Tag: India

Catering Services have been an important sector of the countries like the United States. More than 8,000 catering companies in the USA record the annual revenue of more than $7 billion. The trend has been slowly growing in India, but it has recently adopted a fast-paced growth due to many reasons.

India is a country where numerous festivals and ceremonies are held in the form of important events. So, the scope of the catering industry in such a country is worth taking a note. The catering industry in the country is finally extending its reach beyond marriages and the Indian catering service providers are enjoying the good time. Here is an overview of the catering industry in India.

The catering services industry in India has been consistently growing at the annual growth rate of 15 to 20 percent. In 2009, the industry attained the worth of INR 15,000 crore. The good aspect about the Indian catering industry is that it didnt bear any major negative effects during the period of recession. So, what are the reasons for the consistent growth rate enjoyed by the Indian catering industry?

Interest in Catering Services

The members of the Indian families usually took care of different arrangements during a social gathering or an event. This trend is fast being replaced by the peoples interest in hiring catering services. This often results in better arrangements and opportunity for everyone in the family to enjoy the function.

Cross-region Specialties

Earlier, an event taking place in a family belonging to a particular region of India used to have cuisines preferred in that region. But, the scene has changed today, all thanks to the popularity of catering service providers. Now, a wedding taking place in Punjab has South Indian dishes in its menu. Cuisines from Gujarat, Bengal and other Indian states are included in the menu cards all over the country. This encourages people to hire the professional catering services.

Catering Institutes

It is indeed surprising to watch the growing number of hotel management and catering institutes in all parts of the country. Above all, the students are taking interest in joining the professional courses to make a career in the industry. So, the future of catering industry in India is going to be even better than the present situation.

Corporate Culture

Apart from the social gatherings and festive occasions, the formal events, seminars, conferences and other business related events consider professional catering services to add to the success of these events.

Family Style Restaurant

Restaurant based catering services too have improved in the country in the past few years. People, who are earning well in various fields and who have started living higher standards of life, prefer to choose dining venues with professional catering services.

The festival season of October and November in India is among the best times for the catering companies. Though, the industry doesnt rest for the remaining part of the year as well. Going further, the presentation and decoration used by the professional caterers further make them popular for various types of events. All of the aforesaid reasons justify the consistency in the Indian catering industry growth rate.

The one Indian industry which is set for growth over the coming years is the Cement Industry. The worlds second largest cement producer (after China) reached its total installed capacity to 231 million tones after adding 11 million tones of capacity during the first half of 2009.

The main characteristics of this industry is that it is highly fragmented, cyclical and highly capital intensive. There are around 125 large and 300 small cement plants. Some of the leading cement manufacturers are UltraTech/Grasim combine, Dalmia Cements, India Cements and Holcim. Returns depend on the vibrancy of the economy as a whole as it directly affects the sales realization and capacity utilization.

The industry is heavily dependent on 3 sectors; coal, power and transport. Energy and freight are the two major cost components. Over the last few years, while the proportion of energy cost has increased marginally, freight costs have declined.

Increasing government expenditure on infrastructure sector and rising demand for commercial and residential real estate development has resulted in higher demand for cement in the country. According to a report by the ICRA Industry Monitor, the installed cement capacity is expected to increase to 241 million tones per annum by the end of 2010. It also expects that driven by higher domestic demand and increasing utilization, India’s cement industry may record an annual growth of 10% over the coming years.

Taking cue of the global economic slowdown which was affecting cement companies in India last year, Governments initiative to re-impose counter-veiling duty and special counter-veiling duty this year will help provide a level playing field for domestic players. Moreover, it also appointed a coal regulator to facilitate timely and proper allocation of coal blocks to the important sectors like cement. As coal is one of the prime raw material used in cement production, this seems to be a positive move.

Growth potential of cement industry can be judged by the fact that the per capita cement consumption (156 kg) in India is still well below the global average consumption (396 kg). This gap can be expected to be covered in the coming years. Besides, housing sector accounts for almost 50% of the total cement consumption in the country and the large young population will ensure that the demand for infrastructure stays put.

The rising cost of energy, transportation raw material continues to pressure the industry as a whole. To sustain profitability, companies will have to explore alternate source of energy while at the same time enhance their operational efficiency.

Industry experts opine that the cement industries should now increase their focus on investing adequately in developing human resources that will be capable enough to address the professional needs of construction industry including advanced technologies and construction practices, project management construction and litigation.

Read To know more on the concerns facing the cement industry

Natural mineral water
According to American and European Regional Codex Standard, natural mineral water:
is obtained directly from natural or drilled sources from underground water – bearing strata.
is collected under conditions which guarantee the original natural bacteriological purity.
is bottled at the point of emergence of the source with

particular hygienic precautions is not subjected to any chemical treatment.

Indian bottled Water Industry

The bottled water industry in India is estimated at about Rs 1,000 crore and is growing at 40 per cent. “By 2010, it will reach Rs 4,000 – 5,000 crore with 33 per cent market for natural mineral water.

The formal bottled water business in India can be divided broadly into three segments in terms of cost: premium natural mineral water, natural mineral water and packaged drinking water.

It is estimated that the global consumption of bottled water is nearing 200 billion litres – sufficient to satisfy the daily drinking water need of one-fourth of the Indian population or about 4.5 per cent of the global population at the fourth World Water Forum held in Mexico City in March 2006.

In India, the per capita bottled water consumption is still quite low – less than five litres a year as compared to the global average of 24 litres. However, the total annual bottled water consumption has risen rapidly in recent times – it has tripled between 1999 and 2004 – from about 1.5 billion litres to five billion litres. These are boom times for the Indian bottled water industry – more so because the economics are sound, the bottom line is fat and the Indian government hardly cares for what happens to the nation’s water resources. Since 1991-

1992 it has not looked back, and the demand in 2004-05 was a staggering 82 million cases.

Mineral Water Market in India

For example, the per capita consumption of mineral water in India is a mere 0.5-liter compared to 111 liter in Europe and 45-liter in USA.

But over the last ten years, it has witnessed tremendous growth. The change is very much evident. Once a product found mainly at railways stations, mineral water today occupies a place on the shelf in most superstores, grocers and even paanwalas. From a mere 60 towns in the year 1997, it is predicted that mineral water is today available in more than 1000 towns and cities across India. With a compounded annual growth rate of close to 30% over the last decade, the mineral water market has witnessed a large growth in terms of volumes.

The market is highly competitive with the entry of MNCs like Pepsico and Coke. There are a lot of brands available in the market, each with its own proclaimed differentiation.

2.2 Player in the market

In natural mineral water there are very few company like Himalayan, Aava, Evian is playing in the market. 50% of the market is captured by Himalayan.
While a thousand bottled water producers, the Indian bottled water industry is big by even international standards. There are more than 200 brands, nearly 80 per cent of which are local.
Most of the small-scale producers sell non-branded products and serve small markets.
Despite the large number of small producers, this industry is dominated by the big players – Parle Bisleri, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Parle Agro, Mohan Meakins, SKN Breweries and so on.

Consumption of bottled water in India is linked to the level of prosperity in the different regions. The western region accounts for 40 per cent of the market and the eastern region just 10. However, the bottling plants are concentrated in the southern region – of the approximately 1,200 bottling water plants in India, 600 are in Tamil Nadu. This is a major problem because southern India, especially Tamil Nadu, is wate starved.

Mineral water business is restricted only to big hotels & Restaurants. This field has lot of scope because of unawareness in the market and people are becoming health conscious.

Every decade witnesses a change, a change in lifestyles, fashion, living standards, technology, and what not; food habits are no exception. With busy lifestyles pounding on the existence of the urban gentry, it is no longer the usual home made food all the time that is in the platter. Given the demand for food snacks, meals, chaat, sweets, and more, a number of restaurants has cropped. And if the restaurant happens to be that of a reputed brand, you will not easily get a seat; you will have to wait in queue to get it. Even if you want to buy take-away food snacks or chaat or any other items, you will have to wait as there will be many others like you waiting to pay the bill and get the items.

As aforementioned, food habits and lifestyles have changed to a great extent. This has in turn steered the growth of the snack industry. It is namkeen items including potato chips, etc. that are savored by people at large any time of the day while on the move. If you visit a home in India, the hospitality showered comes in the form of serving of some hot or cold beverages with the accompaniment of namkeen items and sweets. Bikano namkeen offered from the house of Bikanervala is one of the most selling items in the Indian snack industry. You will be spoilt for choices when you come across the menu of Bikano namkeen items. Worth mentioning are aloo bhujia, ratlami sev, peanuts, badam lacha, bikeneri bhujia, chana masala, cornflakes mixture, dal moth, ganthiya, kaju mixture, kashmiri mixture, khatta meetha, khoka bhujia, matar masala, moong daal, navratan mixture, peanut masala, and more. It is no exaggeration to point out the fact that once you taste Bikano namkeen, you wont feel like tasting the namkeen of any other brand. Such is the spiciness, taste, crispiness, and flavor associated. The sky is the limit for the Indian snack industry with players like Bikanervala catering to the snack and namkeen needs of the people at large.

When we speak of food snacks, what are the items that fall in the menu? It can be either of kachodi, samosa roll, soya tikki, pav bhaji, vada pav, pakoda, paneer pakoda, bread pakoda, burger, soya masala wada, samosa, gobhi pakoda, paneer tikki, and more. Of course, it will take time to prepare any of these food snacks items at home not to mention the ingredients that you will need to collect first before you start for the preparation. Why worry when you can get high quality and tasty food snacks items in a restaurant near your home or wherever you go. And if it happens to be afternoon or evening, you can satisfy your taste buds with chaat items like aloo tikki, papri chaat, raj kachori, bhalla papri, lachha tokri, pani puri, bhel puri, pao bhaji, dahi bhalla, paneer masala chilla. All chaat items are accompanied with the mouth watering chutney.

The paper industry is one of the leading and prominent industries in India. The industry is among the highest contributor of revenue to the country. It also provides employment to more than 1.5 million people and is considered to be a developing industry. Paper products have been in constant demand during the past several decades which has led to the further growth of the industry in many ways.

Various types of paper products are used in many ways including bags, cups, plates, books, envelopes and so forth. The availability of raw materials is one of the most important factors that concern the paper industry. With the growing destruction of forests, authentic raw materials are becoming scarce which has led to the increased import of raw materials from neighbouring countries.

The Growth of Paper Industry in India

Due to the wide spread demand for paper products, non conventional methods are utilised for producing different types of raw materials required for the production of paper. The paper industry is now further identified as three types mainly the agro based, forest based and other varieties such as waste materials, market pulp and fibre.

Today the paper industry has around 515 units which manufacture various types of paper products. The Indian industry is the fifteenth largest industry in the world. The high costs of production, concentration of industries in one place are the various bottlenecks of this industry.

The paper industry has also witnessed a considerable demand for products with the shift in consumer behavioural patterns. The use of plastics has declined considerably due to many health and environmental issues. This has in turn increased the consumption of different types of paper products such as stationery items, photo frames, kites, magazines, bank notes, catalogs, playing cards, tissue paper, albums and directories.

Different types of products can also be made with the use of recycled raw materials. Today the process of using recycled raw materials for the manufacture of various paper products are encouraged to reduce the ill-effects of deforestation. Waste materials such as rags, jute, cotton and straw is used for manufacturing various types of products.

The paper industry also utilises hand made paper which is quite popular in the country. Known to provide employment to more than thousands in the rural areas, the industry is a major source of employment. The hand made paper is durable and lasts longer. It can be used to manufacture various types of handmade materials.

Today the government has introduced several policies to support the paper industry. Better manufacturing technologies, reduction in the import duties and production cost, availability of better raw materials are some of the measures taken by the government to improve the production of paper products.

In spite of facing several challenges, the industry has attained considerable growth in different parts of the country. Paper importers have known to import raw materials only for specific types of paper. Today there are a number of industries that manufacture paper and are known to be the leading industries of the country.