Small cities have bigger appetites in India

AS PER The report, 78% of operators expect to break even within two years, a timeline significantly shorter than what’s typically seen in metro markets. These cities are emerging as vibrant consumption hubs too.

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As per Sagar Daryani, president, NRAI, “The rise of aspirational consumers, supported by digital penetration and improving infrastructure, is creating fertile ground for innovation and scale. Yet, success in these markets demands strategic adaptation, whether in format, pricing, or supply chain design. These cities will play a defining role in shaping the future of India’s F&B landscape.” India’s food service market is expected to cross $120 billion by 2030 with the organised segment expected to double (CAGR of 12-14%) from the unorganised segment (5-7%), says a Kearney and Swiggy report on The Ever-Evolving Food Space in India released this week.

Emerging cities such as Jalandhar, Amritsar, Kanpur, Patna, Rajkot, Bhubaneshwar, Mysore, Thrissur show 2x dining out growth and 7x growth of prebooked tables as compared to walk-ins. Trends show that consumers are developing appetite for eating out due to several factors such as emergence of IT hubs in Thiruvananthapuram; tourism-driven growth in Mysore, Dehradun, and Kannur; expansion of industrial and corporate hubs in Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, and Ludhiana and rise of educational hubs in Jalandhar, Kanpur, and Lucknow.