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October 19, 2026
Vaeshnavi Kasthuril, MINT
19 October 2026
India’s quick-commerce boom is turning up the heat on grab-and-go convenience stores, leaving these chains struggling to stay relevant as doorstep deliveries become faster and easier. Caught between neighbourhood kiranas, large supermarkets and quick-commerce apps, these outlets face a tough battle for customers, with high rents and staffing costs leading to an existential squeeze.
The closure of all 31 remaining 7-Eleven stores in India on 30 September, following the end of its franchise arrangement with Reliance Retail, underscores the challenges of scaling the format. The chain entered India in 2021 and expanded to around 60 outlets at its peak. Its Japanese parent, Seven & i Holdings, said it would explore options for a long-term presence in India. The exit follows Godfrey Phillips India’s decision in April 2024 to exit its 24Seven convenience-store business.
The appeal of convenience stores lies in easy access to daily essentials, grab-and-go food and extended operating hours. But in India, kiranas and quick-commerce platforms offer many of the same products, making it harder for organized chains to justify the cost of branded outlets, staff and commercial rents.
“Convenience stores have only started really struggling after the launch of quick commerce,” said Devangshu Dutta, founder of retail consultancy Third Eyesight. Delivery platforms offer everyday products at customers’ doorsteps within minutes, reducing the need to visit a nearby store, he said.
A Redseer Strategy Consultants-Google report of 7 October found that quick commerce captures less than 5% of spending on monthly grocery stock-ups among occasional users, compared with 15-20% of spending on daily or immediate needs.
Convenience stores occupy an awkward position between large retailers and neighbourhood kiranas, Dutta said. Supermarkets can offer wider assortments and higher-margin products, while kiranas benefit from lower operating costs and can adapt quickly to local demand. Smaller outlets have limited space for products and higher operating costs per square foot than supermarkets, while average transaction values are lower.
For operators, the challenge is to find a model that can expand without allowing costs to erode margins. Aastha Alamast, co-founder of convenience-store chain The New Shop, said franchising is key to making the economics work.
“One of the key covenants of convenience retail that we know and understand is that it’s a franchise-led industry,” Alamast said. The New Shop initially ran 60-70 company-operated stores before a franchise-first model shift in 2022.
Setting up a new store costs less than ₹20 lakh, including capital expenditure and inventory, she said. The regular outlets typically span 600-800 sq. ft, while its Bengaluru flagship is about 2,000 sq. ft.
The company became profitable after opening about 110 stores and has remained profitable for three years, Alamast said. But raising capital has been difficult. Discussions with Indian venture capital firms often turned into questions about why the company wanted to franchise its stores. “Nobody really understood convenience retail,” she said, adding that the firm had raised money largely from American and Korean investors.
It is also trying to make its outlets destinations for beyond everyday shopping. “It’s a hangout spot. It’s a lifestyle store,” Alamast said. They also offer services such as courier pick-up, ticket booking and electric vehicle charging.
AMPM, another convenience-store chain, is taking a different approach after encountering problems with franchises. Founder Shubham Gupta said some franchisees skipped operating procedures, while other arrangements led to payment disputes.
“We are converting all our existing stores to company-owned, company-operated outlets only,” Gupta said. AMPM has 12 operational stores, with others under construction and more than 18 store pacts signed, he said.
The company plans to add local deliveries within 10-30 minutes once it reaches 50-100 stores. Licencing has also slowed expansion. He began researching the concept in 2012 and opened his first outlet in 2017 after working through regulatory hurdles.
Wellness Forever, a chemist chain, is betting on specialist service, rather than convenience alone. The pharmacy chain remains “pharmacy first”, said co-founder Ashraf Brian.
“Now, it is almost 60-65% would be coming from pharma. Thirty-five to 40% would be coming from non-pharma,” he said.
Quick commerce has prompted the chain to trim its food assortment after sales of products such as cold drinks, ice cream and ready-to-eat food fell. “Slowly, slowly, if you see the food items in our stores have been drastically reduced due to quick commerce,” he said.
Wellness Forever has expanded categories such as skincare, vitamins and supplements, where access to product advice can help differentiate a physical store from an online delivery platform.
Location and assortment will be critical to the format’s prospects, Dutta said. “Smaller formats can work depending on location and the kind of customers you cater to. Metro stations, for instance, are suitable for grab-and-go retail because people are in a hurry and are looking for products they can consume immediately. You have to get the assortment and location right, while keeping costs under control.”
The challenges have not deterred international players.
Japan’s Lawson plans to open five directly managed stores in Mumbai in 2027 and expand to about 100 outlets in India by 2030. This will test whether a different operating model can succeed where 7-Eleven struggled.
(Published in MINT)
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September 1, 2026
Vikash Tripathi, Outlook Business
1 September 2026
Eight decades ago, the ‘nationalist businessman’ GD Birla helped prepare the ‘Bombay Plan’, which asked the state to pro-vide for the bare minimum needs of its people. His plan asked for 2,800 calories of well-balanced food per day, 30 yards of clothing per year and 100sq ft of housing per person.
Today, seventh-generation Aryaman Vikram Birla is betting on an entirely different opportunity: premium dining. “We continue to believe in the remarkable potential of the premium casual dining space, spurred by rising disposable income and evolving lifestyles,” the 29-year-old said after Aditya Birla New Age Hospitality acquired KA Hospitality in 2023.
The Birlas are not alone in trying to cash-in on rising prosperity in India. In the past five years alone, India’s top 10 industrial groups have announced new ventures in consumer-facing sectors or doubled down on existing ones. A rough tally of these investments crosses ₹4.8 lakh crore.
For decades, these same business houses built their dominance in core sectors like steel, power, aluminium, cement and chemicals, laying the industrial backbone of the economy. This helped the nation become a large producer of such goods and, in some cases, an exporter as well.
But as India’s economic conditions changed, so has the focus of its largest conglomerates.
For the likes of Tata, Aditya Birla, Bajaj and Bharti, that journey started way back. “What has changed in recent years is the speed and openness of the amount of capital being invested,” says Jitender Kumar, associate professor and programme chairperson, retail management programme at Birla Institute of Management Technology.
“It is not ‘opportunistic’ reasons, it’s structural reasons.”
Two factors seem to be driving the shift: the first is the arrival of an affluent consuming class that can buy branded and premium goods, and the second is the attraction of consumer businesses as a way to diversify revenue and, in some cases, improve the quality of earnings.
The Rise of Affluence
A couple of decades ago, if an Indian household had some extra cash, it often meant buying more of the same. Today, it increasingly means buying better. Even salt is being upgraded, from iodised to Himalayan pink or rock salt. The same shift is visible in bigger purchases: sports utility vehicles (SUVs) over hatchbacks, and ₹1cr-plus homes over budget flats.
But India isn’t simply consuming more. It is moving from basic consumption towards discretionary, branded and premium consumption. This boom is most clearly seen in the rapid expansion of the financial infrastructure that enables consumption. Formal retail credit penetration has more than doubled over the past decade, according to a TransUnion Cibil report, driven largely by personal loans, credit cards and consumer durable loans. Meanwhile, the government-backed Unified Payments Interface has untethered spending from the cash in a buyer’s wallet.
The signs show up across the broader consumption economy. Homes priced above ₹1cr accounted for 54% of total sales in 2025, up from just 30% in 2023—the market that decorative paints and home solutions are chasing.
Out of 4.7mn cars sold in the financial year 2025–26, SUVs accounted for more than half.
“The consumer market has grown substantially—not only through rising incomes but also the dramatic expansion of branded consumption across product verticals,” says Devangshu Dutta, founder of management-consulting firm Third Eyesight.
The bets are also getting more varied, from Reliance Retail tying up with global brands like Fenty and Skims to the Bharti Group bringing Olive Garden to India.
The Lure of Returns
For a passenger walking through an airport, the flight is only one part of the journey. There is coffee before boarding, food between flights, a lounge, retail outlets, parking and a host of other things to spend money on. For Adani Airports, those non-aero businesses are increasingly becoming the more lucrative part.
Its non-aero operations already generate about ₹2,500cr, with returns in the high-20% range, against roughly 12% from regulated aeronautical operations.
Jeet Adani, director of Adani Airport Holdings, expects the share of aeronautical revenue to fall to around 10% of total revenue, with non-aero becoming the bigger growth driver. The motivation can be seen as an escape from a return ceiling as much as a bet on rising affluence.
As Kumar puts it, consumer businesses help the conglomerates in two major ways. First, they help insulate them from volatile and often punishing commodity cycles, and second, they often offer far better returns with lower capital intensity and faster cash conversion.
Reliance Industries (RIL) shows how significant that shift can become. By 2025–26, its consumer-facing arms, Jio Platforms, Reliance Retail Ventures and Reliance Consumer Products, together contributed over 40% of group revenue and nearly 60% of operating profit.
And there is another advantage. “A small business, when it wants to build a new venture, faces constant margin pressure and often has to build its supply chain from scratch. A large conglomerate can leverage its existing scale, infrastructure and supply chain to enter a new business far more efficiently,” explains Kranthi Bathini, equity strategist at WealthMills Securities.
Different Strokes
In chasing consumers, some conglomerates are following the fastest-growing categories, while others are using their existing industrial capabilities to enter consumer-facing businesses. One is trying to build an entire ecosystem around it. But the lines between these approaches are not always clean.
Tatas is doing both: building entirely new consumer brands while also using the industrial ecosystem it has built over decades.
For Tatas, the consumer opportunity has largely been about following where spending is moving. Their consumer ventures have followed this arc longest. It began decades ago with Lakmé (1952), Tata Tea (1962) and Titan (1984). Tanishq and the expansion of Trent under brands such as Zudio are only the latest examples.
At Tata Consumer Products, once largely a staples business built around salt, tea and pulses, the focus has been shifting towards value-added foods and beverages, with ₹7,000cr spent on the acquisitions of Capital Foods and Organic India in 2024. Across companies such as Tata Digital, Indian Hotels, Air India and Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, the group has announced close to ₹93,180cr in investment over the past five years.
Aditya Birla’s jewellery chain Indriya and its move into premium hospitality belong to the same category of ‘pull-based’ diversification.
JSW is taking a different route. It is taking its existing industrial strengths one step closer to the buyer. The group, which has traditionally been focused on areas such as steel, energy and cement, has expanded into consumer-facing areas such as auto, paints and home solutions.
It launched JSW Paints in 2019, and acquired a controlling stake in paintmaker AkzoNobel India for ₹8,986cr last year. Its strategy is to leverage an established network of contractors, dealers, architects and builders to reach consumers.
The same strategy can be seen in its push into autos, acquiring a 35% stake in the Indian unit of China’s MG Motor in 2024, leveraging synergies with its established steel business.
At Tatas, too, group companies like Tata Steel, Tata Power, Tata AutoComp, Tata Technologies and TCS are doing significant businesses with Tata Motors.
Adani is also using an asset it already controls to move further into the consumer’s wallet. Adani Airports announced a ₹20,000cr investment in June to develop hotels, retail, entertainment and commercial infrastructure around its eight airports, and has signed hotel management agreements with IHG Hotels & Resorts for five hotels. City-side developments could contribute 30–40% of Adani Airport Holdings’ non-aero revenue.
Yet another example of the extension strategy is Aditya Birla Group’s attempt to diversify from cement, metals and textiles into decorative paints with Birla Opus.
RIL took a different approach: trying to connect multiple consumer businesses into one ecosystem. It expanded its retail network through new formats and acquisitions, added brands and partnerships, and then built a consumer-goods business around acquisitions such as Campa Cola and Lotus Chocolate.
That expansion was helped by billions of dollars raised by both Jio Infocomm and Retail Ventures from foreign investors in 2020. The group now plans to spend another ₹8,000cr expanding consumer goods manufacturing. The advantage of having that kind of scale is clear. If RIL has Ajio at a mall and, next to it, GAP and Herschel, it can negotiate better rental terms.
For conglomerates, Kumar points out, the next level of competition will not be based on investment, “but on the ability to create different consumer experiences, foster innovation and create lasting brand loyalty through the integration of these capabilities”.
Can Scale Win?
When Reliance Fresh opened its first stores in 2006, it was part of a rush by some of India’s biggest business groups to crack organised retail. Aditya Birla Group, RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group’s Spencer’s and Kishore Biyani’s Future Group were all betting that organised retail could transform the way Indians shopped. What followed was years of experimentation, losses and, for some, eventual retreat.
Birlas essentially gave up on grocery retail after a decade of heavy losses and exited entirely.
Future was pushed into insolvency after a controversial ₹24,713cr deal with RIL. Spencer’s is still trying to find its footing, with ₹249.33cr in net losses in 2025–26.
Conglomerates may have deeper pockets, but that does not automatically make them better at selling to consumers. India has seen some of those bets fail or take years to work. And even among today’s biggest players, the results are still mixed.
Tata Sons has been in this segment longer than the Ambanis, yet its consumer businesses still make up less than 40% of its total revenue —a share that has not changed since 2020.
These groups have what most standalone consumer companies don’t: capital, distribution, infrastructure, brands, scale.
But winning consumers takes something else entirely—reading what people want, building brands, innovating fast and earning loyalty.
“In B2B [business to business], it’s about manufacturing at scale, getting your costs down. Then you can compete. In B2C [business to consumer], it’s all about the product. With the right product at the right price, you have a chance to win in the market,” Parth Jindal, managing director of JSW Cement and JSW Paints, told Outlook Business in 2025.
Tata Sons’ chairman N Chandrasekaran hit the same wall while revamping the group’s consumer unit. “I have the money. But I don’t have the team to run it,” he had told Sunil D’Souza while hiring him to lead Tata Consumer Products in 2020.
Reliance and Tatas have had the longest head start, but even their journeys show how difficult it is to turn scale and capital into consumer businesses. Birla, JSW and Adani are now trying to make that transition in their own ways.
A longer tail—Bajaj in hospitals, L&T in retail finance and education, Mahindra in insurance and hospitality, Murugappa in electric mobility—is playing it safer, going deeper into what it already owns rather than chasing new categories.
What ties them together is a bet on consumers buying not just more but better, and on those consumers being worth more per rupee of capital than the industrial customers who built these houses.
The prize is growing, but so is the competition. Capital and scale may get these conglomerates through the door. They won’t guarantee a seat at the table.
(Published in Outlook Business)
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August 1, 2026
Two decades ago, the team at the Naandi Foundation turned tribal farmers in a remote Andhra valley into some of the world’s best-paid coffee growers. Araku Coffee now sells in Paris, and the best of it goes for thousands of rupees a kilogram. Now the same team is trying to do it again — this time with everyday vegetables. Their company, Urban Farms Co., works with regenerative farmers and sells their produce on apps like Blinkit and Zepto. The bet is that what worked for premium coffee can work for staples too. But vegetables aren’t coffee. They’re cheap, everyday, and something people buy all the time. Can this really scale, and does it actually leave farmers better off?
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May 12, 2026
Anushka Jha & Kausar Madhyia, Afaqs
12 May 2026
On May 10, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his address to the nation, made some appeals to the citizens of India. In addition to asking Indians to re-adopt Covid-like practices of working from home and refraining from travel abroad, the prime minister also appealed to the citizenry to stop buying gold for weddings for a year.
The appeals come in response to the global energy crisis and economic instability triggered by the US-Iran war and the consequent West Asia conflict, which makes import-dependent commodities like gold especially vulnerable.
The market reaction was almost immediate. Following the Prime Minister’s appeal, jewellery stocks saw sharp declines on the BSE. According to PTI, Senco Gold fell nearly 11%, Kalyan Jewellers dropped close to 10%, and Titan Company declined around 8%, while Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri slipped over 6%.
National interest and gold monetisation
Industry leaders have responded by balancing the Prime Minister’s vision with structural solutions.
“India’s economic strength must always come before individual preferences. Hon’ble Prime Minister’s appeal regarding responsible gold consumption reflects the larger national concern of rising imports and pressure on foreign exchange reserves,” says Rajesh Rokde, chairman of the All India Gem and Jewellery Domestic Council (GJC).
He suggests that a revitalised Gold Monetisation Scheme (GMS) could “mobilise idle household gold” and “convert dormant gold into productive national capital”.
“Nation First. Responsible Gold Ecosystem Next,” he adds.
Avinash Gupta, the vice chairman of GJC, emphasises the emotional and cultural connection of gold to Indian households.
“But today, the nation also faces the challenge of balancing gold demand with economic stability.” He believes the GMS can channel gold into the formal economy, “reducing imports, easing CAD pressure and strengthening India’s financial ecosystem.”
India’s cultural fabric and the market reality
According to a report by MoneyControl, India imports 90% of its gold needs, making the country as one of the largest gold importers globally.
Gold is an integral part of India’s cultural fabric. It is not only a fitting gift for various auspicious occasions but also constitutes one of the most expensive elements of the ‘great Indian weddings’. Additionally, there are specific religious days dedicated solely to the purchase of gold, such as Akshaya Tritiya and Dhanteras.
However, external pressures are already weighing on the market.
Devangshu Dutta, founder of Third Eyesight, a retail management consulting firm, observes: “Jewellery retailers are already suffering from higher raw material costs, and rising gold and silver prices have driven several customers to postpone or reduce their purchases, including on significant dates such as Akshaya Tritiya.”
He notes that while wedding demand may remain strong, discretionary purchases will face a setback. “Companies will need to lean into lighter, more contemporary designs and lower caratage to sustain year-round demand.”
The potential impact of the appeal
Despite rising gold prices, approximately 700 to 800 tonnes of gold are consumed every year by Indian households, weddings, festivals, investment purchases, and rural savings, as per the same Money Control report.
Given the popularity of PM Modi, industry veterans expect a tangible shift in consumer behaviour.
“There will certainly be an impact,” says Arun Iyer, founder and creative partner at Spring Marketing Capital and former chief creative officer at Lowe Lintas, who played a significant role in the creation of Tanishq and several of its iconic advertisements.
“Given that the Prime Minister obviously has a very, very deep influence on our society, I think there will be an impact. People will think twice before buying gold.”
He further notes that while critical purchases will continue, “this quarter is expected to pose some challenges for the jewellery brands”.
Adaptation and brand strategy
According to the India Brand Equity Foundation, India’s gems and jewellery market stood at Rs 7,31,255 crore in January 2025 and is projected to increase to Rs 11,18,390 crore by 2030.
To sustain this growth, players like Suvankar Sen, CEO and MD of Senco Gold Ltd, are focusing on recycling.
“Today, almost 50% of our overall business is driven through recycled gold. This not only helps consumers optimise the value of their existing gold holdings but also contributes towards reducing dependence on fresh gold imports,” he says.
From a brand perspective, Saurabh Parmar, fractional CMO, believes the strategy must shift.
“In a scenario when the head of state says something like this, the brand faces a credibility problem, not a sales problem. The play is to shift from category promotion to category trust, lean on heritage, on long-term value, and on gold’s role in Indian culture.” He advises brands not to appear opportunistic but to signal, ‘We have always been there.'”
Given the popularity of Prime Minister Modi in India, his influence is likely to affect the performance of leading jewellery brands in the next quarter. This may include major players such as Tanishq, Malabar Gold & Diamonds, and Kalyan Jewellers, among others.
(Published in Afaqs)
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February 27, 2026
Samar Srivastava, Forbes India
Feb 27, 2026
India’s young consumers are discovering the next big beauty serum, protein bar or sneaker brand not in a mall, but on Instagram reels, YouTube shorts and quick-commerce apps that promise 10-minute delivery. What began as a trickle of digital-first labels a decade ago has now become a full-blown wave. Direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands—built online, fuelled by social media and venture capital—have reshaped India’s consumer landscape and forced legacy companies to rethink everything from marketing to distribution.
India today has more than 800 active D2C brands across beauty, personal care, fashion, food, home and electronics, according to industry estimates and consulting reports. The Indian D2C market is estimated at $12–15 billion in 2025, up from under $5 billion in 2020, and growing at 25–30 percent annually. The pandemic accelerated online adoption, but the structural drivers—cheap data, digital payments and over 750 million internet users—were already in place.
Unlike traditional FMCG brands that relied on distributors and kirana stores, D2C brands such as Mamaearth, boAt, Licious and Sugar Cosmetics built their early traction online. Customer acquisition happened through performance marketing; feedback loops were immediate; product iterations were rapid.
Importantly, these brands are discovered online—but as they scale, consumers buy them both online and offline, increasingly through quick-commerce platforms such as Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart, as well as modern trade and general trade stores. The omnichannel play is now central to their growth strategy.
According to Anil Kumar, founder and chief executive of Redseer Strategy Consultants, the ecosystem is maturing in measurable ways. Brands are taking lesser time to reach ₹100 crore or ₹500 crore revenue benchmarks and, once there, mortality rates are coming down. There is also an acceptance that if a brand is not profitable in a 3–5 year timeframe, that needs to be corrected. “There is a lot of emphasis on growing profitably and not just through GMV,” he says.
Big Cheques, Bigger Exits
The D2C boom would not have been possible without capital. Between 2014 and 2022, Indian D2C startups raised over $5 billion in venture and growth funding. Peak years like 2021 alone saw more than $1.2 billion invested in the segment. Beauty, personal care and fashion accounted for nearly 50 percent of total inflows, followed by food and beverages.
Some brands scaled independently; others found strategic buyers. Among the most prominent exits:
> Hindustan Unilever acquired a majority stake in Minimalist, reportedly valuing the actives-led skincare brand at over ₹3,000 crore. For Hindustan Unilever, the annual run rate from sales of its D2C portfolio is estimated at around ₹1,000 crore, underscoring how material digital-first brands have become to its growth strategy.
> ITC Limited bought Yoga Bar for about ₹175 crore in 2023 to strengthen its health foods portfolio.
> Emami acquired a majority stake in The Man Company, expanding its digital-first play.
> Tata Consumer Products acquired Soulfull as part of its health and wellness strategy.
> Marico invested in brands such as Beardo and True Elements.
Private equity has also entered aggressively at the growth stage. ChrysCapital invested in The Man Company; L Catterton backed Sugar Cosmetics; General Atlantic invested in boAt; and Sequoia Capital India (now Peak XV Partners) was an early backer of multiple consumer brands.
Valuations were often steep. boAt was valued at over $1.2 billion at its peak. Mamaearth’s parent, Honasa Consumer, listed in 2023 at a valuation of around ₹10,000 crore. Across categories, brands crossing ₹500 crore in annual revenue began attracting buyout interest, with deal sizes ranging from ₹150 crore to over ₹3,000 crore depending on scale and profitability.
Yet exits have not always been smooth. “While it takes 7-8 years to build a brand most funds that invest in them have a timeline of 3-5 years before they need an exit,” says Devangshu Dutta, founder of Third Eyesight, a retail consultancy. This timing mismatch can create pressure—pushing brands to scale aggressively, sometimes at the cost of margins.
Integration Pains and the Profitability Pivot
For large FMCG companies, buying D2C brands offers speed: Access to younger consumers, premium positioning and digital marketing expertise. But integration brings challenges.
Founder-led organisations operate with rapid decision cycles, test-and-learn marketing and flat hierarchies. Large corporations often work with layered approvals, structured brand calendars and rigid cost controls. Cultural friction can lead to talent exits if autonomy is curtailed too quickly.
Margins are another sticking point. In the early growth phase, many D2C brands spent 30–40 percent of revenue on digital advertising. Rising customer acquisition costs post-2021, combined with higher logistics expenses, squeezed contribution margins. As brands entered offline retail, distributor and retailer margins of 20–35 percent further compressed profitability.
Large acquirers, used to EBITDA margins of 18–25 percent in mature FMCG portfolios, often discovered that digital-first brands operated at low single-digit margins—or were loss-making at scale. Rationalising ad spends, optimising supply chains and pruning SKUs became essential.
The funding slowdown between 2022 and 2024 triggered a reset. Marketing spends were cut by as much as 25–40 percent across several startups. Growth moderated from 80–100 percent annually during peak years to 25–40 percent for more mature brands—but unit economics improved.
Quick-commerce has emerged as a structural growth lever. For categories such as personal care, snacking and health foods, these platforms now account for 10–25 percent of urban revenues for scaled brands, improving inventory turns and reducing dependence on paid digital acquisition.
The next phase of India’s D2C journey will be less about blitz scaling and more about disciplined brand building—balancing growth, profitability and exit timelines. What began as a disruption is now part of the mainstream consumer playbook. And as capital becomes more selective, only brands that combine strong gross margins, repeat purchase rates above 35–40 percent and sustainable EBITDA pathways will endure.
(Published in Forbes India)
