Tata Starbucks expands to sixth city in India

IANS | 30 September 2014, 4:29 PM IST

HYDERABAD: Tata Starbucks Limited, a 50-50 joint venture between Starbucks Coffee Company of US and Tata Global Beverages, Tuesday expanded its operations to the sixth city in India by opening its flagship store in Hyderabad.

The store has come up in upmarket Jubilee Hills and is the first in Hyderabad and the 58th in India.
Tata Starbucks CEO Avani Davda said the store, designed in tune with the city's history and culture, is consistent with their long-term strategy to strengthen the presence in South India.

She told reporters that the company will soon open another store in the city.

In nearly two years since Tata Starbucks was launched, it has opened stores in Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Tuesday saw the launch of three stores in Bangalore and Hyderabad. She said the company is excited over the way it is growing but declined to give any numbers with regard to the target.

"In last 10 weeks we have opened eight stores. It demonstrates our ambition for growth in India," she said.

For Starbucks, which has presence in 60 countries, India will be one of the strongest markets in the coming days.

Avani said they also have plans to open stores in tier-II cities. "We have over 50 cities are on our radar but we are first trying to understand what unique we can offer to these cities," she said.

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Companies like Reckitt Benckiser, Hindustan Unilever, Dabur and others to gain from 'Swachh Bharat' campaign

By Ratna Bhushan & Sagar Malviya | 02 October 2014, 10:08 AM IST


NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: Among the biggest beneficiaries of the 'Swachh Bharat' campaign that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off on October 2 will be two multinationals Reckitt Benckiser and Hindustan Unilever that together own most big household cleaning brands in the country such as Lizol, Dettol, Harpic, Domex and Colin.

Companies such as consumer products maker Dabur and top retailer Future Group plan to leverage the 'Clean India' drive by launching their own cleanliness campaigns to promote their brands, as marketers say the biggest challenge for hygiene category has been lack of awareness. Nitish Kapoor, MD, Reckitt Benckiser, said the government initiative will significantly help spread hygiene awareness.

"In the long term, as more and more people adopt healthy hygiene practices, our products like Dettol and Harpic will become relevant for them," he told ET. Both HUL and Reckitt Benckiser run big awareness campaigns, particularly in rural areas, to boost sales of their hygiene products. Reckitt has committed Rs 100 crore for a five-year Dettol campaign to address "the country's hygiene and sanitation needs". It has roped in Amitabh Bachchan as ambassador for the programme that will take off this month and will cover 400 villages across Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra through videos, flyer distributions, posters, handwashing sessions and street plays. An HUL spokesperson said its Lifebuoy 'handwashing programme', which spreads the importance of washing hands with soap, has reached 58 million people in rural and urban India since 2010. Last year, HUL launched Domex Toilet Academy programme that aims to build 24,000 toilets in the country by 2015.

"Campaigns like Swachh Bharat will go a long way in creating awareness amongst people on the need for healthy hygiene habits," the person said. Reckitt Benckiser dominates toilet care space with its brand Harpic enjoying 69% market share in 2013, according to Euromonitor. It controls surface care market too with 57% share through brands such as Dettol, Easy-Off Bang, Lizol and Colin.
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Yudhvir Singh Malik of Haryana succeeds D K Samantaray as CEO of FSSAI

Wednesday, October 01, 2014 08:00 IST 
Ashwani Maindola, New Delh

Yudhvir Singh Malik, a 1983 batch officer of the Haryana cadre, has succeeded D K Samantaray as chief executive officer, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The latter’s tenure ended in August.

A top health ministry official confirmed the appointment of the former, who is currently additional chief secretary, Government of Haryana. He would join FSSAI after the holding of elections in that state.

Malik would be the third CEO of the country’s apex food regulator in the last two years. The challenges he faces include the completion of the licencing and registration of food business operators (FBOs) process.

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New labelling guidelines hit F&B industry hard ahead of the festival season

By Ratna Bhushan & Ishani Duttagupta| 28 September 2014, 10:01 AM IST

The festival season has kicked off but it's more famine than feast for food and beverage marketers. The reason for the gloom is the stringent implementation of food safety norms by the government regulator, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI); this has resulted in delay over approvals of import consignments, a lot of which have been held up at ports.
The list of F&B firms hit by the FSSAI is long: GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare, Ferrero Group, Tata Starbucks, Lindt chocolates, Cadbury, Mars, Diageo, Pernod Ricard, Bacardi, William Grant & Sons and Brown Forman. Around 300 containers worth roughly Rs 18,000 crore are stuck at ports just ahead of the festive season, said a top official of a chocolate importer, requesting not to be named. This, he said, includes consignments of imported chocolates, liquor and canola oil.

With Diwali just around the corner, liquor majors and restaurants are in a blue funk over their depleted stocks of imported premium liquor. But before the festival of lights comes the German beer festival Oktoberfest, which has already kicked off. "We usually serve a dozen German beers during Oktoberfest. But with imported consignments having been sent back due to non-compliant food labels, there is no visibility of any stock this year and we have only four German brands," says Rahul Singh, founder and CEO, The Beer Cafe.

The FSSAI labelling regulation requires the logo/license number, ingredients, importer name, batch number, packing and expiry date of imports to be displayed. Shipments have been sent back from the ports following even minor errors in the labels. In fact, the FSSAI has been very stringent in enforcing the law since July 2014, as the companies started building up stocks for the festival season.

Singh doesn't see the FSSAI issue getting resolved soon. "Most of the large beer companies in the world have a standard label that is globally acceptable. The India orders are meagre and these large corporations don't want to change labels only for India," he points out.
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Food processed is food saved: Harsimrat

TNN | 27 September 2014, 6:00 PM IST

LUDHIANA: Stressing on the need to check wastage in agriculture sector, which is estimated at over Rs 44,000 crore, Union minister for food processing industry Harsimrat Kaur Badal said on Friday that her main aim was that processed products should not be limited to elite sections only, but should be within the reach of "aam aadmi" too. Wastage could be reduced if farmers took advantage of food processing industry. "Food processed is food saved," she added.

She said a mega food park was coming up at Fazilka and it would be inaugurated in October. "One such park is also coming up near Ludhiana soon," she added.

Badal said her ministry would concentrate on creating primary collection centres close to food production areas to bring in efficiency in food processing and reduce wastages. "According to a study conducted by Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET) in 2010, 18% of the total produce gets wasted. To achieve efficiency, the ministry will create an enabling environment, including creating refrigeration facilities at all levels," she added. "Due to wastage of food, the market availability declines and it directly leads to inflation. So if we control wastage by taking help of food processing industry, we can control inflation. I am going to Ahmadabad on Saturday where we will study the model adopted by Amul," she said.

She even urged farmers to adopt organic farming as well as processing fruits and vegetable into non-alcoholic wines. She asked PAU vice-chancellor Baldev Singh Dhillon to hold a monthly meeting where he should brief her about the ways in which farmers can be benefitted from food processing.

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Food safety standards should not be arbitrary: Harsimrat Kaur Badal

PTI Sep 22, 2014, 08.56PM IST

NEW DELHI: Expressing concerns over imported food items getting stuck in customs, Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal today said safety standards should not be arbitrary and detrimental to the industry.

Huge consignments carrying food processing ingredients are lying at ports due to the new labelling norms of the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

The matter has been taken up with the PMO and the Health Ministry, she told reporters while briefing her ministry's 100-days initiatives.

"Ingredients imported by the processing industry are lying at the customs as there are certain ingredients on which industry is having issues with FSSAI. It has been taken up with Health Ministry and a solution should be found very soon. The system needs to be very transparent," Badal said.

Badal said the food processing sector should be provided a level-playing field.

"Systems should not be arbitrary. While maintaining the food safety standards, it should also encourage the industry. So, if industry is having some issues that need to be addressed," Badal said.

The Minister said she has met Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and discussed the industry's issues related to FSSAI.

The matter has also been brought under the notice of Prime Minister's Office (PMO), she added.

Badal said there is no proposal to bring FSSAI under the Food Processing Ministry from the purview of Health Ministry.

FSSAI has been established under Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 which consolidates various acts & orders that have hitherto handled food related issues in various ministries and departments.

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Amul marketeer GCMMF becomes 15th top global dairy organisation.

PTI | 25 September 2014, 6:52 AM IST

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which markets its products under popular brand 'Amul', has risen to 15th position among top dairy organisations of world in 2014 from the 20th rank within two years.

"GCMMF, which markets the popular Amul brand of milk and dairy products, is the fastest growing dairy organisation in the entire world," the company said in a release today.

"In 2014, AMUL has risen to 15th rank among the top dairy organisations of the world, as per the figurers released by International Farm Comparison Network (IFCN)- a leading, global dairy knowledge organisation," it said.

"This has been the fastest rise by any top-ranking dairy organisations across the globe. Just two years back (in 2012), Amul was ranked 20 in the list of top global dairy organisations," it said.

Amul has been one of the dairies that has increased its milk procurement by 40 per cent from 2007, the report said, adding that it had procured 4.8 billion litre milk in year 2013-14.

"Credit for this wonderful achievement goes to 33 lakh farmers of Gujarat who own Amul and whose entire dedication, hard work and commitment to excellence has resulted in this accomplishment," Amul Managing Director R S Sodhi said.

"GCMMF plans to achieve turnover of Rs 22,000 crore in year 2014-15," he said.

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