MAM
Chinese Wok appoints Havas as creative & media partner
Brand eyes 500 stores with unified youth-first campaigns across ATL, digital and social.
MUMBAI: Chinese Wok just spiced up its marketing game because when you’re scaling to 500 stores, even the wok needs a fresh stir. Chinese Wok, India’s largest Desi Chinese QSR chain from Lenexis Foodworks, has appointed Havas Creative India and Arena Media (Havas Media Network India) as its integrated creative, social, and digital media partner. The move, announced in late February 2026, comes as the brand accelerates beyond 260 outlets toward its target of 500 stores across Tier 1, 2, and 3 markets.
The partnership signals a shift to platform-led, integrated brand building moving away from campaign-led bursts toward consistent, culturally sharp storytelling that resonates with young consumers. Havas will handle creative strategy, brand campaigns, social media ecosystem development, digital performance marketing, media planning and buying, and orchestration across ATL, digital, and in-store touchpoints.
Lenexis Foodworks founder & director Aayush Madhusudan Agrawal said, “As Chinese Wok scales nationally, we are investing in integrated brand building that matches our growth ambition. Havas will partner with us in shaping the next chapter of our journey.”
Lenexis Foodworks marketing head Vikas Iyer added, “Chinese Wok has always been a culture-first brand, and as we deepen our connect with Gen Z, integration becomes critical.”
Havas Creative India managing director & chief creative officer Anupama Ramaswamy commented, “Chinese Wok is pure fire, fast, flavourful and completely plugged into pop culture. Our role is to bottle that energy into a living brand platform that fuels everything, from big campaigns to cheeky social chatter to irresistible in-store experiences.”
Havas Media India & Havas Play COO Uday Mohan said, “Chinese Wok understands culture, speed, and the pulse of young India. By bringing together creative, media, and performance under one cohesive vision, we aim to build a brand ecosystem that is culturally sharp, digitally agile, and built for scale.”
The appointment aligns with Chinese Wok’s sharpened youth-first positioning and expansion of cultural IPs such as Wok FM and Crush Hour, alongside content collaborations. In a competitive QSR landscape where Desi Chinese remains a crowd favourite, the brand is betting big on a unified narrative that keeps the wok sizzling and the customers coming back for seconds.
Brands
Dabur buys minority stake in Ras Beauty for Rs 60 crore
Dabur Ventures deal backs fast-growing luxury skincare brand
MUMBAI: Dabur India Limited has dipped into the world of luxury skincare, signing a definitive agreement to acquire a minority stake in Ras Beauty Private Limited for Rs 60 crore. The investment marks the first bet from Dabur Ventures, the FMCG major’s Rs 500 crore platform set up in October 2025 to back high-potential, new-age direct-to-consumer brands.
Founded in Raipur by Shubhika Jain, her sister Suramya Jain and their mother Sangeeta Jain, Ras Beauty has grown from a family-led passion project into a fast-scaling “Farm-to-Face” skincare label. Its range of face elixirs, serums and moisturisers blends essential oils with nature-derived actives, striking a balance between botanical purity and laboratory precision.
The numbers tell their own story. Ras has clocked a three-year Cagr of around 75 per cent and an annual run rate of approximately Rs 100 crore, all while maintaining strong gross margins. That growth has been fuelled by a digital-first approach, in-house R&D and manufacturing, and a sharp focus on clean, sustainable sourcing.
Dabur India executive director and group head corporate strategy Abhinav Dhall, said the company was drawn to Ras’s distinct positioning at the intersection of nature, science and luxury. He added that the premium beauty segment is poised for robust expansion over the coming decade, and that Ras is well placed to capture that opportunity.
For Ras, the partnership is as much about scale as it is about shared philosophy. Co-founder and CEO Shubhika Jain said Dabur’s 141-year legacy of building trusted, purpose-led brands makes it a natural ally. The capital infusion, she noted, will help accelerate the brand’s omnichannel footprint, deepen research capabilities and invest in team and brand building, with an eye on establishing Ras as a leading Indian luxury skincare name both domestically and overseas.
With this move, Dabur is not just investing in a skincare label. It is placing an early wager on India’s growing appetite for premium, conscious beauty, and signalling that heritage FMCG players are ready to play in the new-age D2C arena.
