After shedding its high-end Gourmet City format, Hypercity is now cooking up affordable ready-to-eat meals under its private label.
It's not the only one. Other retailers like Tata Group's Star Bazaar and Future Group's Big Bazaar, too, are thinking of graduating from their own label snacks to ready-to-eat (RTE) offerings.
The K. Raheja Group-promoted Hypercity Retail is already testing out its ‘meals on the go' concept under its ‘Everyday' private label. “With Gourmet City we were rather ahead of our times and so we had to close down the format,” says Mr Ashotosh Chakradeo, Head- Buying, merchandising and supply chain, Hypercity retail. The challenge, he adds, is to drive consumption and hence they are reworking the dynamics of the food business by offering small meals on the go.
It is mostly the hypermarket format retailers who are dishing out RTEs as they are the ones with the maximum space to try out the concept. For some like Star Bazaar (part of Trent Hypermarts) it's a logical extension. As Mr Jamshed S. Daboo, CEO, Trent Hypermarkets says, “We already have a full fledged bakery under our Deli and would like to get into the meal replacement market in the future.''
The Future Group is also sampling the market with its ready to eat meal concept under its private label brand (Fresh For You) at certain Big Bazaar outlets — especially some of its ‘family centres.'
The group has already tapped into the premium end of the food business with its Food Hall stores (which also sell ready to eat meals).
At the recently concluded Retail Leadership Summit, Mr Kishore Biyani, Group CEO, Future Group said, “Retail is not just about buying and selling but about creation of new categories for consumption. The purpose is to create more value added products and not just commodities. We are working on the ready to eat meals category and trying to keep it affordable.”
However, affordability will be the key to create and sustain the RTE category. According to Mr Arvind K. Singhal, Chairman, Technopak, “While the ready to eat meals is an opportunity for retailers, the price points are going to be critical since consumers will compare it with the cost of preparing the same meal at home.”