Marking a comeback in food retail, Ashni Biyani and Avni Biyani Jhunjhunwala — daughters of Kishore Biyani, founder of now-defunct retail major The Future Group — launched a gourmet food store and dining cafe, Foodstories, on Friday. The venture is reportedly fully backed by the Narottam Sekhsaria family office (NSFO), one of the early-stage backers of Nykaa.
An omnichannel food platform, the new venture would blend physical stores with a content-driven digital platform that promises to provide consumers with a fresh gourmet food experience. Speaking at the launch of the first physical store at Ambience Mall, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, Jhunjhunwala said e-commerce operations will begin later this month.
“With our e-commerce platform, the idea is to eventually offer seamless commerce. The job of a platform like Foodstories is to let the customer go deeper and learn to use their products in multiple ways,” she said.
Dedicated to food storytelling where chefs, artists, enthusiasts, and connoisseurs can converge to celebrate their love for food, Foodstories is hopeful of owning the gourmet food space in India by shaping and influencing the narrative around food. The new venture also comes at a time when the market has seen an uptick in premium and specialised foods. “In terms of consumption habits, we are undergoing a renaissance. To see the number of restaurants, the amount of time spent in going out to eat and trying out new food and experiencing different kinds of fine dining – all of it probably has never happened in every city in India,” she added.
Spread over 8,000 sqft, the store includes a 30-seater all-day dining café offering an organic estate-to-cup coffee programme, a single-origin chocolate experience, bespoke cheese, single-origin spices and dry fruits, and farm-sourced fruits and vegetables.
The new experiential retail format is on similar lines to the Biyani sisters’ previous Foodhall venture, a premium food chain that began from Mumbai’s Palladium Mall in 2011. The Foodhall chain operated under 10 stores in the country, selling a variety of imported produce such as cheese and condiments. However, by 2023, all stores were closed as a result of insolvency proceedings against the parent Future Retail initiated by its creditors. The recent move marks the Biyani family’s comeback in the food retail industry after it failed to sell its debt-laden retail and consumer businesses.
Going by reports, the sisters are also planning to launch another retail concept under Broadway to empower digital-first brands with stores in prime malls. These experiential stores will house more than 100 new-age brands and over a thousand products. Additionally, the sisters have set up Think9 Consumer Technologies recently, which promotes and develops digitally native brands. The multi-brand platform works with brands across consumption categories like fashion, food and wellness, beauty, and home and decor. Its portfolio comprises brands such as apparel brand Kingdom of White, Italian snacking brand Sorrentina, wellness brand The Good Bug, and personal care brand Beauty in Everything (BIE).