A Proposal on

Change in Consumer Behavior towards Ready-

to-eat food products after COVID-19 in India

Submitted By

Group 8 – Section A
Anveshi Sharma – MBA/06/009
Ishika Agarwal – MBA/06/021
Mukul Gupta – MBA/06/031
Anirudh Balaji – MBA/06/038
Taniya Aggarwal – MBA/06/050

Business Research Methods

MBA 06 (2020 – 2022 Batch)

23 February 2021
 Change in Consumer Behavior towards Ready-to-eat
(RTE) food products after COVID-19 in India

Abstract
[to be added]

1. Introduction

1.1 Brief description

Ready-to-eat items are food that are offered or displayed for sale without further cooking or
preparation, which is packaged on the premises where it is sold and ready for consumption. Canned
foods, convenience foods, fast foods, frozen foods, instant products, dried foods, preserved foods,
etc. They are all included in ready-to-eat foods. Ready-to-eat (RTE) foods are increasingly popular
with consumers primarily for their convenience of consumption and ease of preparation and
storage and consumer attractiveness factors such as convenience, value, attractive appearance and
texture. The Food Standards Agency (FSA, UK) defines ready-made products as: "any food to be
consumed without further heating or processing". This definition covers both open and pre-
packaged ready-to-eat products and is intended to determine whether ready-to-eat food can be
eaten hot or cold. The term "further reheating or processing" is not intended to include food
preparation activities such as light washing, slicing, mincing, portioning, marinating or storage
carried out by the consumer in preference to an otherwise ready-to-eat food. Under this definition,
a number of processed foods can be considered as RTE products including cookies, chips, bread,
cakes, sandwiches and rolls, dairy products (milk, cheese, spreads), salads and prepared vegetables
and fruit. The list can be extremely long and with new products entering the food market almost
every day, the list gets longer and longer.

1.2 Covid 19 and Ready-to-eat Food Market

The Covid-19 pandemic has influenced everyone in one way or the other. People who were used to
order food online had to push themselves to cook at home, and the convenience factor of getting
food delivered came to a pause. But even during this struggle, many turned to convenience here too.
The options of ready-to-eat, ready-to-cook, ready-to-serve categories have exploded and had
become a go-to option for many young consumers.

The products in the convenience food segment, which had been slow in scaling up, have seen an
enormous growth spurt in recent times. In the last decade, the money spent by Indians on ready-to-
eat food outside the home has become twice than before. This particular segment's positives are
that it is witnessing a large-scale transformation, increased advertisement spending, and more and
more distribution of free samples to create a more substantial presence in the Indian market.
Beyond the major players like Nestlé, ITC, Tata, Haldiram, MTR Foods, etc., smaller companies like
Sattviko, Just2Eat, Being Chef, Mom's Kitchen, etc., have been attracting consumer attention.

However, until now, the RTE industry has mainly struggled to grow in the right direction amid
larger players. For example, Fingerlix, has been struggling with limited products available on
Amazon and the website has disappeared. Another player, Yumlane, which started selling frozen
pizzas in 2016, decided to give a twist to the kitchen model in the cloud, the trendy bet at foodtech.

In India, it is notable that some of the players in the RTE food market such as Maiyas, Asal Foods,
Yumlane, Fingerlix, etc. have raised funds from investors. However, the Covid-19 lockdown, which
has devastated many companies, has also created a number of opportunities and generated growth
for some players. For example, Gurugram's ready-to-cook player Being Chef claims to have grown
100% M-o-M during shutdown.

Food tech giant Swiggy had launched a DIY meal kit pilot, which allows users to order the
ingredients for a specific dish from restaurants using Swiggy so they can cook it themselves. This
service was launched in select cities, including some parts of Bengaluru and Gurugram. Even cloud
kitchen company Rebel Foods started offering DIY meal kits, but it hasn't had much success to boast
about yet.

The RTE food market in India is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of
16.24% (based on value) during the period 2019-2024, to generate revenue of 68.47 thousand
rupees by 2024. Major players and food production giants currently operating in the Indian RTE
market include Britannia Industries Limited, Dabur India Limited, etc.

Recently, Food Processing Minister said that new opportunities are emerging in the food processing
sector, with various segments such as ready-to-eat foods, frozen foods, superfoods and
nutraceuticals, among others, emerging as leading segments.

To increase sales volume of ready-to-eat products, retailers are offering lucrative deals in the form
of combo packs, daily discounts, holiday deals, flat discounts and coupon discounts. Additionally,
rapid urbanization and increasingly hectic lifestyles, along with aggressive geographic expansion of
ready-to-eat retailers, are also driving growth in the segment.

However, the market for RTE products has yet to be cracked by startups as even burning cash has
failed to produce the correct results.

2. Overview of Problem Statement

In this modern era, ready to cook food product have changed the life style of urban population and
also rural people. Apart from large number of products, selection of the products plays a major role.
This study highlights the awareness of the consumers towards the product and factors that
influence in purchasing the ready to cook food products specially after Covid-19.

3. Research Objectives
The research objectives of the study are stated below:
3.1 To review the market of Ready-to-eat food products in India
3.2 To study the present consumer behavior towards RTE food products
3.3 To perceive the consumption pattern of RTE food products
3.4 To analyze the factors which influence the purchase of RTE food products
3.5 To identify the most preferred brands in the RTE food products

4. Literature Review

There have been changes in the food purchase and intake patterns owing to the increase in per
capita income, changing lifestyles, women employment and other environmental factors. The study
conducted by Shilpi Jain (2015) revealed that the consumers were more positively inclined towards
“Ready-to-eat food” products and this was mainly due to the convenience factor and the change in
the lifestyle of the people. Ready-to-eat food product are very good example for time saving food.
Long shelf-life food products are very popular among teenage consumers of daily routine. 65% of
consumers were very happy purchasing these food products. About 60% consumers agreed with
the hygienic condition of ready to eat food products.

Rapid urbanization is also one of the reasons for people to buy such products. Consumers make
purchase decisions on the basis of several criteria including brand, quality, price etc. These criteria
with many other factors like social, demographics, psychographic, lifestyle, etc. influence the
purchase decision of consumers of ready to cook (RTC) packaged foods. In addition, increase in the
number and variety of goods, stores, and shopping malls, and the availability of multi component
products and electronic purchasing capabilities have broadened the sphere for consumer choice
and led to complicated decision making. (Isher,2021)

Awareness and availability were selected as major variables which affect consumer buying pattern
in case of ready to eat products (Kazmi S.Q. 2012)

Moreover, the growing number of nuclear working families who have limited time for cooking and
hence are driven by a high need for convenience. The results of the study revealed a positive
outlook towards the instant Ready to eat food products and the demand has also increased. The
companies should focus more on quality promotions. The participants had extensive awareness of
the product, and suitable information sources of the product. The frequency of consuming ready to
eat food has been rising due to decline in habitual food and eating habits. This trend was more
visible in young consumers. The study revealed that the majority of the respondents had planned
decisions in purchasing instant food products. Television played a major role in providing
information about instant food products.

A descriptive study titled, “Ready to Eat Foods in India” conducted by Nirmalraj R.J.T. (2012) to
attain an insight in to customer’s perception about the ready to eat foods suggested that Indian
companies must focus on creating awareness towards ready to eat food products so that potential
growth chances can be maximized for ready to eat companies.
Also, ready-to-eat food products are impulse purchase products and generally fun to eat foods.
Consumer buys such products only if it catches his eye at the outlet. So, players/manufacturers
need to stress on attractive packaging and sales promotion. Further, study also indicated that those
firms which resorted to advertisements through mass media, particularly television and
newspapers could get better share in the market. This calls for the attention of other competing
firms in the business to improve their sales promotion activities by making use of such mass media
to improve their business (Chaitra, 2018)

Furthermore, in the foodtech space, dominated by food delivery, the ready-to-eat segment have had
a reasonably positive lockdown phase. The coronavirus on the prowl is also another reason these
food products are picking up momentum. Restaurants were closed and the public is still skeptical of
ordering food in, fearing the spread of the virus. (Annapurani,2020)

Over the past decade, money spent by Indians on ready-to-eat food outside the home has doubled.
The positives for the segment is that the industry is witnessing large-scale transformation,
advertisement spends, distribution of free samples with the focus on improving the distribution
network to make a strong presence in the Indian market. The ready-to-eat market in India is
expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.24% (based on value) during
the 2019-2024 period, to generate a revenue of INR 68.47 Bn by 2024. Major players and food
production giants that are currently operating in the Indian ready-to-eat market include Britannia
Industries Limited, Dabur India Limited, Godrej Agrovet Limited and Heritage Foods Limited.
(Khatri, 2021)

5. Research Design and Methodology

The research study is based on primary and secondary data. Compared with secondary sources,
primary sources form a significant part of the data, which will be collected by using a well-designed
and structured questionnaire. Secondary data will be collected from websites for the overall study
and analysis. The secondary research will be conducted before conducting the surveys.

Theoretical Model and Hypothesis Development

[to be added]

Data Analysis
[to be added]

The time frame of the study

[to be added]
Budget
[to be added]

Implications of the study

[to be added]

References
[to be added]
Renupublishers.com. 2021. [online] Available at:
<https://www.renupublishers.com/images/article/15500397292.pdf> [Accessed 23 February
2021].

Khatri, B. (2021). Retrieved 23 February 2021, from https://inc42.com/features/can-ready-to-eat-

brands-finally-scale-up-beyond-niche-pockets-under-covid-19-spotlight/