Little bites, big returns: India's snacks sector draws foreign investors

Remarkable success of market leader Haldiram Snacks whets investment appetite

- Debarshi Dasgupta

NEW DELHI - It is peak lunch hour at Haldiram's. Queues of customers take their pick from the restaurant's all-vegetarian offerings that range from stuffed paranthas to noodles, as an overworked employee shuttles between two billing stations to take orders.

Less than 200m away, in this commercial neighbourhood of Noida, a city adjacent to Delhi, is another Haldiram's outlet, part of the Indian food company's growing footprint of quick-service restaurants. Displayed on the shelves are packaged Indian sweets and savoury snacks such as baked crispy puffs and soan cake, a flaky sweet made with gram flour — highlighting the brand's dominance in the country's snacks business.

Haldiram Snacks Food is the market leader in the snacks category, with its packaged products available in millions of supermarkets as well as mom-and-pop stores in India and across the world, including in Singapore.

Its remarkable success has of late whetted the appetite of foreign investors hungry for a bite of India's burgeoning snacks industry.

In March, Singapore's state-owned investment firm Temasek picked up a reported 10 per cent stake in the company for about US$1 billion (S$1.32 billion), giving Haldiram's — which commands an estimated 13 per cent share of the Indian savoury snacks market — a valuation of US$10 billion.