Brands
Johnson & Johnson rebrands baby care portfolio
MUMBAI: Baby care brand, Johnson & Johnson, has always been under the scanner with people claiming it causes cancer and is actually harmful for a baby’s skin.
The brand has stuck to using scientific research to back up the global appeal of its products. But that was up until now.
Today, with rising awareness about artificial fragrances and harmful dyes used in bay care products, brands like Johnson & Johnson, Pampers, Huggies and others are being questioned and asked to move towards an all-natural alternative.
Now, to address the rising concern of parents and consumers around the globe, Johnson & Johnson has decided to rebrand its entire baby care portfolio prioritising transparency over science as it looks to get closer to parents.
Since the brand needed a new identity to connect with the millennial consumers/parents, it undertook an intensive research spread over 18 months with mothers and fathers. J&J discovered that the general concern among parents was about the presence of harmful dyes in products and a general need for greater transparency from the brand’s end.
The baby care company has completely redesigned its packaging based on the feedback from its customers and employees, with an easy-to-hold, pump action bottles that can be operated with one hand while holding a baby. The products will now display the ingredients that go into their products and fragrances for the first time, which has until now been considered a secret.
The global relaunch will roll out over the next 18 months, starting in the US in August, followed by China and India by the end of this year and then in the UK during quarter one of 2019.
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.
