Data from food marketplaces indicates that an average consumer in an Indian city consumes Indian food almost 80% of the time he/she eats! Of course, this number will be lower for consumers who have the exposure and access to international cuisine but it’s a fact that for Indians, their native food occupies maximum space in their plates. In absolute percentage terms, the share of Indian food will drop as more international brands foray into the Indian markets; but the opportunity for good Indian food will steadily increase. This is corroborated by the fact that food consumption outside homes is no longer just driven by occasions but is fast becoming a necessity.
Changes in social and demographic factors like the increase in number of woman at workforce and nuclear families have deeply impacted how food was being traditionally prepared at homes. This change in demography has also led to the disappearance of many traditional and delectable dishes from the plates of Indian homes. Spending hours to prepare a dish is no longer feasible for most DINKs (double income no kids).
The end result is an undeniable shift towards convenience food, as is proven by the growth of ready to cook brands like ID Fresh, MTR, IFB Agro etc. On similar lines, there is a pent up but unserved need for a quick service restaurant brand serving good, healthy, ready to consume Indian food consistently.
Some trends have led to homogenization of regional cuisines across the country as well. The most important of them is improvement in transport connectivity, road infrastructure, penetration of DTH &internet and improved income of the middle class. This has led to a surge in the number of Indians travelling within the country. Between 1997 and 2015 the number of desi travellers increased from 200 million to an astounding 1.4 billion per year. This immense growth in intra-country travel has helped in increasing the awareness of different regional cuisines. In other words this has helped in (for example) making Hyderabadi biryani popular in Delhi and chicken butter masala popular in Chennai.
Despite this shift in consumer behaviour and the obvious increase in need of good Indian food, we do not find any national brand in the country selling great Indian food. With 1200 stores of Dominos, it is easier to find a Pizza of reliable/consistent quality than it is to find say India’s most loved curry, chicken butter masala. This, despite the fact that we Indians probably devour “n” (n is certainly higher than 1) times more chicken butter masala than a pizza every day!
Incidentally, it is also believed that Indian cuisine is the 4th most popular cuisine in the world. Indian food is consumed in every country worth its salt but how many global Indian brands has anyone heard about? The answer to this is a resounding 0!
This is why at Petoo we dream of building the largest restaurant brand selling Indian food. There are many fantastic brands built by Indians selling oriental dishes or pizzas/burgers but nonesoever of the size of McDonalds or Dominos to sell Indian food. It might sound clichéd but our vision is to build the McDonalds of Indian cuisine, a brand which becomes synonymous with serving convenient, delectable Indian Food.
