Brands
L’Oréal Professionnel forays into the metaverse
Mumbai: L’Oréal Professionnel, the leading brand in professional hair tech, has forayed into the Metaverse, embracing cutting-edge technology and elevating self-expression in the realm of hair beauty. As pioneers in the field of hair tech, L’Oréal Professionnel recognizes the immense potential of the Metaverse and is committed to revolutionizing the industry by offering more inclusive, diverse, and creative hair looks for virtual identities. Having successfully launched and implemented the metaverse across the globe, the brand has now brought its latest innovation to India.
According to a research by Grand View Research, Inc., the global metaverse market is all set to grow at a CAGR of 41.6 per cent which will lead the market to amount to an estimate of US$ 936.6 billion by 2030. For India, Arthur D. Little, the strategy and management consulting company, India’s Metaverse market is projected to reach $200 billion by 2035. Metaverse resonates with current trends in self-expression and digitalization. It provides an immersive space for users to create digital identities, experiment with avatars, styles, and experiences, reflecting their real-world personas. As digitalization blurs physical and virtual boundaries, the metaverse enables global access to products, services, and social interactions, enhancing connectivity.
L’Oréal Professionnel’s important pillar for this year’s Metaverse initiative includes – More Hair Looks with Hair Drops for Multiple Platforms. The brand aims to provide an extensive collection of diverse and playful hair looks, ensuring that users can find the perfect style for their virtual identities. The brand has premiered five hair looks in collaboration with a CGI artist, Evan Rochette on the world’s biggest cross-game avatar platform Ready Player Me. Additionally, these hair drops will be available on Robox and Zepeto. The brand has dropped 16 playful and avante garde looks on several platforms like Ready Player Me, Roblox and Zepeto.
Sharing her thoughts, L’Oréal Professionnel India general manager Mathilde Barthelemy-Vigier said, “We are the first professional hair tech brand to enter the Metaverse end of last year. The brand’s vision of ‘Professional hair tech that elevates you’ has been the driving force behind this momentous journey into the Metaverse. We’re now accelerating, leveraging the avatar as an entry point. In the rapidly evolving Metaverse, avatars have become an artistic canvas for self-expression. As users immerse themselves in this digital realm, their avatars become a reflection of their personality, style, and identity, with hair being a prominent feature to craft their unique virtual persona. L’Oréal Professionnel stimulates this connection, offering experiences through diverse and inclusive hair looks that empower users to authentically express themselves in this limitless virtual world. Indeed, research shows that within 5 to 10 years, people will have up to 10 avatars as virtual identities that represent them.”
L’Oréal Professionnel’s metaverse entry extends its brand equity, showcasing innovation in hair beauty. A globally recognized pioneer in beauty, the brand adapts to evolving trends by embracing the metaverse, leveraging its reputation and demonstrating agility in meeting consumer preferences and technology. The metaverse’s focus on self-expression and digital engagement aligns seamlessly with L’Oréal Professionnel’s values. Empowering unique styles through hair has been central to the brand, now extended to the metaverse. With virtual tools and experiences, L’Oréal Professionnel’s creativity flourishes, enabling authentic expression. This reinforces the brand’s equity as a beauty trailblazer, adept at foreseeing trends and creatively engaging consumers.
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.
