Price rise, funding slump may dampen cloud kitchen growth

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

cloud kitchen segment in India to maintain the pace of revenue growth seen in the past.

The earnings reports of the first two quarters of listed restaurant and food companies point to a broader trend of sluggish growth amid macroeconomic headwinds.

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In FY23, Peak XV Partners and Coatue-backed Rebel Foods recorded a 40% year-over-year growth in revenue, while Accel-backed Curefoods saw a four times jump. Similarly, Alpha Wave-backed Biryani by Kilo saw doubling of revenue.

For listed restaurant chains such as Jubilant Foodworks, Restaurant Brands Asia, Westlife Development, Devyani International, Sapphire Foods and Barbeque Nation, year-over-year topline growth last fiscal was in the 17-48% range. This range of y-o-y growth contracted to 6-22% y-o-y in the first half of FY24. Barbeque Nation’s revenue growth was flat in the April-September period.

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Ankush Grover, cofounder and CEO of India and MENA regions at Rebel Foods, said the multi-brand company is tracking 15-20% y-o-y growth for its key brands such as Behrouz Biryani and Oven Story.

Curefoods founder Ankit Nagori told ET that companies are focussing on sustainable growth. Curefoods expects to close FY24 with Rs 800 crore in revenue, a more than 100% increase from FY23.

Also read | Cloud kitchen startup Curefoods invests Rs 10 crore in food discovery platform Hogr