IPO-bound Rebel Foods in talks to bring more global brands to India

The company became the master franchisee of American fast food giant Wendy's in 2023. Since then, Rebel has scaled Wendy's to 200 stores, with the latest one opening in Gurugram on Wednesday

IPO-bound internet food company Rebel Foods is in talks with new global food brands to bring them to India.

 

"We are now 12-plus brands and we are talking to more global brands. That's how Wendy's came on board (in 2023). Food consumption is increasing and with the Indian consumer maturing, it is a great place to be in," Ankush Grover, cofounder and chief executive officer (CEO), India and MENA (Middle East and North Africa), Rebel Foods, told Business Standard.

 

The company had become the master franchisee of American fast food giant Wendy's in 2023. Since then, Rebel has scaled Wendy's to 200 stores, with the latest one opening in Gururgam on Wednesday.

 

On bringing new global brands, Grover added, "Indians are now travelling across the world and know about new brands. We are looking at global brands who want to come to India and expand at a pace that only we can help them do."

 

Rebel plans to scale Wendy's to 500 locations, including in smaller cities, by 2028.

 

"India is the fastest-growing market for us in the last three-five years. We're excited about the India opportunity and believe the best is ahead of us," said Chris Conway, senior vice president and managing director, APMEA (Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa), at The Wendy’s Company.

 

"We are seeing good growth for Wendy's, at the heart of which is customer satisfaction, great quality, and premiumisation measures, including innovative additions to the menu," Grover said.

 

"This has given us a leverage over competition and allowed us to overcome a larger slowdown in the quick service restaurant (QSR) space," he added.

 

Rebel Foods has a portfolio of popular brands like Faasos, Behrouz Biryani, Sweet Truth, The Good Bowl, and Oven Story pizza and operates over 450 cloud kitchens across India, western Asia, and the UK. 

 

The company reported a revenue of Rs 1,420 crore for the financial year 2024 (FY24), marking an 18.8 per cent increase from ₹1,195 crore in FY23. The company's losses narrowed by 42 per cent, decreasing to ₹378 crore in FY24 from ₹656 crore in FY23.

 

The brand is expecting a double-digit growth year-on-year (Y-o-Y), and is currently witnessing around 30-40 per cent Y-o-Y growth on current and existing infrastructure.

 

Of the existing 200 Wendy's stores, 185 are delivery-only, while 15 are traditional, offline stores. Going forward, Wendy's growth will be skewed towards delivery-only stores.

 

"We are getting good reaction in delivery, while traditional dine-in stores are a new area for us. We have a 70:30 split between delivery and offline, and will look to maintain that. With food supply increasing, there is still a big addressable market remaining for delivery, with Tier-II cities also showing a lot of activity in the space," Grover said.

 

India's food services sector is expected to be worth ₹7.76 trillion by 2028, a report by National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) stated.

 

According to the report, in the organised sector, casual dining restaurants are the fastest-growing format with 48 per cent market share, followed by the QSR segment.

 

The company also recently entered the quick commerce segment with QuickiES in select pin codes in Mumbai and plans to expand that offering to new areas like Delhi NCR. 

 

"We are seeing great early results with orders in three digits, with a lot of them being repeat consumers. Over 90 per cent of our orders are getting delivered in the promised 15 minutes," he said.