Brands
Johnson’s Baby launches digital film on neonatal resuscitation in India
NATIONAL: Johnson’s Baby has marked 16 years of supporting neonatal resuscitation in India as its training programme for healthcare workers crossed the 2 lakh milestone. The initiative, funded by the brand and implemented by a leading paediatrician body, aims to equip nurses, midwives and paediatricians with the skills needed to save newborns struggling to breathe at birth.
India loses 1.25 lakh babies within 24 hours of delivery every year, largely to preventable conditions such as birth asphyxia. The lack of trained personnel remains a critical barrier. Correct intervention in the first minute can improve a newborn’s chance of survival by as much as 50 per cent, research shows.
Kenvue India business unit head – essential health and skin health and vp marketing Manoj Gadgil, said the need for rapid action was stark. “The survival of a newborn depends on correct interventions in the first minute. Unfortunately, these are often compromised due to insufficient training and resources,” he said. “At Johnson’s Baby, we promise to protect babies from their first moment, not just their first day.”
To raise awareness of “Project Golden Minute – Neonatal Resuscitation”, Johnson’s Baby has launched a digital film by DDB Mudra. Set in a small-town hospital, the spot depicts an asphyxiated baby who is revived after staff follow neonatal resuscitation protocols, while new mothers break into a reimagined Sohar, the traditional cradle song. The sequence underlines the emotional stakes of the first breath and the collective hope surrounding birth.
DDB Mudra’s executive creative directors, Siddhesh Khatavkar and Harshada Menon, said the film honoured both mothers and frontline workers. “Saving a newborn isn’t just a medical intervention, it is an act of love,” they said.
The Sohar has been recreated as Pahila Saans by folk icon and Padma Shri winner Malini Awasthi. The track will stream across major platforms, with revenue donated to scale the resuscitation initiative further. Awasthi said she was “deeply moved” by the project. “The first cry of a baby is a song of hope,” she said. “It is my humble effort to help ensure no parent loses a child for want of timely intervention.”
Johnson’s Baby will extend the initiative through public awareness campaigns spanning influencer partnerships and cinema advertising with PVR Cinemas.
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.
