Iconic bread brand Modern Foods has been bought by Mexico's largest food and bakery company Grupo Bimbo from homegrown private equity fund Everstone Capital. Everstone had acquired the brand from Hindustan Unilever in 2016. Everstone's bread and bakery platform Everfoods Asia consists of Modern Bread brand as well as others like Cookie Man.
Grupo Bimbo operates in 33 countries, including India. It has a diverse portfolio of over 13,000 products and over 100 brands including Oroweat, Entenmann's, Bimbo, Marinela, Sara Lee, Tia Rose and Arnold Bread. It sells Harvest Gold brand products in India. Harvest Gold was acquired by Grupo Bimbo in 2017 as its entry to India.
Modern bread holds around 35-40 per cent market share of the Indian bread market with a revenue of Rs 400 crore, as mentioned in a report in The Economic Times. Modern Foods competes with other bakery brands such as Harvest Gold, English Oven, Nature's Own and Britannia.
It has a distribution network of over 80,000 retailers across the country. It had acquired NCR-based Supreme Baker India, before which it had acquired Chennai-based Australian Foods India and Cookie Man brand.
Along with Everfoods, Everstone owns and operates popular brands such as Burger King in India and Indonesia, Domino's in Indonesia, Farzi Cafe, Pa Pa Ya, Masala Bar, Harry's, Masala Library, Pind Balluchi, and Duck & Rice.
The bakery industry has been growing at an average rate of 10 per cent since 2015. It is currently valued at $8 billion.
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