Brands
Britannia elevates Siddharth Gupta to vice president marketing
FMCG veteran rises after leading core biscuits and snacks brands
MUMBAI: Britannia Industries has elevated Siddharth Gupta to vice president marketing, marking the latest step in a career shaped by some of the country’s most recognisable FMCG brands. The move recognises his contributions across brand strategy, product innovation and marketing leadership.
Gupta has spent more than eight years at Britannia, steadily rising through the ranks. He currently serves as marketing head for biscuits, wafers and snacks, a role he took on in April 2025 after three years as general manager marketing. In that phase, he led core portfolios such as premium creams, crackers, marie and milk biscuits, categories that sit at the heart of Britannia’s shelves and sales.
Before that, he handled roles including senior category head for milk, marie and crackers, and category head for crackers and tiger, building experience across both legacy favourites and value-driven mass brands.
Prior to joining Britannia, Gupta spent nearly eleven years at Colgate-Palmolive, where he worked across sales, shopper marketing and brand management. His responsibilities ranged from handling the visible white, max fresh and sensitive toothpaste portfolios to leading innovation on products such as active salt healthy white and the painout tooth pain relief gel.
Over the years, he also managed toothbrush categories, modern trade initiatives and regional sales, giving him a ground-up understanding of the business, from shop floor to brand boardroom.
With this elevation, Gupta takes on a wider leadership brief at Britannia, as the company continues to sharpen its marketing playbook across biscuits, snacks and beyond.
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.
