Brands
JSW Steel January output slips 2 per cent amid maintenance shutdowns
India plants stay resilient while Ohio shutdown drags consolidated volumes
MUMBAI: JSW Steel’s consolidated crude steel production edged down 2 per cent year on year in January 2026, reflecting planned maintenance shutdowns in India and the United States rather than any slowdown in demand.
The company produced 24.75 lakh tonnes during the month, compared with 25.18 lakh tonnes a year earlier. Indian operations remained steady, delivering 24.58 lakh tonnes, slightly above last year’s 24.52 lakh tonnes, despite ongoing upgrades at the Vijayanagar plant in Karnataka.
Blast Furnace 3 at Vijayanagar, the country’s largest single-location steel facility with a capacity of 17.5 mtpa, has been offline since September 2025 for expansion work. As a result, capacity utilisation at Indian plants stood at 85 per cent; excluding the idled furnace, utilisation rose to a robust 93 per cent.
In contrast, output at JSW’s Ohio facility in the US fell sharply, sliding 74 per cent year on year to 0.17 lakh tonnes. Production was curtailed by a planned caster upgrade shutdown from mid-December 2025 until January 11, 2026.
JSW Steel, the $23 billion flagship of the OP Jindal Group, is pressing ahead with expansion plans. Domestic capacity currently stands at 34.2 mtpa, with global capacity at 35.7 mtpa. The company aims to lift total capacity to 48.9 mtpa over the next four years.
The steelmaker is also doubling down on decarbonisation. Ranked number one globally in the steel sector in the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment 2025, JSW targets a 42 per cent cut in carbon emissions by 2030 and net-zero status by 2050, with a goal to run entirely on renewable energy by the end of the decade.
Brands
Dunkin’ Donuts to exit India as Jubilant FoodWorks ends 15-year franchise deal
The quick service restaurant giant is ending a 15-year franchise partnership with the American doughnut chain, even as it renews its Domino’s agreement for another 15 years
NOIDA: Dunkin’ is done in India. Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd, the country’s leading quick service restaurant operator, has decided not to renew its franchise agreement with the American coffee and doughnut chain, and will wind down its Indian stores in a phased manner before December 31, 2026, bringing a 15-year partnership to a quiet, loss-laden close.
The decision, approved by JFL’s board on March 30, 2026, ends a relationship that began with a Multiple Unit Development Franchise Agreement signed on February 24, 2011. JFL will now evaluate and undertake what it described in a regulatory filing as the “rationalisation and/or cessation of certain operations and/or sale, transfer or disposal of assets and/or assignment or transfer of franchise rights,” all in consultation with Dunkin’s brand owners and strictly within the terms of the original agreement.
The numbers tell the story bluntly. In the financial year 2024-25, Dunkin’ India posted a revenue of Rs 37 crore against a loss of Rs 19 crore — a haemorrhage that was always going to test the patience of a parent company recording revenues of Rs 6,104 crore and a profit of Rs 194 crore in the same period. Doughnuts, it turns out, were never going to move the needle.
The contrast with JFL’s handling of its other marquee franchise could hardly be sharper. Even as it walks away from Dunkin’, the company has just doubled down on Domino’s, signing a fresh Master Franchise Agreement on March 31, 2026, granting it exclusive rights to develop and operate Domino’s Pizza stores in India for 15 years, with an option to renew for a further 10.
JFL, incorporated in 1995 and promoted by the Bharatia family, operates a network of more than 3,500 stores across six markets — India, Turkey, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Its portfolio includes Domino’s and Popeyes on the global side, and two home-grown brands: Hong’s Kitchen and COFFY, a café brand in Turkey.
For Dunkin’, India was always a stretch. The brand never quite cracked the cultural code in a market where filter coffee and chai command fierce loyalty and where the doughnut remains, at best, an occasional indulgence rather than a daily habit. Fifteen years, mounting losses and a parent with better things to spend its capital on was always going to be a difficult equation to solve.
The doughnut has had its last day. The pizza, however, is staying.
