Brands
Jio Platforms Limited appoints Dan Bailey as president to drive its international business
London-based telecom veteran joins the executive committee, and will report to Akash Ambani
MUMBAI: India’s digital disruptor is sharpening its global claws. Jio Platforms Limited has appointed Dan Bailey as president to drive its international business, signalling that the next leg of its growth story will be written well beyond Indian shores.
Based in London, Bailey will report to Akash Ambani, chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, and take a seat on Jio Platforms’ executive committee. His mandate: translate Jio’s domestic dominance into global heft.
Announcing the appointment, Akash Ambani said: “We are delighted to welcome Dan to Jio. Dan has been a trusted advisor to us for many years, and his counsel has been invaluable as we have grown and evolved.”
He added: “He has spent his career at the centre of the global telecom and technology ecosystem and brings deep relationships, strategic insights, and a strong understanding of the industry’s complexity. Just as importantly, he shares our ambition and energy for what lies ahead. I look forward to working closely with him.”
Bailey brings more than 35 years of experience across consulting and investment banking. He has held senior leadership roles at Schroders/Citi, Morgan Stanley and HSBC, and most recently served as chairman of Deutsche Bank’s TMT practice. Over the decades, he has advised some of the world’s largest corporates and financial sponsors on transformative transactions, including several of the most consequential telecom deals in history.
On taking up the role, Bailey said: “I have long admired what Jio has built in India — the scale, the speed, and the genuine impact on people’s lives. The chance to help take that story global is the kind of opportunity you don’t think twice about. I am delighted to be joining Akash and the team and cannot wait to get started.”
The move follows signals from Jio Platforms’ most recent annual general meeting that its next chapter lies beyond India. Over the past decade, Jio has built digital platforms and technologies that have reshaped connectivity and access for over a billion people. Armed with a defined roadmap, strong partnerships and hard-won scale, it is now preparing to export that playbook to global markets.
If India was the proving ground, the world is now the arena.
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.
