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INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - 1st May To 15th May - 2009
BRITANNIA BUYS OUT PARTNER IN DAILY BREAD
BRITANNIA Industries has taken full control of Bangalore-based bakery foods retailer Daily Bread. Britannia, which had acquired 50% stake in June 2006, has now mopped up the remaining shares taking over the operational reins fully from the original promoter Arjun Sekri.
"Our original plan was to take full control of Daily Bread by 2011, but we have now advanced that," Vinita Bali, MD of Britannia Industries, said. Daily Bread is a manufacturer and retailer of bakery products, including speciality breads, across institutional and retail segments.
It also operates standalone retail outlets and kiosks in markets like Bangalore and Goa, which is now likely to be scaled up. Daily Bread is as an incubation venture that it is currently being perfected in order to be rolled out once the external environment improves, Ms Bali added.
"We are not talking about a national roll-out because this is still not a venture that will add numbers to Britannia's top line. It is not there yet," she explained. Britannia is now also taking the franchisee route to expand the retail store footprint. Daily Bread has 11 standalone outlets in Bangalore and one in Goa, where it recently entered through a franchisee route.
Daily Bread had experimented with several formats including a bakery retail store and one with a cafe-like ambiance. "While this gave us an opportunity to dabble in retail and shape the business, we realised that the economics of a quick-service restaurant is entirely different as it requires a chain of outlets and resources to man it. Bakery is our core competency and our focus will be on intensifying this facet of the brand," Ms Bali said. Daily Bread has also tied up with large-format retailers such as Spencer's to set up shop-in-shop formats and is currently banking on a scaleable kiosk model.
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