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However, says Vanga, when the family was in the mood for something fancier than desi curries, they had to venture out farther for more specialised meat cuts. They began taking a short drive to Green Chick Chop, a Delhi-based meat retailer and dine-in restaurant, to pick up chicken salami and sausages.
“Once or twice, I tried out Modern Bazaar (a Delhi-NCR-based gourmet supermarket chain) when I wanted to try European deli meats,” she added.
Like Vanga, millions of people across India have been making the odd purchase from such modern meat and seafood retailers. In Delhi-NCR, for instance, Green Chick, Modern Bazaar, Freshtohome and Licious are among the meat retailers customers turn to when carnivorous cravings overwhelm them.
But it is another company, Prasuma, that has been in the news of late. Although it has a marginal presence in India’s ₹10,000 crore frozen meat and ready-to-cook market, the Gurugram-based company has become a household name in a very niche category: momos.
Prasuma is a frozen snacks business selling pan-Asian snacks, while its subsidiary Meatigo sells frozen meat and is best known for its pork-based cold cuts, including pepperoni and bacon. This month, consumer goods conglomerate ITC Ltd said it was acquiring the two brands in tranches, with an initial investment of approximately ₹131 crore.
The deal size, worth approximately ₹187 crore over two tranches, will take ITC’s stake to 62.5% by 2027. That puts Prasuma’s valuation just shy of ₹300 crore, a little more than double its FY24 revenue.
A timely deal
Prasuma evolved from a meats, sausages and cold cuts business founded by Mahendra Suwal and his family in 1985. In 1993, the Suwal family set up Ample Foods Private Limited, Prasuma’s parent firm. Once Mahendra’s daughter Lisa Suwal and her husband Siddhant Wangdi took over, they launched the Prasuma brand with frozen momos in 2019.
Once Prasuma’s momos became a hit, it began expanding to other frozen snacks and cold cuts, including deli meats, spring rolls, baos, and later, frozen pizzas. The company became popular among elite consumers for its streaky bacon and pork pepperoni, which are relatively harder-to-find meats in a country where poultry and seafood dominate non-vegetarian consumption.
In 2017, Lisa and Siddhant launched Meatigo by Prasuma, a sub-brand to house all of the company’s frozen meats and cold cuts. It also sells more exotic meats common in delicatessens in Europe and North America, such as prosciutto (a kind of cured ham), turkey bacon, and even imported varieties of caviar. For most Indians, these items are only available in select gourmet and import-focused supermarkets; back in its heyday under the Godrejs, Nature’s Basket was one such popular destination.
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Lisa and Siddhant did not respond to Mint’s requests for comments. A spokesperson for Prasuma declined to comment, citing a ‘silent period’ under the terms of the acquisition. A spokesperson for ITC Ltd also did not reply to an email requesting comments.
Prasuma stands out from its well-funded, premium rivals because it has taken no external funding till date. Growth has been steady, but not explosive. Company filings show that Prasuma did manage a 17% jump in revenue for FY24, but has been in the red over the last three years on a consolidated basis. In the case of Meatigo, sales have stagnated and even dipped in the last three years, alongside minor losses.
The lack of external funding means Prasuma has been constrained by how much cash it can generate. The company filings show that both Prasuma and Meatigo have been running on relatively meagre cash balances for the last three years. Prasuma’s cash in the bank had risen to ₹22 lakh for FY24 (consolidated) while Meatigo’s had fallen to about ₹8 lakh. ITC’s acquisition thus could not have come at a better time for the company.
What ITC sees
So, why is ITC pouring crores into a relatively niche brand despite having its own frozen foods and meats brand? The group launched its brand, ITC Master Chef, in 2017, starting with frozen raw prawns. Since then, it has expanded to Indian and American frozen snacks such as chicken popcorn and tikkas, along with cooking pastes, dips, and sauces. It also runs a chain of delivery-first North Indian restaurants called Master Chef Creations across major cities, including Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Chennai.
ITC sees a lot of business potential in the frozen foods segment from the Prasuma-Meatigo deal. The group’s management has identified frozen food and snacks as among its biggest growth drivers. The company said that the “salience” of modern trade and online channels grew from 17% in FY20 to 31% in FY25, year to date (ITC does not break down its sales by retail channel or by various sub-segments within its non-cigarettes FMCG business).
ITC has scaled up Master Chef in much the same way as Prasuma and Meatigo have, starting with one frozen category, expanding into meats and ready-to-cook snacks, and then ring-fencing the products with a chain of delivery-only kitchens serving online orders.
Analysts say the brands complement each other well. And the valuation “is reasonable given the [Prasuma/Meatigo] brand’s visibility is good … allowing ITC to strengthen its presence in [the] high growth frozen food market”, Abneesh Roy, executive director at Nuvama Institutional Equities, wrote in a note this month. “The acquisition shall help ITC become a full stack player in the frozen food segment. This acquisition aligns with ITC’s strategy to build a future-ready portfolio and capitalize on the growing demand for convenient and high-quality food products in India.”
The acquisition shall help ITC become a full stack player in the frozen food segment.
—Abneesh Roy
The acquisition also comes at a time when ITC’s consumer packaged goods business is under pressure. In the December 2024 quarter, this segment (which includes stationery) grew just 4% year-on-year, while weak demand and a sharp rise in the cost of key inputs (cocoa, oil, wheat, packaging material) put pressure on the company’s food margins.
In the last 12 months, ITC’s stock has beaten rivals Nestlé India and Hindustan Unilever Ltd.
Growth for ITC’s consumer business, and for the FMCG industry as a whole, has been sluggish this fiscal year despite a strong start. In the September 2024 quarter, this segment grew 5.4% while in the June 2024 quarter, it was at over 6% on an already high base.
Licious rivalry
It isn’t easy to make money selling meat (or frozen snacks) on a large scale in India. As Mint noted in an earlier report, the offline trade still accounts for nearly 99% of India’s $31 billion (an industry estimate) meat and seafood market. Within the organized segment, large, national players owned by broiler companies (like Zorabian) or listed consumer firms (like Godrej) dominate.
In the last decade, several meat startups have begun to emerge, promising better quality, savvier design, and online-first distribution. Licious, Prasuma-Meatigo’s biggest competitor, sells fresh, branded meats and seafood, cold cuts, and frozen snacks. Founded in 2015, the company has raised $490 million from big backers, including Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek and PE (private equity) firm Multiples. It was valued at $1.5 billion in 2023, per research firm Tracxn. Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that the company is planning a $2 billion IPO in 2026.
But despite all the funding infusions and innovations in product and distribution, Licious’ growth has remained anaemic and it is yet to turn a profit. In FY24, the company reported just over ₹748 crore in total revenue, down 7.5% from the previous year. However, it also reduced its losses by about half to ₹298.5 crore for the year. In FY23, the company’s total revenue had grown 14.5%, while losses had fallen 38%.
Despite all the funding infusions and innovations in product and distribution, Licious’ growth has remained anaemic and it is yet to turn a profit.
In 2024, Licious laid off 80 employees as part of an “operational reset”, and a few months later, it acquired Bengaluru-based meat shop chain My Chicken and More for ₹200 crore as part of a nationwide plan to expand to 500 offline stores. To keep up with the quick commerce craze, it is also testing 15-minute deliveries via its own app.
This is part of Licious’ effort to make up for revenue lost from the shutdown of the erstwhile delivery app Dunzo. After a prolonged period of disruption, marked by salary cuts, unpaid vendors, failed fundraises, and an employee exodus, Dunzo finally went under in January.
Even so, Bertelsmann India Investments (BII) believes there is plenty of money to be made in the direct-to-consumer (D2C) meats business. The local arm of the Nordic strategic fund was among Licious’ earliest backers.
“Despite rising competition from FMCG players, D2C brands continue to stand out by leveraging technology-driven supply chains, strong brand trust, and consistent product innovation,” Pankaj Makkar, managing director at BII, told Mint. “As the market matures, demand for specialty meats and premium cuts is expected to rise, though poultry and seafood will remain dominant due to cultural preferences.”
Exit right
In the historic bull run from 2020 onwards, several VC (venture capitalist) and PE-backed ‘new age’ companies successfully listed on Indian stock markets. Chief among them is beauty e-retailer Nykaa and personal care house of brands Honasa Consumer, the parent firm of the Millennial skincare brand Mamaearth.
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However, for many other consumer brands that didn’t reach the ₹2,000 crore revenue mark (Honasa Consumer’s revenue in FY24), selling to a larger FMCG conglomerate has proved to be a more lucrative exit. In the last decade, listed majors, including Hindustan Unilever, Marico, Emami, and Tata Consumer, have picked up tens of legacy and new-age consumer brands such as Prasuma and Meatigo.
Unlike its peers, ITC has gone relatively slow on investments, picking fewer deals and structuring nearly all of them in tranches rather than buying them outright. Its last such major acquisition was the healthy snacking and breakfast company Yogabar, previously backed by Elevation Capital and consumer VC firm Fireside Ventures.
For smaller brands planning an exit for their existing investors and owners, acquisitions like the ITC-Prasuma deal are a sign that there are alternatives to an expensive listing on mainboard stock exchanges.
“I think this deal is good for the sector—it’s in the right direction,” Deepanshu Manchanda, founder of frozen meats brand ZappFresh, told Mint in an interview. “That’s because it’s not just a fund buying out another asset for their portfolio.”
Several large food and beverage brands have changed hands in the past or raised big sums from PE and VC funds. They include Modern Bread (acquired by Everstone PE in 2017), Manpasand Beverages (backed by erstwhile Sequoia India and SAIF Partners to an IPO before collapsing), Prataap Snacks (acquired by Authum in 2024). Others, such as Haldiram’s, are reportedly courting offers from marquee names, including Blackstone PE, Temasek, and Bain Capital.
When dealing with VC-backed ‘new age’ brands, most large FMCG companies have avoided a complete buyout or all-cash deal. Instead, these deals tend to be structured in tranches, with the acquisition target getting an initial cash investment for a sizeable strategic stake and the founders continuing to run the company. Once the founding team hits all its milestones, the new parent hikes its stake slowly until it takes over completely.
Recent investments that have followed this structure include ITC’s investments in Yoga Bar and Mother Sparsh, Marico’s investment in personal care brand Beardo, Emami’s acquisition of The Man Company, and Hindustan Unilever’s recent investments in supplements brands OZiva and Wellbeing Nutrition. HUL, however, bucked the trend with its all-cash buyout of personal care brand Minimalist earlier this year, taking over 90% of the firm at a nearly ₹3,000 crore valuation; ITC, too, bought Sunrise Foods outright in 2020, amalgamating it with the parent firm.
ZappFresh’s Manchanda says getting the right fit with a strategic investor or acquirer as large as ITC is extremely important, especially when acquisitions are structured over multi-year tranches and founders are expected to stay on and drive the business.
“When we speak to legacy businesses, we see a lot of alignment (in vision) but that doesn’t generally come with private equity players,” Manchanda told Mint. “In the end, it’s about what your vision is as an entrepreneur and what kind of capital works for you.”
