Digital channels now account for 64% of Westlife Foodworld's sales

McDonald’s franchisee, Westlife Foodworld, which operates in west and south India, has aggressively moved to digital channels which now account for 64 per cent of its total sales, up from 25 per cent just four years ago.
 

The sharp increase has been propelled by the threefold increase in sales through its self-ordering kiosks in Q1 2024. These are now available in each restaurant, replicating the brand’s global focus.
 

Its digital sales also include orders from its own apps (McDelivery specifically for India and the global app McDonalds) and third party delivery players such as Swiggy and Zomato, apart from others. 
  

Westlife Foodworld is also nearly doubling its retail outlets from 361 currently to around 580-630 restaurants by 2027 with an investment of Rs. 14 billion.  
 

To put it into perspective, the McDonald’s franchisee is much ahead of the kerb compared to the country’s quick service restaurant (QSR) chains. It has changed with the pandemic. According to global consultancy Technopak, 80 per cent of the business in FY2020 was dine-in, 5 per cent was takeaway and 15 per cent was online deliveries.
 

This all changed in FY2021 when dine-ins fell to 50 per cent, online deliveries rose to 35 per cent and the rest came from takeaways. But in FY2022, online has stabilised at 25-30 per cent, while dine-in is around 50-60, with the rest being takeaway.
 

The company’s own app has had cumulative downloads of over 25 million, with a 25 per cent year-on-year growth of its monthly active users. Akshay Jatia, executive director of Westlife Foodworld, says work is on to launch a loyalty programme on its own India app by the end of the year.
 

“Today customers are increasingly looking for a digital experience,” said Jatia. “It is important to have our own app because customers are looking at connecting with brands more so today than ever before, especially post-covid. We want to build the brand loyalty of our super users and offer them a differentiated experience such as promotions etc.”  
 

The company is already one of the top players in terms of sales transacted, even on third party apps, but many of them are impulse buys.  
 

Clearly McDonald’s has embraced mobile digital in the US in a big way and is far ahead of all QSR chains and only just behind coffee joints in terms of monthly active users.
 

However, based on data ai figures for 2022 in India for the food and drink category, the story is different. In terms of downloads, Zomato and Swiggy are ranked at the top two and the only QSR in the top ten list is Domino’s Pizza (understandably as most of its business is delivery through online).
 

But this could well change with Jatia now planning to revamp the app to make it more user friendly.
 

The other big play is in putting up self-ordering digital kiosks in each restaurant. Although Westlife Foodworld launched them in 2015, scaling up has only happened in the last few years. After the initial hesitation, usage has gone up substantially.

What’s more, Jatia said that the average order value on kiosks is 20-25 per cent higher than those ordering physically because customers can play around and customise their order at leisure.
 

A similar trend is also seen on home delivery as the tendency is to order for the family or larger groups.

DIGITAL PUSH

• Self-ordering digital kiosks have seen a threefold increase in sales
• Its India app McDelivery and McDonald’s have seen 25 million cumulative downloads, and 25% YoY growth in monthly active users
• Planning to launch a loyalty programme on its Indian app by end of this year
• Average order size on kiosks 20% higher, the same trend seen in app orders
• Nearly doubling its restaurants by 2027