Brands
Future Group unveils ‘Free Shopping Weekend’
MUMBAI: Brand Factory over the years has created many successful promos. Despite being on sale 365 days of the year they wanted to break the stereotype of a typical Sale which happens during this period. The need of the hour was to create a big day/s for shopping, increase awareness and establish a property as unique and unprecedented. We were actually offering Free Shopping to customers apart from giving them a flat 60 per cent discount.
Future Group Brand Factory CMO Roch D’souza said, “While each offer from Brand Factory is in itself a big deal, we wanted to create a campaign that will be direct and yet communicate the bigness of the offer. As we offer 20-70 per cent discount throughout the year, this was the biggest deal that Brand Factory or any retailer has ever offered to consumers. We believe that the campaign will be an iconic property that shoppers will remember for a long time. As a brand we have made big promises and have always delivered on the promises. Our offers are transparent and the proposition is delivered at the stores. Even in the Free Shopping Weekend, we are returning more than 100 per cent to the customer.”
DDB Mudra Group EVP & business partner Karma Sanjay Panday added, “The films are based on the typical consumer behaviour of how consumers get excited about small discounts and offers while shopping online or at a retail store when they feel they have done something very smart by grabbing the best deals. The idea was to make them realize that they can actually get it free instead of looking for discounts or offers at Brand Factory ‘Free Shopping Weekend.’ We took this insight and weaved it into 2 interesting daily life situations, ‘Boss Ji Ka Chamcha’ and ‘Love Gifts’ where both the protagonists behave as if they have grabbed a smart discount/offer only to make them realize their folly later that they could have got all of it for free. Thus the campaign idea of ‘Mauka hai smart bano.’”
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.
