Biryani makes Domino’s Indian franchise owner 7% fatter⁠— the street's evidently "jubilant"

• Jubilant Foodworks announced a new brand called Ekdum! with a variety of biryanis from across India.
• The love for biryani was evident in the stock market as Jubilant’s share prices jumped by over 7% on Thursday (November 17) morning.
• Last year in March 2019, Jubilant Foodworks had also forayed into the Chinese food segment with its own brand – Hong’s Kitchen.

The parent company of Domino’s pizza and Dunkin’ Donuts knows what Indians love the most – Biryani. Jubilant Foodworks announced a new brand called Ekdum! with a variety of biryanis from across India.

And the love for biryani was evident in the stock market as Jubilant’s share prices jumped by over 6% on Thursday (November 17) morning. Its share price stood at ₹2,873.45 as of 11.45 am.


The company announced its Biryani foray with the likes of Hyderabadi Nizami Biryani, Lucknowi Nawabi Biryani, Dindigul Biryani, Kolkata Biryani, Butter Chicken Biryani, Egg Biryani, Paneer Makhni Biryani, and Tawa Chicken Biryani.

Jubilant is also keeping its offering in the affordable range with a starting price of ₹99. "In line with our strategy of portfolio expansion, we are delighted to introduce Ekdum!,our new venture in the Biryani category. We see strong potential in this segment and are confident that Ekdum!, with its sharp and differentiated proposition will create a strong position for itself in the market,” said Shyam S Bhartia, Chairman and Hari S. Bhartia Co-Chairman, Jubilant FoodWorks Limited in a joint statement.

The foray into the Biryani segment has also been appreciated by market analysts as the food item is one of the most popularly ordered dishes across e-commerce as well as sit-in restaurants. “Biryani is one of the most popular dishes and a large category in India— it lends well to delivery, sells well across lunch/dinner, appeals across demographics and offers scale and robust profitability/return metrics,” said a report by Kotak Securities.

The report further said that there are three factors to keep in mind for Jubilant’s new offering – the pricing is attractive, the economics that can be achieved with Biryani is comparable to that of Domino’s, however, while Domino’s has a consistent taste offering through its pizza, managing the same with biryani could be a difficult task as it will also depend on the chefs hired.

And, the company will also face competition from established brands like Biryani By Kilo, Behrouz Biryani, Biryani Bluez as well as traditional biryani outlets across different cities which have a brand legacy working for them like Hyderabad’s Paradise Biryani, among others.

“JFL is opening three restaurants in Gurgaon for Delivery, Takeaway and Dine-In, with more restaurants planned to open in NCR over the next few months. In our view, this is a positive move by the company, which would help JFL to boost the revenue growth significantly going ahead,” said Amarjeet Maurya, AVP, Mid Caps, Angel Broking.

Last year in March 2019, Jubilant Foodworks had also forayed into the Chinese food segment with its own brand – Hong’s Kitchen. Having started with a single outlet in Gurugram, the brand has scaled to five more stores.

And experts believe that both the biryani and chinese cuisine offerings will help the company. “In our view, the platform is in place to accelerate store additions to 100-125 per year in Domino’s and 30-40 aggregate between HK and Ekdum!. We believe there is room for Jubilant Foodworks to step up aggression and investments,” said the Kotak report.

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