Future Group & Jubilant Foodworks Sweep The Coca Cola Golden Spoon Awards

by Shrutee K/DNS

Mumbai, 21^st January, 2016: The second day of the 9th annual mega congregation of the India Food Forum held in Mumbai culminated in the 9^th Annual Coca Cola Golden Spoon Awards, which felicitated outstanding achievements of food service operators and food & grocery retailers for the calendar year 2015.

At a glittering ceremony attended by the who’s who of food service and food retail sectors in India, Future Group bagged the award for Retail Expansion – Increase in store count and retail space in the Food & Grocery Retail segment as well as for Effective Technology Application in the same segment. The Group’s supermarket chain Easyday, which it acquired in 2015, was adjudged the IMAGES Most Admired Food &Grocery Retailer of the Year: National Supermarket.

Future Group’s technology deployments in 2015 included the launch of the Clubcard Mobile app, which gives customers a complete view of their shopping history and point balance. An advanced ERP system upgraded and made the POS easier for staff, while a Video-on-Shelf feature delivered better shopping experiences. The group’s MIS tool  MANTHAN analysed bill penetration data to design consumer-led offerings and optimise its assortments across all its retail formats. The Future Group SAP version was implemented across all Easyday stores and DC operations in just 30 days/time, while its successful SAP, WINCOR TP.net, and JDA-Intactics implementation was declared an achievement on its own in the Indian retail sector.

Jubilant Foodworks’ QSR chain Domino’s won the prestigious category of IMAGES Most Admired Food Service Chain of the Year for Foreign Origin. Domino’s has 948 outlets located in 217 cities in India. The chain logged 19% growth in sales turnover over the previous year, 21% growth in retail space and same store sales grew by 5% over the previous year The company’s other QSR formatDunkin’ Donuts won the award for IMAGES Most Admired Food Service Retailer of the Year: Effective Technology Adoption. Domino’s also bagged the award for Retail Expansion – Increase in store count and retail space in the foodservice segment.  

Aditya Birla Retail won twin awards with More Megastore winning the IMAGES Most Admired Large Format Food & Grocery Retailer of the Year, and Aditya Birla Retail being declared the IMAGES Most Admired Food &Grocery Retailer of the Year for Private Label Development.At Aditya Birla Retail, retail space for private labels increased 12% in 2015 over the previous year. Owing to the various initiatives taken in 2015, the FMCG private label delivered margin higher than manufacturers’ FMCG, for the first time ever. Due to More’s clear positioning of Quality 1^st and consistent delivery of its quality standards at all touch points, consumers showed immense trust in the More branded staples, making More brand the leading private label business in the portfolio.

In a showcase of its continuous excellence,Godrej Nature’s Basket was once again declared the IMAGES Food & Grocery Speciality Retailer yet again for the 6th consecutive year.

Also notably, young turk Chaayos’ experiments with chai bore fruit with the brand -- which was born in November 2012 -- bagging two awards: for IMAGES Most Admired Food Service Chain Of The Year: Cafes & Bars, and for IMAGES Most Admired Food Service Chain Of The Year: Human Resource Policies & Initiatives.

Haldiram’s bagged the prestigious award for of IMAGES Most Admired Food Service Chain of the Year: Indian Origin. Haldiram’scurrently has 44 outlets located in 11 cities; the chain registered 11% growth in sales turnover in 2015 over the previous year, sales per square foot grew by 15% over the previous year, and same store sales grew by 13 %.

Other home-grown concepts in food service that were honored were Natural Ice Cream, GoliVadaPav, Kebab Xpress, Heritage Fresh, andBerco’s. Convenience store chain Twenty Four Seven bagged the trophy for highest same store sales growth and Trent Hypermarket for supply chain management in the food & grocery retail segment.

Along the food tech companies, Bigbasket.comwas adjudged the IMAGES Most Admired Online Grocery Retailer of the Year, while start-up Askmegrocery.com was declared theIMAGES Most Admired Online Grocery Hyperlocal Start-up of the Year.

Launched just over six months ago, on 15^th Jun 2015, Askmegrocery.com has over 1.5 lac SKUs with a visit to buy conversion ratio of 23%. The e-tailer follows an asset light model with zero inventory and no warehousing, and also provides cutting edge technology tools to sellers to boost their businesses with intelligent business analytics, demand forecast, marketing tools and easy inventory management.

COCA COLA GOLDEN SPOON AWARDS 2016 - Awardees:

Most Admired Food Service Chain of the Year: QSR Indian Origin: Haldiram's

Most Admired Food Service Chain of the Year: QSR Foreign Origin: Domino’s

Most Admired Food Service Chain of the Year: Cafes & Bars: Chaayos

Most Admired Food Service Chain of the Year: Ice-cream & Dessert Parlours: Natural Ice Cream

Most Admired Foodservice Retailer of the Year: Dine-in:Berco's

Most Admired Food Service Retailer of the Year: Effective Technology Adoption: Dunkin' Donuts

Most Admired Food Service Retailer of the Year: Supply Chain Management: Kebab Xpress

Most Admired Food Service Retailer of the Year: Human Resource Policies & Initiatives:Chaayos

Most Admired Food Service Retailer of the Year: F & B Quality, Safety & Menu Planning: KFC

Most Admired Food Service Retailer of the Year: Marketing, Promotions & Customer Service: Baskin Robbins

Most Admired Food Service Retailer of the Year: Retail Expansion – Increase in store count and retail space: Domino's

Most Admired Food Service Retailer of the Year: Store Performance - Sales Per Sq. Ft. & Same Store Sales Growth:GoliVadaPav

Most Admired Food & Grocery Retailer of the Year: Regional Supermarket: Heritage Fresh

Most Admired Food & Grocery Retailer of the Year: National Supermarket:Easyday

Most Admired Food & Grocery Retailer of the Year: Speciality: Godrej Nature's Basket

Most Admired Food & Grocery Retailer of the Year: Private Label Development: Aditya Birla Retail

Most Admired Food & Grocery Retailer of the Year: Large Format: More Megastore

Most Admired Food & Grocery Retailer of the Year: Effective Technology Application: Future Group

Most Admired Food & Grocery Retailer of the Year: Supply Chain Management: Trent Hypermarket

Most Admired Food & Grocery Retailer of the Year: Human Resource Policies & Initiatives: HyperCity

Most Admired Food & Grocery Retailer of the Year: Merchandising, Marketing, Consumer Promotions & Customer Service: Spencer's Retail

Most Admired Food & Grocery Retailer of the Year: Retail Expansion – Increase in store count and retail space: Future Group

Most Admired Food & Grocery Retailer of the Year: Store Performance - Sales Per Sq. Ft. & Same Store Sales Growth: Twenty Four Seven

Most Admired Online Grocery Hyperlocal Start-up of the Year: AskMeGrocery.com

Most Admired Online Grocery Retailer of the Year: Bigbasket.com

Selection Process & Jury Members:

The Coca Cola Golden Spoon Awards 2016 selection process involved inviting entries from the nation’s leading food service and food & grocery retailers across multiple categories. The Jury analyzed key performance metrics such as growth in top line sales and retail presence, sales per square foot, same store sale growth. The Jury also studied the impact of IT application, innovation, marketing, supplier relations and employee practices. The Coca Cola Golden Spoon Awards (CCGSA) Jury - comprises distinguished personalities that spanned business media, research and consulting with vast experience and thorough insights into the business of foodservice/ food & grocery – goes through the presentation and gives scores based on parameters observed across the nominees. The jury for Coca Cola Golden Spoon Awards 2016 included Seema Chandra (Food Editor, NDTV Lifestyle and Convergence), Bijou Kurien (Board Member, L Capital Asia), Harish Bijoor (CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.), Rama Bijapurkar (Author & Marketing Expert), Sunil Alagh (Founder & Chairman, SKA Advisors) Amit Lohani (Convenor, Forum of Indian Food Importers), Debashish Mukherjee (Partner & Co Head, Consumer & Retail Industries, India & SEA, A. T. Kearney), Jyoti Bhasin (Regional Director, NFS International), Deepak Pillai (Director, Retail & Merchandising, Nielsen), Abheek Singhi (Senior Partner & Director, Boston Consulting Group), Anuj Puri (Chairman & Country Head, JLL India) and Amitabh Taneja (Chief Convenor, India Food Forum).

The ceremony honored retailers across 3 broad categories – Performance Awards, Jury Awards, and Excellence Awards. Performance Awards were based on 360 degree assessment, Jury Awards were basis qualitative parameters only, and Excellence Awards were based on quantitative achievements.