What's making Indian F&B hot for Singaporean chains
What's making Indian F&B hot for Singaporean chains

With easy returns and lucrative business opportunities, food franchising has attracted great investments in India. And, today it contributes 28 per cent to Indian franchise industry ahead to world which is an average of 22 per cent of $3.95 trillion global market place of franchise industry.

Seeing the growth that the segment offers, many global restaurant franchisees have made a way into the Indian market. And, to an excitement Singapore being the land of culinary delights and innovations is also eyeing bigger pie of the growing Indian food diaspora.

Testing the water

Located very close to India, Singapore offers some great F&B opportunities matching the global trends. From setting up stand alone cafes and building up most excited street food market, the country has created some amazing brands like Munch, Arteastiq Cafe and Jewel Coffee who are planning to taste the Indian waters.

“We bring some of the finest coffee from across the world as opposed to the blended coffee in India. We plan to enter India by this year,” shared Adrian Khong, Director, Jewel Coffee.

Indian franchise food market which is growing at 9 per cent with a growth of 27000 franchised outlets by 2017, the segment is inviting global brands to unfold the growing success in India.

“We are top salad brand in Singapore operating nine outlets of which seven are franchised, we see India a good business ground to go forward,” added Edwin Ng, Director at Munch.

Relying on local partners

As Indian franchising industry is most evolving in terms of growth, there are about 20 new international chains that have entered in 2015-2016 alone. Getting a firm foothold the segment is looking at reliable and local partners to extend the helping hand and grow the business.

Long-term business and sustainability are two important things which a business demands today. And hence, to enter into any partnership, these are essential areas which need to be looked upon. According to the industry experts, franchising in itself is a partnership and it’s important that in a partnership for long-term sustainability, the vision and goals need to be aligned. Though in Joint Ventures, an involvement of fewer people need to be aligned, but just like in Chinese whispers, one is not sure on the next level of franchisee, what their understanding would be. It’s therefore important for the brand to stay as close and direct with the customers ideally, but good systems and processes can also help achieve the same objective, maybe marginally diluted.

“We are looking people from F&B industry to own a franchise or at least he should own a real estate with great passion of food,” pointed Ivan Teo, Director, Arteastiq, a tea cafe which blends tea with art.

Similarly, Jewel Coffee is also looking for a local partner with the same passion as them to expand their services.

And, we can say that with government liberalising the FDI in food retail, global food giants would strengthen their presence into the Indian market. And, as India offers a young consumer base who are ready to try new things, there is lots of opportunities for these players to grow. 

 
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