MNC food giants like Domino's, Costa Coffee, Haagen-Dazs eye a fast buck at Indian weddings
The big fat Indian wedding is getting bigger, fatter and now branded, with multinational fast-food chains such as Domino's, Costa Coffee, Haagen-Dazs and Baskin Robbins adorning several marriage parties across big cities.
After introducing limousines and even helicopters to ferry the bride and groom, exotic theme-based decorations, and expensive gifts for guests, branded food and beverage stalls have become a new fad among marriage hosts.
Davindra Kapoor, a Delhi-based caterer, says 15-20% of weddings these days demand branded stalls along with traditional snacks and cuisines. Kapoor's SK Caterers counts Honda, Aditya Birla Group andEscorts Group among its corporate clients.
Fast-food majors see this trend not only as a new business channel, but also as a big fat opportunity to promote their brands.
"A lot of people at weddings are our target customers where they get a chance to sample our pizza," Harneet Singh Rajpal, vice-president of marketing at Domino's, says. "It gives us visibility... and is a fantastic consumer connect," he says.
Ostentatious Showmanship
Rajpal says weddings and other outdoor catering services have become an important alternate revenue channel for the top pizza chain. To make the most of the growing demand, the US brand has formed a separate vertical for outdoor catering with dedicated staff, cold vans, pizza ovens and other paraphernalia in select markets such as Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, cities in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. A Domino's executive directly involved in outdoor sales says wedding accounts for 50% of the outdoor catering vertical's revenues during the marriage seasons of November-February and April-May.
Mumbai-based upscale wedding planner Sushil Wadhwa says demand for branded outlets is a growing trend all over the country, particularly in Chennai, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Mumbai, Punjab and Delhi. In many cases, wealthy Indians want Illy cafe, Haagen-Dazs or Costa Coffee to replicate their outlets in malls, complete with similar seating arrangements.
"They cost a bomb, but people are willing to spend to make it a grand Indian wedding," Wadhwa says. "It gives them the snob value and the bragging rights to have such brands and set-up at their weddings."
A parlour of American ice-cream brand Haagen-Dazs, for example, costs 5-8 lakh for one evening while a Costa Coffee bar would cost about 3 lakh, he says.
Caterers and wedding planners in many cities say the demand for branded food stalls has gathered pace in the last two years. They attribute the trend to a combination of factors ranging from providing eatables that many guests would be more comfortable with to ostentatious showmanship.
"Weddings are becoming more and more showmanship kind of things these days," says Anil Tandon, executive director of TivoliBSE 0.00 % Garden Resort Hotel, a popular spot for parties and weddings in south Delhi. Santosh Desai, managing director of Future Brands, says weddings are almost like competitive sports these days, meant to make a statement. "The hosts want to underline the specialness of the event and brands are one of the elements to concoct the specialness," he says.
Whatever be the trigger, food operators are not complaining about this new business and marketing opportunity.
The Indian wedding market is estimated to be worth around $25 billion, or approximately 1.25 lakh crore, and growing 20% a year. The rich and upper middle class spend crores of rupees on a wedding ceremony while the middle class spends in lakhs. This spend is increasing every year. And many fast-food chains are looking to eat into this growing pie. Frozen desert firmGelato Vinto, like Domino's, has created a separate team and infrastructure, including 40 ready-to-set-up mobile outlets, to cater to the growing demand for weddings. Awtar Saini, head of business development at Gelato, says the wedding business for his firm has been growing about 40% annually for the last few years with big demand from NCR, Punjab, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
"The counters we put in weddings are almost like our outlets in malls," he says, adding that they serve all 12 flavours of the product. For Slice of Italy, which runs 17 pizza joints in the NCR, weddings are more about branding than business. SB Sahu, marketing manager at Slice of Italy, says the pizza chain uses elaborate Indian wedding functions as a pure marketing platform. "The prices you get at marriages are low and our pizzas prices are high, so we don't make much profits there, but people eat our pizza and we get mileage at our stores," he says.
Not everyone is looking to tap the opportunity. Vikram Bakshi, managing director of McDonald's in India, says the top burger chain does not do outdoor catering as it is logistically not possible for it to create or relocate a full-fledge store at wedding venues. Another issue, he says, is it is difficult to maintain the quality of its products outside its outlets.
Virag Joshi, CEO of Davyani International, which operates franchisee stores for Costa Coffee and Pizza Hut in India, says his company is selective about the kind of marriages they go to. "Revenue is miniscule in weddings, but you get visibility to 1,000 plus people in one go," he says. "We don't go to every Tom, Dick and Harry's wedding. We look at the profile and the number of people and wherever it is logistically possible," he adds.
Sandeep Jain of Delhi-based Jain Caterers begs to differ. "These days if you spend money, even Shah Rukh Khan will dance at your wedding. Then, how difficult is it to get a branded stall?" he says.
Source : RASUL BAILAY,ET BUREAU
MNC food giants like Domino's, Costa Coffee, Haagen-Dazs eye a fast buck at Indian weddings
The big fat Indian wedding is getting bigger, fatter and now branded, with multinational fast-food chains such as Domino's, Costa Coffee, Haagen-Dazs and Baskin Robbins adorning several marriage parties across big cities.
After introducing limousines and even helicopters to ferry the bride and groom, exotic theme-based decorations, and expensive gifts for guests, branded food and beverage stalls have become a new fad among marriage hosts.
Davindra Kapoor, a Delhi-based caterer, says 15-20% of weddings these days demand branded stalls along with traditional snacks and cuisines. Kapoor's SK Caterers counts Honda, Aditya Birla Group andEscorts Group among its corporate clients.
Fast-food majors see this trend not only as a new business channel, but also as a big fat opportunity to promote their brands.
"A lot of people at weddings are our target customers where they get a chance to sample our pizza," Harneet Singh Rajpal, vice-president of marketing at Domino's, says. "It gives us visibility... and is a fantastic consumer connect," he says.
Ostentatious Showmanship
Rajpal says weddings and other outdoor catering services have become an important alternate revenue channel for the top pizza chain. To make the most of the growing demand, the US brand has formed a separate vertical for outdoor catering with dedicated staff, cold vans, pizza ovens and other paraphernalia in select markets such as Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, cities in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. A Domino's executive directly involved in outdoor sales says wedding accounts for 50% of the outdoor catering vertical's revenues during the marriage seasons of November-February and April-May.
Mumbai-based upscale wedding planner Sushil Wadhwa says demand for branded outlets is a growing trend all over the country, particularly in Chennai, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Mumbai, Punjab and Delhi. In many cases, wealthy Indians want Illy cafe, Haagen-Dazs or Costa Coffee to replicate their outlets in malls, complete with similar seating arrangements.
"They cost a bomb, but people are willing to spend to make it a grand Indian wedding," Wadhwa says. "It gives them the snob value and the bragging rights to have such brands and set-up at their weddings."
A parlour of American ice-cream brand Haagen-Dazs, for example, costs 5-8 lakh for one evening while a Costa Coffee bar would cost about 3 lakh, he says.
Caterers and wedding planners in many cities say the demand for branded food stalls has gathered pace in the last two years. They attribute the trend to a combination of factors ranging from providing eatables that many guests would be more comfortable with to ostentatious showmanship.
"Weddings are becoming more and more showmanship kind of things these days," says Anil Tandon, executive director of TivoliBSE 0.00 % Garden Resort Hotel, a popular spot for parties and weddings in south Delhi. Santosh Desai, managing director of Future Brands, says weddings are almost like competitive sports these days, meant to make a statement. "The hosts want to underline the specialness of the event and brands are one of the elements to concoct the specialness," he says.
Whatever be the trigger, food operators are not complaining about this new business and marketing opportunity.
The Indian wedding market is estimated to be worth around $25 billion, or approximately 1.25 lakh crore, and growing 20% a year. The rich and upper middle class spend crores of rupees on a wedding ceremony while the middle class spends in lakhs. This spend is increasing every year. And many fast-food chains are looking to eat into this growing pie. Frozen desert firmGelato Vinto, like Domino's, has created a separate team and infrastructure, including 40 ready-to-set-up mobile outlets, to cater to the growing demand for weddings. Awtar Saini, head of business development at Gelato, says the wedding business for his firm has been growing about 40% annually for the last few years with big demand from NCR, Punjab, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
"The counters we put in weddings are almost like our outlets in malls," he says, adding that they serve all 12 flavours of the product. For Slice of Italy, which runs 17 pizza joints in the NCR, weddings are more about branding than business. SB Sahu, marketing manager at Slice of Italy, says the pizza chain uses elaborate Indian wedding functions as a pure marketing platform. "The prices you get at marriages are low and our pizzas prices are high, so we don't make much profits there, but people eat our pizza and we get mileage at our stores," he says.
Not everyone is looking to tap the opportunity. Vikram Bakshi, managing director of McDonald's in India, says the top burger chain does not do outdoor catering as it is logistically not possible for it to create or relocate a full-fledge store at wedding venues. Another issue, he says, is it is difficult to maintain the quality of its products outside its outlets.
Virag Joshi, CEO of Davyani International, which operates franchisee stores for Costa Coffee and Pizza Hut in India, says his company is selective about the kind of marriages they go to. "Revenue is miniscule in weddings, but you get visibility to 1,000 plus people in one go," he says. "We don't go to every Tom, Dick and Harry's wedding. We look at the profile and the number of people and wherever it is logistically possible," he adds.
Sandeep Jain of Delhi-based Jain Caterers begs to differ. "These days if you spend money, even Shah Rukh Khan will dance at your wedding. Then, how difficult is it to get a branded stall?" he says.
Source : RASUL BAILAY,ET BUREAU
