Viveat Susan Pinto, S Shanthi (Financial Express) 13 July 2026 India’s new-age coffee chains are accelerating expansion despite continuing losses, as investors bet that the country’s under-penetrated branded cafe market can deliver long-term growth. Third Wave Coffee plans to open 100 cafes this financial year while targeting company-wide break-even. Blue Tokai aims to expand from 240 outlets to 800 by FY30 and is preparing for an eventual public listing. Nothing Before Coffee (NBC), which has grown to 114 cafes across 45 cities, plans to more than double its network over the next two years. The expansion comes even as profitability…
Nivedita Mookerji, Business Standard 12 Jul 2026 Recently, fast moving consumer goods distributors posed some existential questions to the government: Have the rules changed for foreign-owned ecommerce firms? With that, the All India Consumer Products Distribution Federation made a plea to the government to examine if foreign-funded ecommerce and quick commerce players can run inventory-led businesses through warehouses and dark stores. The question mark is around the operating model of the big daddies of retail — both from America — under the current foreign direct investment (FDI) guidelines. One of them is Bentonville-headquartered Walmart, which holds a controlling stake in…
Neethi Lisa Rojan & Vaeshnavi Kasthuril, MINT Mumbai/Bengaluru, 8 July 2026 The collapse of the US-Iran peace deal in less than a month has rattled India's consumer sector, reviving fears that higher oil prices and fresh supply-chain disruptions could squeeze demand just as companies were betting on a broader recovery. The renewed uncertainty followed US President Donald Trump's declaration on Wednesday that the peace deal with Iran was effectively over, alongside Washington's decision to end a sanctions waiver on Iranian energy supplies. The market reaction was swift. The Nifty FMCG Index fell 2.49% on Wednesday, underperforming the broader market as…
Vaeshnavi Kasthuril, MINT 30 June 2026, Mumbai Advent International-backed Modenik Lifestyle Pvt. Ltd is doubling down on its portfolio of legacy innerwear brands, planning to scale each label into a sizeable business rather than rely on a single flagship brand. "Each of the brands must grow big enough to be called a company of its own," Shekhar Tewari, chief executive and executive director, told Mint. The company has four brands: premium women's innerwear label Enamor, value brand Slimz, mass-premium men's label Dixcy Scott, and premium men's innerwear brand Levi's. "These brands are very strong in their respective segments. They complement…
Sharleen D’souza & Shivani Shinde, Business Standard Mumbai, 21 June 2026 Online beauty marketplaces Reliance Retail Ventures’ Tira and Nykaa have a common mantra: growing in-house brands. Successful brand acquisitions and margin growth seem to fuel the push. “With private labels, margins are better. It also helps both companies plug the gap in the market which other brands are not present in,” Devangshu Dutta, chief executive officer (CEO) of Third Eyesight, told Business Standard. Within in-house brands, products need some investment in research and development (R&D), he explained. Harish Bijoor, brand and business strategy consultant at Harish Bijoor Consults, said…
Geopolitical friction has again sparked renewed concerns over inflation and rising input costs for FMCG companies as @itmeansjustice @whysnavi write. @devangshu commented.
