Brands
Now pay at Hindustan Petroleum pumps with your Paytm wallet
MUMBAI: Paytm has created further touch points for cashless transactions by associating with Hindustan Petroleum for its strong user base of 120 million. The company has entered into a strategic partnership with Hindustan Petroleum to allow payments through the Paytm wallet at furl stations. The move eliminates the hassles associated with using cash for paying fuel bills and also further cements Paytm’s stronghold in the digital wallets.
On this announcement, Paytm sr. vice president Kiran Vasireddy said, “We are on a mission to make payments extremely simple and we are adding as many use cases as possible for users to transact using Paytm. Our partnership with Hindustan Petroleum is crucial in making these petrol pumps become cashless in the next few years. Payments through wallet will not only enhance convenience to customers but will also bring in more operational efficiencies thereby reducing queues at these pumps.”
Enthused with the association, HPCL North Zone Head – Shri Subodh Batra commented, “We are excited about this partnership with Paytm which brings in technology to make payments digitally possible in HPCL Petrol Pumps. Through this seamless operation of payment mechanism, we can foresee faster fuelling at our filling stations. By embracing this technology driven partnership we are confident that it will create a great value addition for customers across demographic profiles.‘’
Hindustan Petroleum has presence in cities across India with over 13,250 filling stations. Currently transactions take place majorly through cash followed by Credit and Debit cards. Payments through Paytm mobile app have the potential to completely take over the traditional transaction options in the coming year.
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.
