Elior Group to enter India with two acquisitions

French-based leading operators in the contracted food industry, Elior Group has announced its foray into the Indian market with the simultaneous acquisitions of contract caterers—MegaBite Food Services and CRCL. The new subsidiary, Elior India, will serve 135,000 meals per day with over 3,500 employees.

“This move in India allows us to expand into emerging markets, which is one of the objectives of our 2016-2020 strategic plan,” said Philippe Salle, Elior Group Chairman, and CEO. “We believe India is one of the most promising markets with significant growth potential and a very fragmented profile. The combined acquisitions of MegaBite and CRCL will position the Group among the top 3 contract caterers in the Indian market.”

Bangalore-based MegaBite Food Services was founded in 2005 by three ex-hoteliers. It operates a central kitchen in Bangalore and provides 28,000 meals each day in Bangalore and 1,800 meals daily in Mumbai. Its customers include Cisco, Microsoft, Google, McKinsey and Shell. MegaBite has been wholly acquired by Elior Group.

“We are extremely excited to be part of Elior Group. We look forward to harnessing their global expertise to delight our customers even more as this has been the core of our value proposition. We believe this relationship can help us introduce more innovative offerings for our customers,” Chef Prabhakar of MegaBite Food Services commented.

Based in Chennai, CRCL has over 33 years of experience in the contract catering business and serves over 100,000 meals each day. Its customer list includes prestigious names like Daimler, Pfizer, MRF and Vellore Institute of Technology. Elior Group has acquired a majority stake in CRCL.

“We look forward to this partnership which we believe will deliver a higher value to our customers and enable this business to move to the next level. This will be a strong platform for accelerated growth over the coming years. We expect this alliance to achieve global standards,” D.R.E. Reddy, Managing Director of CRCL said.

Commenting on the acquisition, Elior Group Chairman and CEO Philippe Salle said, “We are convinced that food offering is a critical employee value proposition in an increasingly competitive and changing workspace. The awareness is still nascent in India and we believe that we are in the right place at the right time with the right partnerships. Both MegaBite and CRCL are premium top contract catering companies whose values are aligned with those of Elior Group.”

The transaction is expected to close within the next 90 days, subject to customary closing conditions.