Executive Summary 

Curefoods partnered with Redseer, India’s leading strategy consulting firm, to highlight the growing preference for outside food consumption among consumers and to analyse the advantages of the cloud-kitchen-based model for its DRHP filing for IPO. 

About the Client 

Curefoods is one of the largest digital-first food services companies with a portfolio of 10 key brands. Through its technology-led cloud-kitchen model and the presence across multiple cuisines, Curefoods has reach among a wide consumer base and scaled to ~₹ 750 crore annual revenue within 5 years of operations.  

The Strategic Imperative

• Highlight the growing formalisation in India’s food services market through data-backed approach. 

• Build the market sizing model for the food services market, comparing the growth of different segments – unorganised, organised and online food delivery. 

• To analyse the factors resulting in negative same-store-sales (SSSG) among many large incumbent food services companies  

• To evaluate the key levers driving sustainable growth for cloud-kitchen companies, even as large dine-in-focused companies lose momentum 

• Define the competitive positioning for Curefoods, the first cloud-kitchen model company being listed ​

Outcomes & Impact 

• Evaluated India’s per-capita food services spend with global peers to underscore the outside food consumption growth potential.
• Benchmarked annual transacting users across hyperlocal categories to identify the headroom for online food services growth.
• Sized the total food-services market, split by organised, unorganised and online food delivery, through a top-down model and further triangulated through bottom-up consumer-consumption data. 
• Analysed the number of organised food services firms over the past few decades to indicate the rapid formalisation in India’s food services market
• Identified the structural and executional barriers resulting in only (1-2) % of organised players surpassing ₹500 crore annual revenue.
• Deconstructed cloud-kitchen vs dine-in economics, with detailed comparison across factors such as cost structure, capex intensity, and kitchen utilisation across meal slots through an in-depth integrated research approach.
• Defined the winning levers for cloud-kitchen success – a platform playbook combining multi-brand acquisitions, data-led location analytics for product launches, and central procurement to drive compounding growth.
• Devised the competitive positioning for Curefoods across parameters such as growth, location coverage, etc.

What This Means for the Industry 

India’s food services market is witnessing a shift in consumer preferences towards wider cuisines, resulting in companies diversifying their brand portfolio. Many of the larger food services companies, focused on a single brand or a small portfolio of brands, are witnessing a growth slowdown, reflected in their dropping SSSG. Whereas cloud-kitchens companies with a multi-brand platform playbook have emerged in the market and sustainably scaled their growth. Companies that innovate their operating model through a multi-brand approach and adopt sustainable strategies to scale their presence across locations will be set to capture a growing share across the industry. 

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