ANOTHER "REPORT"- ARE THE FINDINGS BASED ON REAL DATA BASE?

Report making is becoming a big business especially in India as many consultancy and market survey groups are emerging with offer of their services that is supposed to help new entrepreneurs, industry and the government in planning their policies and initiatives. But what competence they have and the extent of resources at their command are questions that must worry those who invest in buying these reports. If the latest report on fast food industry is to be taken at its face value one has to believe that only multinational companies are eligible to receive the tag of fast food players! The report conveniently ignores the existence of thousands of desi fast food out lets that span across the length and breadth of the country covering not only urban areas coming under Tier I, Tier II and Tier III cities but also almost all villages where there is habitation. The projection of 35% annual growth looks impressive but from where the authors got the basic data from which growth rate has been calculated. Here is a take on this report.

"As per our new research report "Indian Fast Food Market Analysis", India is blessed with one of the fastest growing fast food markets in the world. The Indian fast food market is growing at an annual growth rate of 30-35%. Almost all big fast food brands of the world have succeeded in making their presence felt in the country and most of them posting an appreciable growth. Most of the popular fast food chains have chalked out massive plans for expanding their business and presence throughout the country. Moreover, foreign fast food chains are aggressively expanding their presence in the country. For instance, Domino's plan to open 60-65 outlets every year for the next three years (2010-2012), while Yum Brands Inc is also preparing for its massive expansion across the country. It plans to open 1000 fast food outlets by 2015. Although the market has witnessed robust growth in the past couple of years, it remains largely under penetrated and concentrated in the metropolitan cities. However, there is large room for growth in tier-II cities, tier-III cities which are mostly untapped. Therefore, the future of Indian fast food industry lies in masses that live tier-II and tier-III cities".

It is called a research report but lacks clarity on many issues besides short on credibility. It has to be borne in mind that there is no agreed definition on what constitutes a fast food and when world over fast food joints are attracting scathing criticism for peddling unhealthy and nutritionally unbalanced foods. While it is an undeniable fact that these foods cause life style health disorders including CVD, Blood Pressure Diabetes and Obesity, here is an organization that is enticing new entrepreneurs through bloated claims and drawing rosy pictures about future. If the dhabas, Udipi hotels, Darshini type joints, multi cuisine restaurants etc are taken into consideration, growth of this sector cannot be 30-35% unless there is a dramatic jump in the per capita income of the population.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com