The India Foodservice Delivery Report 2021 predicts that the Gross Market Value of the business will grow by 2.5 times to touch Rs 93,600 crore in 2022-23. The Work From Home (WFH) culture has triggered a reverse migration to smaller cities and towns, which have become the new drivers of food deliveries, even as customers are reluctant to go back to dine-in restaurants because of Covid-19 fears. Insights offered by a deep dive into India’s food service delivery market.

THE lead author of the India Foodservice Delivery Report 2021, the first deep dive into India’s burgeoning food delivery market, predicts that the share of the big two aggregators is “going to go down as the market opens up to direct ordering”.

Samir Kuckreja, founder and CEO of the boutique consulting company, Tasanaya Hospitality, however, was quick to add that restaurants have got to be smart about direct deliveries. “They have to balance the cost of new customer acquisition with the commission payments they’d be saving if they take the direct ordering route,” Kuckreja said.

He cites the example of McDonald’s in the West and South, where it operates through its master franchisee, Westlife Restaurants. The QSR chain, which launched its food delivery service, McDelivery, at select locations in 2006, has done the math, worked on the algorithms of its app and got the logistics in place. As a result, 10-15 per cent of its food delivery business is now generated through direct orders.