After creating a flutter in FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) market, Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali is planning to enter restaurant business and compete with multinational fast food giants like McDonald’s Corp., Kentucky Fried Chicken Corp. and Subway Restaurants. Addressing media in New Delhi on May 4, Ramdev said Patanjali is working on “an extensive plan” to start a restaurant chain.
Notedly, the Patanjali group has become the third-largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) player in the country, surpassing the likes of Nestlé, Godrej Consumer, Britannia, and Dabur. With a ready made clientele owing to Yoga Guru’s huge following, Patanjali is likely to increase competition in the already congested food retailing space.
Ramdev has time and again targetted multinational companies for serving ‘unhealthy food’. “We will give people choice because there is nothing tastier and healthier than vegetarian Indian food. When we get these recipes together, all these multinationals serving chicken or mutton will have a hard time countering us.” Ramdev told Times of India. Ramdev is looking to have a pie in the fast growing vegetarian trend, In India, nearly 60-70% of all fast food sold in the country including burgers and pizzas are vegetarian.
Underlining that the ayurveda major’s turnover in 2016-17 was Rs. 10,500 crore, Baba Ramdev said Patanjali has the capacity to make products worth 300 billion rupees and plans to double that next year. The Yoga Guru also said that he is an “unpaid ambassador” at Patanjali and that his childhood friend Acharya Balkrishna holds 97 percent of the company’s shares.
