The yoga guru and Patanjali Ramdev, is to wean Indians off what he considers unhealthy food. Food accounts for about 57 percent of India’s total retail business and the market is expected to more than triple to Rs. 71 lakh crore ($1.1 trillion) by 2025, according to India Food Forum, a retail-exhibition platform.
The group plans to enter the restaurant business in India and compete with McDonald’s Corp., Kentucky Fried Chicken Corp. and Subway Restaurants.
The company, based in the north Indian state of Uttarakhand, is working on “an extensive plan” to start a restaurant chain, Baba Ramdev — a yoga guru and the face of Patanjali Ayurved said.
Ayurveda is based on a belief that health and wellness depend on a balance of mind, body and spirit, and can include the use of herbal compounds and special diets.
Ramdev is hoping Patanjali Ayurved can replicate the success its had in the consumer products space, where it has some 500 offerings spanning food, nutrition, and beauty and personal care. Formed about a decade ago, it had a 1.2 percent share of India’s beauty and personal care market in 2015 from 0.2 percent in 2011, according to Euromonitor.
The company’s turnover was Rs. 10,500 crore in 2016-17, Baba Ramdev said Thursday. It has the capacity to make products worth 300 billion rupees and plans to double that next year, he said. Patanjali Ayurved also intends to launch an apparel business and a school for the children of slain Indian soldiers, he said.
Ramdev has said he’s an “unpaid ambassador” at Patanjali and that childhood friend Acharya Balkrishna holds 97 percent of the company’s shares.
