Brands
KWIL to list on 16 Feb after HUL ice cream demerger
Rs 1800 to 2000 crore business spun off at Rs 10000 to 12000 crore value.
MUMBAI: Hindustan Unilever Ltd has decided it is time to serve its ice cream separately. On February 16, Kwality Walls India Ltd will make its stock market debut, marking the formal listing of HUL’s demerged ice cream business as an independent entity. The move completes a strategic separation that began when HUL turned ex ice cream on December 5 as part of its approved scheme of arrangement.
Under the demerger structure, shareholders received one equity share of KWIL for every one share held in HUL, ensuring proportional ownership in the carved out company. The exercise effectively unlocked the ice cream vertical from HUL’s broader home and personal care portfolio, where it contributed roughly 3 per cent of total revenue.
In absolute terms, the Kwality Walls business was estimated at around Rs 1800 to 2000 crore in annual revenue. However, unlike HUL’s higher margin core categories, the ice cream division operated at low single digit margins, reflecting the capital intensive, cold chain dependent and seasonally volatile nature of the segment in India.
The separation is widely viewed as a strategic realignment. Ice cream runs on a different supply chain logic, distinct distribution demands and sharper seasonal swings compared to soaps, detergents and personal care products. As a standalone entity, KWIL is expected to pursue sharper category specific growth and margin management strategies without being structurally tied to the broader FMCG playbook.
Financially, the demerger triggered a visible stock adjustment. On the ex date, HUL’s share price was marked down by Rs 44 to reflect the value of the spun off business. Market assessments at the time pegged the ice cream arm’s valuation in the range of Rs 10000 to 12000 crore.
The February 16 listing will now test that estimate in real time, as investors assign a market discovered value to KWIL as a pure play ice cream company. For HUL, it marks a cleaner portfolio. For KWIL, it is the first day as a standalone brand on Dalal Street.
Either way, the freezer has been opened and the market is about to take a taste.
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.
