Apps, web drive food chain sales

Mumbai: The online food ordering business has crossed the Rs 6,000-crore mark in India with the increasing internet penetration as food chains like Pizza Hut and Domino’s. Accordi-ng to an estimate, online sales account for 20 per cent sales.

According to Ravin-dra Yadav, associate director, Technopak, “Ordering through apps is also growing at a healthier rate of 50 per cent within the web based application.”

However, this will eat into the number of people who would have otherwise visited the eatery. He also added that the food chains have to constantly reinvent themselves to keep their customers who have a lot of choice today.

For instance, he said, to sell donuts to the Indian consumer the company had to re-position itself from desert based or coffee based outlet to a Quick Servi-ce Restaurant. They even deliver coffee to the customers home.

He was speaking on the concluding day of the 3-day India Food Forum 2016 on Thursday.

The food service retail market is estimated to grow at $46 billion in 2015. At a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 11 per cent, this market will reach $78 billion by 2020.

Of this, the organised food service market acco-unted for around 30 per cent or $15 billion and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17 per cent and account for 42 per cent or $33 billion by 2020, according to Tecnopack.

But among all formats, cafes and quick service restaurants accounted for around 25 per cent of organised market and are the fastest growing businesses.

The licensed stan-dalone restaurant market is currently around $10 billion, while chain restaurants accounted for $2.4 billion, he said.