MAM

The modest kirana and its pandemic-induced evolution

Published

6 years ago

July 2, 2020

NEW DELHI: Sixty-nine-year-old Tejinder Singh, the owner of a kirana store in Ghaziabad, opens his shop at the crack of dawn every morning without fail for the last 21 years. Not much has changed for him apart from the fact that Singh, and his store, faced a little cash crunch during the initial days of the lockdown in March.

While e-commerce was battling red-tapes during lockdown, the local kirana stores were serving their consumers with doorstep deliveries. Within three months of lockdown, consumer spends in kirana stores increased by over 40 per cent.

Singh sits at the counter with a mask covering half his face, disposable gloves and hand sanitiser next to him. Every customer who walks in has to first sanitise their hands before touching anything in the store. Singh has two staff and his two sons who assist customers with their purchases. He ensures that no one is without masks and gloves.

“Lockdown came as a shock for every business. But we also saw this as an opportunity to help our customers with essentials. We provided door to door deliveries by following hygiene measures. We made several trips to godowns in private vehicles to bring goods to stores, personally because there was lesser manpower. We start at 6 am in the morning every day and informed the customers about the goods when it became available again. We see new and younger customers coming to our stores or calling us to order. We are following the protocols and not letting sales staff into the store. We sanitise each and every product before handing it out to a customer,” Singh says.

According to Pontem Integrated co-founder and BBDO Advertising former president Rajesh Sikroria even before Covid2019 outbreak, almost 90 per cent of India was still buying groceries and daily need items from kirana stores. As the pandemic struck and the country went into lockdown, even people who preferred organised mega retail stores or e-commerce for their daily grocery needs were left with no options. It took some time for organised retail and e-commerce to get their machinery going but the good old kirana was still there.

“I believe there are a few things that have always worked in favour of kiranas; the Covid2019 crisis has just reinforced them. There is a greater trust and dependability on kirana stores because these people are a part of the community, so in case of a crisis, familiarity helps build that trust. A huge factor that works in favour of kirana is credit, which large stores and e-commerce companies cannot match. And lastly, very personalised service and the neighbourhood kirana always remains a faster option to get anything. Most of the mass FMCG brands have always had the largest share of their distribution pie residing with the kirana stores. But the last few years have also seen newer and some smaller brands focusing on only modern trade and eComm channels. A lot of such brands would have struggled and may continue to struggle for some time because of their absence from the biggest retail network,” Sikroria shares.

Bizom recently released a report on India kiranas wherein it states that India’s retail ecosystem is unique from most parts of the world. Indians buy over 85 per cent of consumer products from small kirana stores, making its markets driven by general trade.

The report also mentions howSarsCov2 impacted the revenues of kiranas in March 2020. It says that kiranas saw a drop of 15 per cent in the number of transactions but picked up soon after as people started stocking essentials which saw a hike in the number of transacting and it somewhat lessened the impact of non-transacting outlets.

In the initial phase of lockdown, many shopkeepers were struggling to replenish stocks. The kirana stores used to seek replenishment every two to three days. Items such as packaged flour, biscuits, soaps and instant noodles were no longer available and many had to wait for further supplies stating transportation being an issue. Fintech companies including Paytm, Google Pay, PhonePe are also bridging the gap between the store and the customers by making payments hassle-free experience.

FLC Marketing & Events business head India operations Rohit Shah says, “Panic-stricken and safety-conscious shoppers are visiting the traditional retail shops kirana stores to buy essential food items. The shoppers now avoid hypermarkets like Big Bazaar and Spencer’s to avoid huge public gathering and safety issues. Also, the new category of ‘work for and from home’ shoppers in the metros want to make short trips to neighbourhood stores due to time constraints. They also want to socialise for some time in kirana stores by maintaining social distancing parameters. Seeing and touching the product physically before buying also make people visit kirana stores. People are now experimenting in the kitchen. They demand kirana stores to stock items required to prepare new and age-old recipes and are ready to wait for long durations for unavailable products. People are even ready to buy local brands if they meet the requirement in the recipe.”

The digital transformation of the kirana business that has been underway for the past few years was accelerated in the past three months, bringing more kiranas online, making buying and selling more efficient, digitalising bookkeeping and inventory management. Players like ShoppyFier, an online to offline hyperlocal deal discovery platform, sent out push notifications through which users can see all the offers/discounts running nearby and merchants can promote their long-term and short-term offers.

As of February, India had 6.65 million kirana stores in the country, according to Nielsen. Unlike in the west, general trade stores in India form nearly 90 per cent of the country’s total trade. The overall contribution of supermarkets and organised grocery stores remains at 10 per cent.

Reportedly, the government is planning to set up a chain of 20 lakh retail shops called ‘Suraksha Stores’ across India which will provide daily essentials to citizens while maintaining stringent safety norms. The Suraksha Stores initiative will convert the neighbourhood kirana stores into sanitised retail outlets selling daily essentials while adhering to safety norms such as social distancing and sanitisation to control the spread of Covid2019.

“It seems that big brands are now thinking of helping out the modest kirana stores to navigate the new normal. A consortium of brands is trying to partner with government and help convert the local kirana stores into sanitised, professional retail operations. This will see traditional kirana stores turning into registered ‘suraksha’ stores. They will be listed on the GoI’s Aarogya Setu App for following proper sanitation practices, using masks and gloves and implementing social distancing at their outlets,” Sikroria adds.

Pulp Strategy founder and MD Ambika Sharma says that buying local and relying on your neighbourhood store has captured the consumer imagination but re-evolution of kirana stores will not impact sales of big brands.

“For brands, this will not impact sales however it does call for the necessity of improving the supply and delivery channel to kirana stores. For gourmet brands, this shift may result in a dwindling uptake, with the advantage of impulse buying no longer available. Gourmet brands also do not have a strong supply channel with kirana stores and this would be an area of improvement as the trend becomes stronger,” she says.

“All the brands that have effectively communicated about taking all the safety and precautionary measures, showed how they are taking care of the consumer and also set up ease of shopping have managed to stay afloat. Innovation has been the key to all brands to stay alive during this pandemic,” said Spicetree Design Agency founder Shiraz Khan.

For Option Designs co-founder Rahul Gandhi, the kirana stores were able to sail through the storm of difficulties because of their alacrity to adaptability and agility. Where on the one hand they intensified their delivery services, on the other hand, they took to transformation by going digital which brought them overwhelming results.

“In a similar way, brands must also adapt themselves to the changing situations. By understanding the changing consumer behaviour they must come up with some real brand strategies that are in sync with the needs or demands of the consumers. Brands must constantly upgrade themselves by innovating and that will help in reaching out to a wider consumer base,” he says.

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Netflix India names Rekha Rane director of films and series marketing

Streaming giant bets on a seasoned marketer who helped build Amazon and Netflix into household names

Published

2 days ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Netflix has put a proven brand builder at the helm of its films and series marketing in India, naming Rekha Rane as director in a move that signals sharper focus on audience growth and cultural cut-through in one of its most hotly contested markets.

Rane steps into the role after seven years at Netflix, where she has quietly shaped how the platform sells stories to India. Her latest promotion, effective February 2026, crowns a run that spans brand, slate and product marketing across originals, licensed content and new verticals such as games.

A strategic marketing and communications professional with roughly 15 years’ experience, Rane has spent much of her career building technology-led consumer businesses and new categories, notably e-commerce and subscription video on demand. She was part of the early push that introduced Amazon.in, Prime Video and Netflix to Indian homes, then helped turn them into everyday brands.

At Netflix, she most recently served as head of brand and slate marketing for India from March 2024 to February 2026, leading teams across media and marketing for global and local content portfolios. Before that, as manager for original films and series marketing, she led IP creation and go-to-market strategy for titles including Guns and Gulaabs, Kaala Paani, The Railway Men* and The Great Indian Kapil Show, spanning both binge and weekly-release formats.

Her earlier Netflix roles covered product discovery and promotion in India and integrated campaign strategy to drive conversations around the content slate, product awareness and brand-equity metrics.

Before Netflix, Rane logged more than three years at Amazon in brand marketing roles in Bengaluru. There she handled national and regional campaigns for Amazon.in, worked on customer assistance programmes in growth geographies and contributed to the go-to-market strategy for the launch of Prime Video India.

Her career began well away from streaming. At Reliance Brands in Mumbai, she worked on retail marketing for Diesel and Superdry. A stint at Leo Burnett saw her work on primary research for P&G Tide, mapping Indian shoppers’ paths to purchase. Earlier still, at Orange in the United Kingdom, she rose from sales assistant to store manager, running a team and owning monthly P&L for a retail outlet.

The arc is telling. As global streamers fight for attention in a crowded Indian market, executives who understand both mass retail behaviour and digital habit-building are prized. Rane’s career sits at that intersection.

For Netflix, the bet is simple: in a market spoilt for choice, sharp marketing can still tilt the screen. And with Rane now leading the charge, the streamer is signalling it wants not just viewers, but fandom.

Brands

Orient Beverages pops the fizz with steady Q3 gains and rising profits

Kolkata-based beverage maker reports stronger revenues and profits for December quarter.

Published

2 days ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: A fizzy quarter with a steady aftertaste that’s how Orient Beverages Limited, the company that manufactures and distributes packaged drinking water under the brand name Bisleri closed the December 2025 period, as the Kolkata-based drinks maker reported improved revenues and a healthy rise in profits, signalling operational stability in a competitive beverage market.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2025, Orient Beverages posted standalone revenue from operations of Rs 39.98 crore, up from Rs 36.42 crore in the previous quarter and Rs 33.53 crore in the same quarter last year. Total income for the quarter stood at Rs 42.24 crore, reflecting consistent demand and stable pricing across its beverage portfolio.

Profit before tax for the quarter came in at Rs 3.47 crore, a sharp improvement from Rs 1.31 crore in the September quarter and Rs 0.39 crore a year ago. After accounting for tax expenses of Rs 0.79 crore, the company reported a net profit of Rs 2.68 crore, nearly three times the Rs 0.99 crore recorded in the preceding quarter.

On a nine-month basis, the momentum remained intact. Revenue from operations for the period ended December 31, 2025 rose to Rs 117.66 crore, compared with Rs 106.95 crore in the corresponding period last year. Net profit for the nine months climbed to Rs 5.51 crore, more than double the Rs 2.18 crore reported in the same period of the previous financial year.

The consolidated numbers told a similar story. For the December quarter, consolidated revenue from operations stood at Rs 45.06 crore, while profit after tax came in at Rs 2.06 crore. For the nine-month period, consolidated revenue touched Rs 133.57 crore, with net profit of Rs 4.49 crore, underscoring the group’s improving profitability trajectory.

Operating expenses remained largely controlled, with cost of materials, employee benefits and other expenses broadly aligned with revenue growth. The company continued to operate within a single reportable segment beverages simplifying its cost structure and reporting framework.

The unaudited financial results were reviewed by the Audit Committee and approved by the Board of Directors at its meeting held on 7 February 2026. Statutory auditors carried out a limited review and reported no material misstatements in the results.

In a market where margins are often squeezed by input costs and competition, Orient Beverages’ latest numbers suggest the company has found a reliable rhythm not explosive, but steady enough to keep the fizz alive.

MAM

Washington Post CEO exits abruptly after newsroom cuts spark backlash

Leadership change follows layoffs, protests and a bruising battle over trust.

Published

2 days ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: When the presses are rolling but patience runs out, even the editor’s chair isn’t safe. The Washington Post announced on Saturday that its chief executive and publisher Will Lewis is stepping down with immediate effect, bringing a sudden end to a turbulent two-year tenure marked by financial strain, newsroom unrest and public backlash.

Lewis’s exit comes just days after the Bezos-owned newspaper announced sweeping job cuts that triggered protests outside its Washington headquarters and a wave of anger from readers and staff. While newspapers across the US are grappling with shrinking revenues and digital disruption, Lewis’s leadership had increasingly come under fire for how those pressures were handled.

The Post confirmed that Jeff D’Onofrio, a former Tumblr CEO who joined the organisation last year as chief financial officer, has taken over as CEO and publisher, effective immediately. In an email to staff, later shared by reporters on social media, Lewis said it was “the right time for me to step aside.”

The leadership change follows the announcement of large-scale redundancies earlier this week. While the Post did not officially confirm numbers, The New York Times reported that around 300 of the paper’s roughly 800 journalists were laid off. Entire teams were dismantled, including the Post’s Middle East bureau and its Kyiv-based correspondent covering the war in Ukraine.

Sports, graphics and local reporting were sharply reduced, and the paper’s daily podcast, Post Reports, was suspended. On Thursday, hundreds of journalists and supporters gathered outside the Post’s downtown office in protest, calling the cuts a blow to public-interest journalism.

Former executive editor Marty Baron described the moment as “among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organisations.”

Lewis defended his record in his farewell note, saying “difficult decisions” were taken to secure the paper’s long-term future and protect its ability to publish “high-quality nonpartisan news”. But his tenure coincided with growing scrutiny of editorial independence at the Post.

Owner Jeff Bezos faced criticism for reining in the paper’s traditionally liberal editorial page and blocking an endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 US election. The move was widely seen as breaking the long-standing firewall between ownership and editorial decision-making.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, around 250,000 digital subscribers cancelled their subscriptions after the paper declined to endorse Harris. The Post reportedly lost about $100 million in 2024 as advertising and subscription revenues slid.

While the wider newspaper industry continues to battle declining print advertising and the pull of social media, some national titles have stabilised. Rivals such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have managed to build sustainable digital businesses, a turnaround that has so far eluded the Post despite its billionaire backing.

As Jeff D’Onofrio steps into the role, the challenge is stark, restore confidence inside the newsroom, win back readers who walked away, and prove that one of America’s most storied newspapers can still find its footing in a brutally competitive media landscape.