year Term appeared first on Business of Food.

Dining out is increasingly becoming an occasion in itself, creating room for hospitality businesses to move beyond conventional restaurant formats and develop destinations built around food, design and socialising. From specialised dining concepts to expansive food-and-beverage spaces, the sector is opening up opportunities for operators to differentiate themselves through distinct experiences and diversified portfolios.

Monarch Liberty Hospitality has adopted this approach as it expands its footprint across the hospitality sector. In June 2026, the group launched Sorena, an 11,000 sq. ft. duplex dining and bar concept spread across the 11th and 12th floors in Bandra. The opening takes its portfolio to six properties in approximately four years and represents its most significant single-property commitment since its founding.

Sumit Govind Sharma, Founder and Director, Monarch Liberty Hospitality, recalls that the company’s first venture was Eve Powai, which received a positive response. Its success gave the team the confidence to pursue hospitality as a business. 

“We have always emphasised guest experience. The experience a guest takes away from any of his restaurants is extremely important to us,” he points out.

Why Distinct Restaurant Concepts

Differentiation remains central to the group’s approach to restaurant development, with each concept built around a distinct cuisine, identity and dining proposition. By catering to varied consumer preferences through its portfolio, Monarch Liberty Hospitality aims to strengthen its presence in Mumbai’s competitive dining market.

The group initially partnered with experienced operating partners to understand the hospitality business and strengthen its operational expertise.

As a result, today, Monarch has four restaurants – EVE, TAT, Que Sera Sera and now Sorena. EVE is a global cuisine restaurant serving Indian, Chinese, Thai, Continental and Japanese food. With three outlets across Powai, Worli and Santa Cruz, EVE is the group’s most successful brand, prompting it to expand the concept more extensively than its other offerings. The Santa Cruz outlet opened last year.

The group’s other concepts cater to more specific culinary preferences. Que Sera Sera, which operates with a different operating partner, focuses primarily on European cuisine, with an emphasis on Italian food.

TAT, meanwhile, reflects Sharma’s personal connection with Indian regional cuisine, particularly seafood. The concept celebrates the coastal food traditions of India’s nine coastal states, covering the coastline from Maharashtra to West Bengal, alongside select Sri Lankan dishes.

He points out that traditional Indian food continues to hold a strong place in consumers’ dining preferences, even as international cuisines gain popularity. “No matter how often we eat pizzas, pastas, burgers and other international dishes, we eventually return to the traditional food we have grown up eating. It is our comfort food,” he says, adding that dal chawal remains his personal comfort food.

Sorena introduces a distinct culinary proposition by bringing together influences from five cities: Mumbai, Istanbul, Sicily, New York and Tokyo. Its positioning, “Five cities, one place”, reflects the concept’s approach to combining diverse culinary influences within a single dining destination.

A Large-Format Bet

Monarch Liberty Hospitality has made its largest single-property investment to date with Sorena, with an 11,000 sq. ft. area in Bandra, Mumbai. Spread across the 11th and 12th floors on Linking Road, the property accommodates more than 250 guests.

Sharma shares that the decision follows four years of studying Mumbai’s dining market and consumer behaviour. The group also draws on insights from food delivery platforms such as Zomato and Swiggy to understand evolving customer preferences and identify opportunities for new formats.

“Sorena is, honestly, our most ambitious project to date,” he says, highlighting the scale of the investment and the group’s approach to identifying the right location and format.

He explains that the group sees an opportunity for a large-format establishment that combines a comprehensive dining experience with a strong bar offering, rather than focusing exclusively on food. Despite the high rental costs associated with prime locations in Mumbai, the group believes the concept has the potential to attract consumers seeking both dining and social experiences.

The Evolving Consumer

Mumbai’s dining landscape is evolving as consumers become more adventurous with food, seek authentic international cuisines and draw inspiration from social media. Restaurants are also facing growing expectations around ambience, service and marketing, making the overall dining experience increasingly important to long-term success.

Sharma identifies two key factors shaping consumer behaviour: increased international travel and the influence of social media, particularly Instagram. Well-travelled consumers are increasingly familiar with global cuisines and are more willing to explore specialised offerings. Unlike earlier trends, when international dishes were often adapted to Indian tastes, diners are now showing greater interest in authentic culinary experiences.

“Today, consumers are much more willing to explore authentic and specialised offerings,” he says, pointing to the emergence of standalone restaurants serving cuisines such as Mexican and Korean food.

He adds that international travel exposes consumers to different culinary traditions, creating expectations for similar experiences when they return to India. Social media further accelerates this trend, with restaurant discoveries, dishes and dining experiences inspiring consumers to visit new establishments.

Beyond culinary exploration, consumers increasingly expect restaurants to deliver a comprehensive experience. He identifies four essential pillars of a sustainable food and beverage business: food, ambience, service and marketing.

Food remains the foundation of the restaurant experience, regardless of the establishment’s design or visual appeal. An attractive setting may draw first-time visitors and generate social media attention, the quality of the food ultimately determines whether customers return.

“No matter how beautiful a restaurant is, if the food is not good, customers might visit once or twice to experience it and share it on Instagram. However, they will not return regularly,” he explains.

Ambience is the second pillar, as diners increasingly expect quality food in an appealing environment. Service is equally important, with internationally travelled consumers bringing higher expectations of hospitality and customer engagement to their dining experiences. Marketing becomes the fourth pillar, noting its importance in attracting customers and building awareness in an increasingly competitive market.

Monarch’s Revenue Ambitions

Monarch Liberty Hospitality attributes its reported revenue growth of 40-45% over the past four years to its focus on guest experience, employee empowerment and customer loyalty. As the group expands its portfolio with Sorena, it is looking to strengthen revenue contributions from existing restaurants while building new growth opportunities.

Sharma highlights the importance of empowering employees across roles to make decisions that improve the dining experience, including resolving customer complaints at the restaurant level.

“We give every member of our team the freedom to make decisions that improve the guest experience,” he explains, noting that even frontline employees can take the initiative to replace a dish if a customer is dissatisfied. He adds that positive dining experiences encourage repeat visits and recommendations to friends and family, making word-of-mouth advocacy an important contributor to business growth. The feedback from guests at Eve and Sorena reinforces the group’s emphasis on delivering memorable experiences.

Sorena is expected to contribute approximately 30% of the group’s revenue in its first year of operations. Spanning 11,000 sq. ft. across two floors and accommodating more than 250 guests, the property offers the scale to support the group’s revenue ambitions.

Sharma explains that the concept differentiates itself from other food-focused restaurants at Mansion One by placing a strong emphasis on beverages alongside its food offering. The group aims for an approximately equal revenue contribution from food and drinks.

“We are hoping that approximately 50% of our revenue will come from food and the remaining 50% from drinks,” he says, outlining the property’s commercial strategy. The group also plans to position Sorena as a high-energy bar in the late evening, allowing guests to transition from dining to socialising in the same venue. The vision is to build a destination where customers can enjoy dinner, stay for drinks and spend time with friends until around 11:30 pm.

Monarch Liberty Hospitality is targeting revenue of approximately Rs 100 crore in the current fiscal year, with its six existing restaurants continuing to serve as key contributors.

Sorena is expected to provide an additional growth driver, while the group is also evaluating the possibility of opening one or two more restaurants in Mumbai. The group already has a strong presence in Mumbai and believes further openings could strengthen its position in the city’s dining market. The combined contribution of its existing portfolio, Sorena and potential new properties is expected to support the group’s ₹100-crore revenue ambition.

Tier 2 Expansion on Radar

Monarch Liberty Hospitality is prioritising Mumbai for the current financial year while evaluating expansion opportunities in Tier 2 cities in the next financial year. The group sees potential in markets where consumers have spending power but may have limited access to the diverse dining concepts available in larger metropolitan cities.

The group is also exploring opportunities in cities such as Jaipur, Surat and Chandigarh, where differentiated restaurant concepts could address an underserved demand for premium dining experiences.

He notes that established restaurant players and intense competition make expansion into metropolitan markets such as Bengaluru, Gurugram, Hyderabad and Delhi a different proposition. In contrast, Tier 2 cities offer opportunities to introduce concepts that consumers may not currently have access to in their local markets.

“People in these markets have significant spending power, but the range of dining experiences available to them may be more limited,” he explains, highlighting the potential to take the group’s existing concepts beyond Mumbai.

He believes EVE, the group’s global cuisine restaurant, could perform well in markets such as Surat and Jaipur. “I am confident that if we offer consumers these experiences, there will be a strong response,” he says.

Focus For Next

Over the next six months, the group’s primary focus remains on establishing Sorena, its latest and most ambitious venture, while driving customer engagement through festive offerings and seasonal dining experiences across its restaurants.

Sharma says the upcoming festive season presents an opportunity to introduce special menus, activities and pop-ups that encourage repeat visits. At TAT, the group celebrates festivals from different parts of the country. Following its Onam and Durga Puja celebrations, the restaurant is preparing for Diwali.

“We organise special activities and introduce new menus and pop-ups to keep customers engaged,” Sharma notes, explaining how seasonal programming helps create fresh reasons for customers to revisit the restaurants.

Diwali remains a key focus across its portfolio, followed by Christmas and New Year celebrations. Monarch is also considering Valentine’s Day experiences at EVE, Que Sera Sera and Sorena, targeting younger consumers, including Gen Z, who increasingly seek occasion-led dining experiences.

Sharma emphasises that these initiatives are designed to go beyond the food offering by creating distinctive experiences around important cultural and social occasions. By refreshing menus and introducing limited-period activations, Monarch Liberty Hospitality aims to strengthen customer engagement and encourage repeat visits while continuing to build Sorena.

The post Monarch Liberty Hospitality’s Growth Blueprint: Sorena, Guest Experience and the Tier 2 Bet appeared first on Business of Food.

Tanridagli brings over 20 years of experience across Unilever and Kraft Foods/Mondelez. Most recently, he served as General Manager of Unilever Ice Cream, overseeing markets across the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and Russia.

His experience in the ice cream category and international consumer markets is expected to support KWIL as it builds its independent business strategy and strengthens its position in India’s ice cream market.

The leadership appointment marks a new phase for KWIL as it focuses on brand execution, business growth and its operations as a standalone listed company.

The post Kwality Wall’s India Appoints Tahir Toloy Tanridagli as MD & CEO appeared first on Business of Food.

The Proposed Combination envisages the merger of Sapphire Foods India Limited (Sapphire) with and into Devyani International Limited (Devyani) and certain related transactions.

Devyani, inter alia, operates KFC and Pizza Hut franchise outlets across India. Devyani is also the exclusive franchisee of Costa Coffee, New York Fries, and Sanook Kitchen in India. In addition, Devyani also owns and operates homegrown brands.

Sapphire also operates KFC and Pizza Hut franchise outlets in India.

The post CCI Clears Merger of Devyani International and Sapphire Foods appeared first on Business of Food.

India’s next big digital-commerce opportunity may not be another consumer-facing marketplace. It could be sitting behind the shelves of the country’s 1.4-crore neighbourhood stores, in the way they order packaged food, grocery and everyday FMCG products. That is the significance of ONDC DigiDukaan, the B2B procurement initiative being positioned by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) as common digital infrastructure for India’s General Trade ecosystem.

The significance of the initiative received a fresh push today, when Shri Piyush Goyal chaired a high-powered FMCG CEO roundtable at Vanijya Bhawan, New Delhi, convened by DPIIT and ONDC under the Bharat Commerce Chintan Shivir. More than 40 leaders from leading FMCG companies participated in discussions around an industry-wide roadmap for strengthening and digitising General Trade through DigiDukaan. For the packaged-food industry, the conversation is particularly relevant because the neighbourhood kirana remains one of the most important routes to market for packaged foods, beverages, staples, snacks, confectionery, personal and home care and a vast universe of regional and emerging brands.

The Food Shelf Begins With the Purchase Order

The digital transformation of retail has largely been discussed from the consumer side—online discovery, digital payments, quick commerce, delivery and increasingly sophisticated marketplaces. But for packaged-food companies, an equally consequential digital opportunity sits on the other side of the transaction: how millions of small retailers purchase the products that eventually land on their shelves.

The traditional General Trade system is remarkably extensive but highly fragmented. A kirana may deal with multiple distributors, sales representatives and wholesalers, place orders through different mechanisms, maintain inventory manually and make purchase decisions based on a combination of memory, experience, distributor visits and immediate requirements. For a packaged-food brand, this creates a very different challenge from simply having demand in the market. The product has to be available at the right store, at the right time, in the right pack and quantity, with replenishment happening before the shelf goes empty.

DigiDukaan approaches the problem from the procurement side. Instead of attempting to replace the existing distribution network, it seeks to create a common digital interface through which retailers can discover and procure products from multiple brands and distributors. Pricing, trade schemes and product availability can become more visible, while the underlying distributor relationship can remain intact.

For packaged-food companies, that distinction matters. The objective is not necessarily to create another direct-to-consumer channel. It is to make the existing brand–distributor–retailer supply chain more visible, connected and potentially more efficient.

Why Packaged Food Could Be a Major Beneficiary

Packaged food is uniquely dependent on distribution depth. A consumer may want a particular biscuit, snack, beverage, spice, edible oil, packaged staple or ready-to-eat product, but the sale can happen only if the product is physically available in the neighbourhood store when the purchase decision is made. Availability, therefore, is as important as brand awareness.

This is where a digital procurement layer could have a disproportionate impact. A retailer able to view products across participating brands through a single interface has a potentially wider assortment available to order. A distributor receives a more structured digital order. A brand potentially gets better visibility into where and how its products are moving through the distribution network. And the retailer can potentially replenish more frequently rather than waiting for the next sales visit.

The implications become even more interesting for regional packaged-food brands and emerging FMCG companies. Large national brands have traditionally had the scale to build extensive distributor and sales networks. Smaller brands often face a different equation: they may have strong consumer acceptance in a particular geography but limited ability to build a dense physical sales force across thousands of stores.

An open digital procurement infrastructure could lower some of those barriers. If product catalogues, retailer discovery, ordering and distributor connectivity become more standardised, a brand does not necessarily need to build an entirely new commercial architecture every time it wants to enter another market. The digital network could potentially make distribution more discoverable and more scalable.

21,000 Retailers and 450 Brands: The Early Signal

The initiative is still at an early stage, but the initial numbers suggest that retailers are willing to experiment with digital procurement when the proposition solves a real business problem. As of September 2026, DigiDukaan had connected more than 21,000 retailers and 450 brands across Hyderabad, Jaipur and Mumbai, up from more than 12,000 retailers in the previous quarter.

Hyderabad is currently the strongest signal, with more than 16,000 retailers connected. Monthly repeat ordering has reportedly reached 73–78%, an important metric because onboarding alone does not create a digital ecosystem. Repeat procurement indicates whether the platform is becoming part of the retailer’s actual operating routine.

There is another early signal that should interest packaged-food companies. An initial ONDC retailer study found that 40% of surveyed retailers reported lower inventory holdings for products procured through DigiDukaan. While this is an early finding and not yet a measure of industry-wide impact, it points towards one of the most important potential benefits of digital procurement: better inventory discipline.

For food and grocery retailers, inventory is working capital. Holding too much stock ties up cash; holding too little risks lost sales. For packaged foods, where assortment can be wide, and demand can vary by locality, season and pack size, improving replenishment can have a direct commercial impact.

From Distribution Reach to Distribution Intelligence

The bigger opportunity for packaged-food companies may ultimately be the data generated around procurement.

General Trade has always generated enormous commercial intelligence, but much of it has historically remained distributed across sales teams, distributors, DMS platforms, invoices and individual relationships. A common digital layer could potentially bring more of this activity into a connected ecosystem.

That does not mean that every brand will immediately obtain granular consumer-level intelligence. The more immediate opportunity is procurement intelligence: what retailers are ordering, how frequently they reorder, which products are available, where demand is emerging and where replenishment is weak.

For a packaged-food business, that can influence everything from distributor planning and sales-force productivity to assortment decisions and inventory management.

A brand that sees an increase in demand for a particular product across a cluster of neighbourhood stores can potentially respond faster. A distributor can potentially plan inventory around actual digital orders rather than relying entirely on periodic sales estimates. A retailer can potentially compare available products and schemes more transparently.

In a category where the difference between a sale and a missed sale can simply be whether the product is on the shelf, that visibility can become commercially valuable.

The Distributor Is Still Central to the Food Ecosystem

One of the most important aspects of the DigiDukaan proposition is that it does not seek to eliminate the distributor.

That is particularly important in food and grocery. India’s packaged-food distribution system has evolved over decades, with distributors performing functions that go far beyond taking orders. They manage inventory, credit, local relationships, delivery routes, assortment and the physical movement of products into thousands of stores.

ONDC proposes to digitise the retailer as a buyer while strengthening the existing distribution network. The retailer gets a common digital interface; brands and distributors get a more structured ordering mechanism; and the broader ecosystem can potentially build shared services around logistics, warehousing and financial services.

ONDC MD & CEO Vibhor Jain has highlighted this distinction, noting that distributors are already substantially digitised in areas such as billing, printing and order placement, while many mom-and-pop retailers continue to depend on pen, paper and memory. DigiDukaan therefore starts at a critical missing link—the retailer as a digital buyer.

For food companies, this could mean that digital transformation does not require rebuilding the distribution architecture. It can instead be layered onto the infrastructure that already exists.

A Single Digital Shelf for Multiple Food Brands

One of the most interesting possibilities is the creation of a common digital catalogue across brands and distributors.

Imagine a neighbourhood retailer who needs to replenish several categories before the weekend: packaged snacks, biscuits, beverages, staples, confectionery, packaged dairy products and household essentials. Today, these requirements may involve different sales representatives, distributors and ordering processes. A common interface could potentially allow the retailer to view a wider range of products and place orders through a single digital environment.

For packaged-food manufacturers, the benefit could be greater reach without necessarily requiring every brand to create a separate retailer-facing ordering application.

This could become particularly significant as India’s food market becomes more fragmented at the brand level. Large FMCG companies continue to dominate many categories, but regional brands, specialist food companies, challenger brands and digitally native food businesses are increasingly looking for physical distribution.

The traditional challenge has been simple: how do you get thousands of retailers to know that your product exists, and how do you make it easy for them to reorder it?

An interoperable procurement network could potentially address both sides of that equation.

The Commercial Challenge: Will the Ecosystem Incentivise Adoption?

Technology, however, may not be the biggest challenge.

For DigiDukaan to become a meaningful part of General Trade, the economics have to work for everyone involved. A retailer needs a clear reason to change behaviour. A distributor needs to see commercial value rather than additional complexity. A brand’s sales team needs to support digital ordering rather than regard it as competition to established processes.

This is why the discussions around commercial incentives for sales teams, distributors and channel partners are important. Digital ordering, wider product discovery and greater market coverage have to become economically attractive to the people who currently make General Trade work.

The roundtable chaired by Piyush Goyal therefore goes beyond a technology conversation. The objective is to build institutional commitment among FMCG companies, distributors and ecosystem participants around common digital infrastructure, shared services and commercially sustainable models.

For packaged food, this could be the difference between a platform that merely exists and one that actually becomes embedded in the distribution system.

From Hyderabad to the Next 10,000 Food Markets

The next phase will be about geographical scale.

Hyderabad, Jaipur and Mumbai provide three very different market environments. The larger question is whether the model can work across the thousands of urban, semi-urban and smaller-town food markets that make up India’s consumption geography.

The opportunity is particularly compelling in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, where regional food preferences, local brands and fragmented distribution often coexist. Cities such as Indore, Lucknow, Coimbatore, Rajkot, Guwahati, Patna, Nagpur, Kanpur, Ranchi, Vijayawada and Kochi represent very different food cultures and distribution structures.

If an open network can accommodate that diversity without forcing every market into a single commercial model, its relevance to Food & Grocery could be substantial.

The ultimate ambition is therefore not simply to put more kirana stores online. It is to make General Trade itself more digitally connected.

Credit Could Be the Next Unlock

There is another potential consequence that could be particularly relevant for small food retailers: formal credit.

Once procurement becomes digitally visible, the transaction history of a retailer could potentially become useful to financial institutions. A consistent record of purchases, frequency, value and replenishment could eventually help create a more formal basis for working-capital products.

That possibility is still part of the longer-term roadmap rather than an immediate outcome. But for millions of small retailers, access to working capital can be as important as access to technology.

For packaged-food distributors and manufacturers, better-connected retailers with better access to working capital could also mean healthier and more predictable purchasing patterns.

The idea is simple: digitise procurement first, create a transaction trail next, and potentially build financial services around that trail.

The Bigger Food & Grocery Opportunity

DigiDukaan’s early numbers are small when placed against the scale of India’s General Trade market. 21,000 retailers and 450 brands are only a fraction of the 1.4-crore-plus kirana universe. But scale is not the only metric to watch.

The more important question is whether digital procurement can change behaviour.

If retailers begin ordering more frequently, if inventory holdings become more efficient, if distributors get better visibility, if brands improve availability and if smaller food companies gain a more accessible route to market, the impact could extend well beyond the ordering transaction.

It could influence the economics of distribution itself.

For the packaged-food industry, that is the real story. India’s food market is not going to be built only through modern trade, e-commerce and quick commerce. The neighbourhood store will remain a critical consumption touchpoint for years to come. The next phase of food retail transformation may therefore depend not on moving the kirana out of the traditional ecosystem, but on digitising the ecosystem around it.

And that makes today’s high-powered FMCG CEO roundtable more than another discussion about retail technology. It is potentially the beginning of a much larger conversation about how India’s packaged-food and grocery industry can make its last mile more connected, more visible and more commercially efficient.

DigiDukaan: The Food & Grocery Numbers to Watch

The Food Companies Already in the Ecosystem

The ecosystem already includes participation at different stages from major FMCG and food companies including Hindustan Unilever, Marico, Colgate-Palmolive, Emami, Amul, ITC, Tata Consumer Products and Britannia, alongside technology, network, payments, logistics and warehousing players.

The next challenge is scale: getting more brands and distributors to participate, giving retailers compelling commercial reasons to order digitally, and extending the model into more markets. For India’s packaged-food industry, the prize is potentially significant—not another consumer marketplace, but a common digital procurement layer underneath the country’s largest food and grocery distribution network.

The post DigiDukaan: Can Digital Procurement Rewrite India’s Packaged-Food Distribution Playbook? appeared first on Business of Food.

Cocoa has become the chocolate industry’s scarcest certainty. Prices have come off their December 2024 peak, but the crop underneath them remains fragile, concentrated and slow to rebuild. Manufacturers have drawn the conclusion that matters; rather than wait for cocoa to become cheap and plentiful again, they are learning to make chocolate that needs less of it. Recipes are being re-balanced, cocoa butter and cocoa solids are being partly replaced, and some of the world’s largest brands are now funding research into chocolate-like products made with little or no cocoa at all, across both mass and premium ranges.

For India, a roughly `40,000 crore chocolate and confectionery market that imports most of its cocoa, this shift will shape what goes into the `5 bar, how premium chocolate justifies its price, and how chocolate competes with the rest of the confectionery shelf.

A Crop Under Strain

For much of the 2010s, cocoa prices remained broadly within a US$2,500-3,000 per tonne range. That relative stability began to unravel as production weakened across the world’s principal cocoa-growing regions. Global cocoa production was close to 5.0 million tonnes in the 2022/23 season. It fell to approximately 4.4 million tonnes in 2023/24, a decline of  ~12% in a single season as adverse weather, crop disease, ageing trees and longstanding underinvestment affected production across key West African origins. The significance of that decline was amplified by concentration. Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, the world’s two largest cocoa-producing countries, together accounted for approximately 49% of global production in 2024/25.

This concentration means that weather, disease or structural production challenges across a relatively small part of West Africa can materially alter the global cocoa balance. The 2023/24 season demonstrated precisely that. Global production declined sharply, the market moved into a sizeable deficit and inventories tightened. Prices reflected that vulnerability: from around US $3000 per tonne on average in 2023, cocoa climbed to approximately US $12,900 per tonne at its December 2024 peak.

Production has since recovered partially, reaching around 4.7-4.8 million tonnes in 2024/25, while exceptionally high cocoa prices also moderated processing demand. By September 2026, cocoa prices had fallen to approximately US$5,600 per tonne, more than 50% below their peak.

Yet this is not quite a return to the pre-crisis environment.

Cocoa remains substantially more expensive than before the disruption, while the underlying geographic concentration of production has not materially changed. More importantly, the industry has experienced how rapidly an agricultural supply shock can move through inventories, procurement costs, manufacturing margins and eventually consumer prices.

Against this backdrop, three shifts are becoming visible across sourcing, product architecture and ingredient innovation.

Cocoa Sourcing is Becoming More Diversified

The first visible response has been a widening of the cocoa sourcing base.

For decades, the economics of cocoa naturally favoured established producing regions. Scale, processing infrastructure, farmer networks and established trading systems reinforced West Africa’s position at the centre of global supply. Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana alone accounted for approximately 49% of global cocoa production in 2024/25, making the industry particularly exposed to production disruptions across these two origins. The 2023/24 shock brought the vulnerability on the other side of that concentration into sharper focus.

Large manufacturers are already expanding sourcing relationships beyond their traditional supply base. Nestlé, for example, has increased cocoa procurement from Brazil while working with local farmers on practices aimed at improving productivity and strengthening supply resilience. Latin American producing markets are also gaining relevance within the broader supply mix, with Ecuador expanding production and Brazil seeking to rebuild its position as a larger cocoa producer.

The shift does not represent an exit from West Africa. Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana retain production scale, farmer networks and cocoa infrastructure that cannot be replicated quickly elsewhere. Rather, established West African supply is increasingly being complemented by additional origins, deeper farmer relationships and upstream productivity programmes.

The change is subtle but strategically important. The objective of sourcing is increasingly not simply to secure cocoa efficiently, but to secure it reliably, giving greater weight to diversified origins, longer-term farmer relationships, productivity programmes and investment further upstream in the agricultural value chain.

The Quiet Reformulation: Less Cocoa in Every Bite

The second shift is visible in the product itself.

The conventional response to commodity inflation follows a familiar sequence: absorb part of the increase, improve productivity, raise prices and, where necessary, adjust grammage. Cocoa’s recent price movement has brought another variable into play: the amount of cocoa-intensive chocolate contained within the product itself.

Manufacturers are addressing this through both formulation and format. In the UK, Nestlé and Pladis have changed formulations across selected products, with reductions in cocoa butter content also affecting how certain products can be described under local chocolate-labelling requirements.

Portfolio development is moving in parallel. Filled bars, coated wafers, bites, chocolate-covered nuts and products combining chocolate with caramel, biscuit, nougat, fruit and other centres allow manufacturers to deliver a chocolate-led proposition without relying on the same cocoa intensity as a solid tablet.

The economics differ meaningfully by format. A plain chocolate tablet remains inherently more exposed to cocoa costs, while a filled or coated product distributes ingredient cost across chocolate and non-chocolate components. Format and formulation are therefore increasingly working alongside price and grammage as mechanisms through which manufacturers manage cocoa exposure.

At the premium end, however, the relationship is different. High-cacao, single-origin and craft products deliberately retain cocoa intensity because cacao quality and provenance form part of the proposition itself. Here, the consumer is paying not simply for indulgence but also for origin, processing, flavour characteristics and craftsmanship.

The emerging portfolio response is therefore not a uniform reduction in cocoa. Instead, cocoa is playing a more differentiated role across the portfolio, lower intensity where indulgence can be delivered through fillings, texture and format, and greater emphasis on cocoa itself where quality and provenance support premium positioning.

From Cost-Cutting to R&D: The Alternative Chocolate Pipeline

The third response sits further out on the innovation curve.

Cocoa-butter equivalents (CBEs) and compound coatings are not new. Specialty fats from shea, sal, illipe and mango kernel have long been used where regulations allow. What is new is the scale and ambition of investment in ingredients that recreate the chocolate experience with far less cocoa butter and cocoa solids, or none at all. That work is increasingly being led by the largest brands and processors, not by start-ups at the edge of the category.

Three broad technology routes are now visible:

• Cocoa-free chocolate from other crops. Planet A Foods’ ChoViva, made by fermenting and roasting ingredients such as sunflower seeds and oats, is the most commercially advanced. Barry Callebaut signed a long-term partnership in 2025 to scale it globally; Mars used it in a Balisto product in early 2026; and Nestlé launched it in Choco Crossies Snack Vibes in March 2026, describing it as a way to future-proof confectionery portfolios against supply disruption. Cargill’s NextCoa, based on roasted grape and sunflower seeds, is working in the same space.
  
• Cocoa butter alternatives. Suppliers such as Bunge, with its shea-based Coberine range, are improving fats that behave like cocoa butter in melt, snap and gloss, which allows manufacturers to reduce the most expensive fraction of the cocoa bean.
  
• Cell-cultured cocoa. Mondelēz-backed Celleste Bio showed milk chocolate prototypes made with cultivated cocoa butter in April 2026. Lindt & Sprüngli invested in Food Brewer, which grows cocoa cells in bioreactors, and Barry Callebaut is researching cell-cultured cocoa with the Zurich University of Applied Sciences.

Before the recent cocoa shock, investment in alternatives was driven largely by sustainability considerations, including land use, climate exposure and agricultural impact. The commodity crisis has added a further rationale: supply-chain optionality. Alternative fats, cocoa extenders, cocoa-free ingredients and new production technologies are increasingly being explored not only for their sustainability potential, but also for the flexibility they can provide against volatility in the cost and availability of conventional cocoa.

India: Growth Across Two Different Chocolate Economies

The global cocoa shock reaches India from a different starting point. While the country has a large and growing chocolate market, its domestic cocoa base remains relatively small. Cocoa production has increased from around 19,000 tonnes in 2017 to an estimated 28,000-30,000 tonnes in 2024, concentrated largely in southern India. Even at this level, domestic production meets less than a fifth of India’s cocoa requirement and accounts for less than 1% of global output. Indian chocolate manufacturers therefore remain closely exposed to movements in international cocoa supply and prices.

That exposure is becoming more significant as chocolate itself takes a larger role within India’s confectionery market. The combined chocolate and confectionery market has grown from approximately `29,000 crore in FY 2020 to an estimated `40,000 crore in FY 2026 and is projected to reach approximately `56,000 crore by FY 2031, growing at CAGR of 7% for the next five-year period. Chocolate accounted for ~ 61% of the market by value and balance accounted by the confectionary segment.

But underneath that growth are two very different chocolate economies, and cocoa inflation affects each differently.

At the mass end, affordability remains embedded in the category architecture. Across Indian packaged foods, `5 and `10 packs together account for more than half of volumes, while the `20 price point has been gaining importance. Chocolate operates within the same low-unit-price environment, where familiar absolute price points play an important role in driving trial, frequency and reach. Large manufacturers have therefore continued to protect key entry price points even through periods of elevated input costs, using a combination of grammage, pack architecture, pricing and operating efficiencies to manage the economics behind them.

This makes cocoa inflation particularly consequential at the mass end. Moving a `100 product to `110 represents a 10% increase; moving a `5 product to `6 represents a 20% increase and, more importantly, breaks an established consumer price point. The ability to pass commodity inflation directly to the consumer is therefore constrained precisely where volumes and distribution are widest.

At the premium end, the economics work differently. Cocoa can become part of what creates the premium rather than simply an input whose cost needs to be managed. Fabelle has built its proposition around luxury chocolate, gifting and differentiated formats, while Manam has made Indian cacao provenance, farmer relationships and farm-to-bar production central to its proposition. Cadbury Studio Creations represents another expression of the same premiumisation through differentiated flavours, formats and gifting.

The route to market is also beginning to diverge. Digital channels have become increasingly relevant for premium chocolate, where higher realisations and lower volumes can support a different distribution model and help address some of the challenges associated with physical reach and temperature-controlled handling. Mass confectionery, by contrast, continues to derive its scale predominantly through general trade and broad physical availability.

This distinction also changes the competitive boundary of chocolate. At low price points, chocolate competes not only with other chocolate brands but with a wider basket of affordable indulgence. Hard-boiled candy, toffees and other sugar confectionery participate in many of the same impulse occasions without carrying the same direct exposure to cocoa. As chocolate prices increased, this difference became more visible, with consumers in parts of the market shifting towards smaller packs and lower-priced confectionery alternatives. Premiumisation therefore does not always require a materially higher ticket; it can also take the form of greater product sophistication within an existing affordability threshold.

Beyond the Price Cycle

Taken together, these shifts suggest that the impact of the cocoa shock will outlast the price spike that triggered it. Globally, manufacturers are becoming more deliberate about where they source cocoa, how much of it different products require and where alternatives can provide greater flexibility. In India, the same pressure is playing out against a market where affordability remains critical at one end even as cacao quality and provenance create value at the other. As the market continues to grow, the challenge is therefore no longer simply managing the price of cocoa but determining where cocoa is central to the consumer proposition and where product architecture can reduce dependence on it. Cocoa prices may continue to move through cycles; the industry’s approach to its most important ingredient has already begun to change. 

The post Less Cocoa, Same Craving: How Supply Pressures Are Reshaping Chocolate in India appeared first on Business of Food.

The expansion is part of the group’s broader ambition to achieve Rs 6,000 crore in system-wide sales by FY30, compared with approximately Rs 3,500 crore in FY26. K Hospitality expects to grow at around 20% over the next three years.

Karan Kapur, Executive Director, K Hospitality Corp and Kliff Ventures, told PTI that the sales target includes company-owned restaurants as well as independently franchised and licensed outlets. The group currently operates more than 120 brands across its three business verticals, including Nando’s, Wagamama, Copper Chimney, Irish House and Bombay Brasserie.

“Our restaurant expansion will primarily focus on major metropolitan markets, including Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. We will also expand in other major cities, including Pune, through select formats,” Kapur said.

As part of its restaurant growth strategy, K Hospitality plans to double Nando’s outlet count to approximately 36 during FY27. It also aims to add 6-8 Copper Chimney outlets and around six Wagamama restaurants. These three brands are expected to drive a significant portion of the planned expansion.

Beyond restaurants, the company is strengthening its travel food services business through quick-service restaurants and lounges at airports in India and international markets. Its third growth vertical focuses on banqueting, catering and institutional food services, particularly across corporate parks and event venues.

Kapur said the company is also in discussions with international brands exploring entry into India, although there are no immediate announcements regarding new joint ventures or partnerships.

India will continue to be the primary market for K Hospitality’s restaurant business, accounting for approximately 99% of its operations. Its international footprint remains limited, with around 3-4 outlets across the UAE, the UK and Sri Lanka through Copper Chimney and another group brand.

The post K Hospitality Targets 40 New Restaurants in FY27, Eyes Rs 100 crore for expansion appeared first on Business of Food.

This alliance brings together the history of quality and natural recipes of Naturals Ice Cream and the internet kitchen facilities, technology and general operational capacity of Rebel Foods. Naturals Ice Cream has been able to expand into the major markets consistently, with quality and brand integrity, with Rebel Launcher.

Ankur Sharma, Co-founder, Rebel Foods, commented, “Rebel Launcher signifies our desire to establish a food brand development ecosystem that is collaborative. Through collaborations with well-known brands such as Natural Ice Cream, we will assist them to operate in geographies without wasting resources as we provide them with the infrastructure, technologies, and extensive operational experience of Rebel Foods.”

Siddhant Kamath, Director, Naturals Ice Cream, commented, “Our association with Rebel Foods has helped in propelling the Naturals ice cream experience a notch higher. We have been able to expand effectively in the country with the help of their large network of cloud kitchens and technology-driven operating systems and preserve the brand reputation our customers look forward to. This partnership has enabled us to reach out to more people than ever, and we view this as a strategic partnership that we will build on in the long run, which will see our growth onward.”

The partnership has proliferated across major cities such as Bengaluru, Gujarat, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Delhi NCR, among others, as it had a pilot launch in Delhi in 2020. Naturals started with a small menu and has, over time, added its products, and some of its most popular flavours made it onto the digital platform of Rebel, thereby gaining its presence and selling. In 2026, Naturals also rolled out its presence in Chennai, Hyderabad, and Punjab and is looking to further expand its footprint with Rebel Foods in these markets.

Rebel Launcher allows partner brands to grow on capital-efficient models, immediately enter and access the extensive cloud kitchen network of Rebel Foods, integrated supply chain and technology-driven operating systems. Through infrastructure and operations management, Rebel enables the brands to remain product-focused in terms of product innovation and long-term brand building through customer experience.

The post Rebel Foods Takes Naturals Ice Cream to 77 Cloud Kitchens via Rebel Launcher appeared first on Business of Food.