Lite Bite Foods, a leading F&B retail company, on Tuesday announced its association with HMSHost, the globally present provider of food and beverage services at travel retail destinations like airport, train stations and highways. With this move, the company aims to acquire the rights to launch and operate outlets at several key domestic and international airports across India and Asian countries.
The joint venture will operate under the name Lite Bite Foods HMSHost and will be based out of Gurgaon or Hyderabad. While HMS will own 51% of the joint venture, LBF will own the remaining 49%. The association combines the global resources and expertise of HMSHost and Lite Bite Foods.
Speaking on the occasion, Lite Bite Foods chairman Amit Burman said: “Lite Bite Foods has in its fold a number of strong food retail brands like Baker's Street, Punjab Grill and FresCo, and Autogrill is among the oldest and the leading F&B service provider for travellers across the globe. The new company has the combined value of Autogrill's international expertise and experience and Lite Bite Foods' extensive local market and cuisine knowledge and network of established outlets. This agreement represents each organisation’s strong commitment to provide the best F&B retail experience to our consumers across all travel channels. Together, we will bring an exciting new force to the country's travel food retail industry and revolutionise this emerging channel.”
Further to this, Rohit Aggarwal, director, Lite Bite Foods, said, “Lite Bite Foods HMSHost proposes to acquire the rights to operate outlets at the airports in India and neighbouring countries, at these locations, we plan to increase the brand presence of all our brands at strategic locations.”
Sharad Sachdeva, CEO, Lite Bite Foods, said, “With millions of passengers travelling annually, the transit hubs like airports & railway stations have become a strategic location for our brand’s presence. We are very excited about this JV and this association will definitely help extend our brand in neighbouring countries as well.”
“This partnership is an important step forward in the strategy of expansion in emerging markets, especially in Asia, which the group has been adopting in recent years,” said HMSHost International CEO Walter Seib. “We are confident that the know-how developed by Autogrill on an international level and Lite Bite Foods’ knowledge of the Indian market will enable the two companies to successfully expand in all the travel channels in the country. We are thrilled to work with one of the most reputable family companies in India which have been very successful in the food & beverage sector as well.”
