the weekend review
CPRL SHUTS OUTLETS OF MCDONALD’S IN EAST INDIA ON LOW SUPPLY
Nearly all McDonald’s outlets in east India have been shut and the ones in the north are staring at closure due to supply crunch, said Vikram Bakshi of Connaught Plaza Restaurants Pvt. Ltd (CRPL), the estranged joint venture partner of McDonald’s India Pvt Ltd, on Monday.
Eighty-four McDonald’s outlets in east India have been shut by CPRL, the north and east India franchisee of the burger chain, as the logistics partner of the company, Radhakrishna Foodland discontinued supply chain services. Radhakrishna Foodland manages the distribution network of CPRL in north and east India.
In a letter dated December 20, Radhakrishna Foodland informed CPRL that due to uncertainty of the future and hence, complexity in operating, the company is discontinuing the supply chain services.
Separately, on Thursday, McDonald’s India expressed concern over the quality and safety of food served across the 169 restaurants run by CPRL.
“Since the termination of the franchise agreements, MIPL has not been able to verify if the unauthorised McDonald’s restaurants operated by CPRL in north and east India are complying with applicable McDonald’s standards, including those pertaining to supplies, operations and safety standards and quality required for McDonald’s products. These restaurants need to be closed immediately,” an MIPL spokesperson said, in an emailed statement on Thursday.
END-OF-SEASON SALES BEGIN EARLY FOR RETAILERS THIS YEAR
A long Christmas weekend, early online sales and leftover stocks have prompted retailers across the country to advance their end-of-season sales.
Department stores like Shoppers Stop, Pantaloons and Lifestyle, along with brands such as Charles & Keith, Massimo Dutti, announced their sales this week. “Sales slowed down in the October-November period, right after Diwali, and the sales in Novem- ber in particular have not been good,” Govind Shrikhande, managing director, Shoppers Stop, said. “So most of us (retailers) have preponed our sales by a week,” he said, adding that Shoppers Stop opened its sales on Friday. He added that retailers were keen to liquidate some of their stocks bought at VAT rates because input credits on goods bought under the older tax regime will no longer be available after December 31. “What we are hearing from retailers is that they still have a lot of stock left,” said Anupam T., vice-president of Oberoi Mall in Mumbai. “These sales are happening early to liquidate those stocks. The sales have mostly started today, a week earlier than they did last year,” he added.
DABUR INDIA TO DEBUT FRUIT-BASED DRINKS UNDER REAL BRAND
Dabur India Ltd will launch ready-to-drink fruit-based mocktails, or non-alcoholic versions of popular cocktails, under its fruit juice brand Real.
This is the first time mocktails will be available in a ready-todrink format in India. Priced at ₹110 for a 1-litre tetra pak, Real mocktails will be sold at moderntrade stores, open format outlets and across online marketplaces, said Mayank Kumar, marketing head (foods), Dabur India. Dabur’s fruit juice brand Real is currently sold across 300,000 retail outlets, and Dabur will make Real mocktails available at 10-15% of these outlets to start with. “We’ll also look at making the Real mocktails available at select liquor stores, besides pubs and bars,” Kumar added. Real mocktails will initially come in two variants—Virgin Mary and Pina Colada. The company will later extend the range with variants like fizzy mocktails, and will look at bringing in other formats of packaging, such as cans.
KINGFISHER’S MARKET SHARE DROPS AS PEERS GAIN GROUND
India’s biggest beer brand Kingfisher is ceding market share to premium foreign brands as urban Indians develop a liking for high-end brands over high alcohol content in their beers. Kingfisher, which is still the largest beer brand in India, has lost 4.3% market share by volume between 2011 and 2016, according to data from market researcher Euromonitor. This is the steepest decline among the top beer brands in India during this time. Meanwhile, dutch beer maker Carlsberg A/S, and the world’s largest alcohol maker Anheuser-Busch InBev NV have capitalized on the gap left behind by Kingfisher’s decline.
Carlsberg’s Tuborg brand is now India’s second-largest beer by volume with 11.1% market share, a near five-fold jump since 2011. The firm’s flagship beer Carlsberg is also on the list, whose market share has doubled to 5.8% since 2011, Euromonitor data shows.
STAR INDIA TARGETS 700 MILLION VIEWERS DURING IPL 2018
Driven by a regional language push and live streaming, broadcaster Star India Pvt. Ltd aims to reach over 700 million people in the 2018 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) across its 10 sports channels and streaming service Hotstar.
“IPL will bring to the fore the power of sports and the power of technology in 2018. This is the biggest content property on TV and other screens. It has been built well over the last decade and has grown dramatically. We believe IPL can be re-imagined completely to grow even faster and more dramatically over the next five years as Star takes charge of it,” said Sanjay Gupta, managing director, Star India.
The broadcaster, which won the television, digital, Indian and global media rights to IPL for the next five seasons for ₹16,347.50 crore in September, will do so through local content feeds in languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Bengali across TV and digital, besides Hindi and English.