At a time when Indians are increasingly eating out and spending longer hours at their workplaces, snacks and beverage major PepsiCo India is strategically looking to up the ante in the “away-from- home” retail channel.

While restaurants contribute the chunk of the “away-from-home” channel, the other fast-growing segments the company is leveraging on is the recreation channel that includes multiplexes, the travel channel across airports and workplaces.

Over the next three-four years, the American major will take up various initiatives to ramp up its presence in the “away-from-home” channel, which could include integrating its vending machines with payment apps besides expanding its presence beyond international food chains to domestic players in India.

Sudipto Mozumdar, Vice-President, Franchise Commercial Unit, PepsiCo India, said, “Our effort is to be the premier food service organisation in the country and be the partner of choice in the ‘away from home’ channel. Our work on this channel is on two fronts: One, to drive consumption and the other to brand building, by increasing engagement with consumers.”

PepsiCo has exclusive partnerships in India with key international QSR chains such as Burger King, KFC, Subway and Domino’s.

From strategic integration of its products with the restaurant partners’ menu to running activations to tap into various consumption occasions, the company works closely with its partners through the year.

“Another important plank is co-creating products of relevance to create excitement around our products and dial up the engagement with consumers,” he added. For instance, It has co-developed products such as KFC’s Krushers using 7Up and the Big Boss Whopper with Lays Maxx.

Eyes food aggregators

After established international players, PepsiCo India is looking to partner with large domestic restaurant players and food aggregators. “While currently we work with top international QSR chains, we have now started replicating these learnings to expand partnerships with domestic chains. With the emergence of food aggregators, we are also working on leveraging the power of digital for delivery solutions that are integrated till the last mile,” Mozumdar said.

“As the number of airports and flights are growing in India, we are looking at strengthening our presence in the travel retail space. In this space, too, we are looking at making vending options more convenient. We are in talks with payment apps to look at ways through which consumers can use them to make payments at our vending machines. We could launch a pilot this year itself,” he added.

According to a report released by National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), Indians eat out more than six times in a month. The Indian food service sector is poised to grow to ₹5.99-lakh crore at a CAGR of 9 per cent by 2023 from ₹4.23-lakh crore in 2018-19.

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