Daybreak - Biyani’s retail empire flamed out. His daughters seek redemption in birthing new brands

Episode Date: April 22, 2025

In 2021, Ashni and Avni Bayani, the scions of industrialist Kishore Biyani’s Future Group, launched their own venture – a startup studio called Think 9 Consumer Technologies.The concept was simple – they would incubate new brands across categories like apparel, beauty, health and wellness and food; and then use common teams for marketing, technology and even product development.Why? Well, according to an executive from the startup studio, the end goal is to be able to build them into sizable businesses in 5-7 years and then exit. It’s called the roll-up modelled and it was pioneered by a US-based consumer good company called Thrasio. For the Bayani sisters, this isn’t just another venture. It’s a full blown comeback. You see around the time they launched Think9 Consumer Technologies, their father’s business empire – the Future Group – was falling apart. It eventually went bankrupt in 2022 and sold everything lock, stock and barrel to Reliance Industries. So the sisters have a point to prove. But unfortunately not everything is working in their favour. For starters the roll up model they based their business on has been stuttering for some time now. Remember Thrasio? Well it filed for bankruptcy just last year. Tune in. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar. If you've heard any of the Ken's podcasts, you've probably heard me, my interruptions, my analogies, and my contrarian takes on most topics. And you might rightly be wondering why am I interrupting this episode too. It's for a special announcement. For the last few months, I and Sita Ramon, Ganesh, my colleague and the Ken's deputy editor, have been working on an ambitious new podcast. It's called Intermission.

We want to tell the secret sauce stories of India's greatest companies. Stories of how they were born, how they fought to survive, how they build their organizations and culture, how they manage to innovate and thrive over decades, and most importantly, how they're poised today. To do that, Sita and I have been reading books, poring over reports, going through financial statements, digging up archives, and talking to dozens of people. And if that wasn't enough, we also decided to throw in video into the mix. Yes, you heard that right. Intermission has also had to find its footing in the world of multi-camera shoots in professional studios, laborious editing, and extensive post-production.

Sita and I are still reeling from the intensity of our first studio recording. Intermission launches on March 23rd. To get alert, as soon as we release our first video. episode, please follow intermission on Spotify and Apple Podcasts or subscribe to the Ken's YouTube channel. You can find all of the links at the ken.com slash I am. With that, back to your episode. In 2021, Ashni and Avni Biani, the science of industrialist Kishore Biani's future group, launched their own venture. This was a startup studio called Think Nine Consumer Technologies. And the concept was simple. They would incubate new.

brands across categories like apparel, beauty, health, wellness, food, and then use common teams for things like marketing, technology and even product development. Why? Well, according to an executive from the startup studio, the end goal is to be able to build them into sizable businesses in five to seven years and then exit. It's this thing called the roll-up model and it was pioneered by a US-based consumer goods company called Thrasio. Today, Think Nine House is about 13 brands.

You may know some of them, like the gut health and wellness brand, the Good Bug and Gourmet Italian food company Sorrentina. What ties all of these 13 brands together is the fact that they typically target the top 8 to 10% of Indian consumers. For the Bayani sisters, this isn't just another venture. It is a full-blown comeback. You see, around the time they launched Think Nine Consumer Technologies, their father's business empire, the future group, was falling apart. It eventually went bankrupt in 2022 and sold everything lock, stock and barrel, to reliance industries.

So, the sisters have a point to prove. But unfortunately, not everything is working in their favour. For starters, the roll-up model they based their business on has been stuttering for some time now. Remember, Trasio? Well, it filed for bankruptcy just last year. And there are also examples closer to home. like the good glam group. It acquired a bunch of beauty and personal care brands in 2021,

and then they very quickly realized that applying the same content marketing strategy for different products doesn't necessarily give you the same results. What it does do is burn a lot of investor wealth. A consultant who has previously worked with a future group told us that the trend of large consumer good companies acquiring smaller digital first brands has all but fizzled out completely.

But beyond just testing, timing, the sisters are faced with an even bigger problem. Their legacy. It's proving to be a real double-edged sword for them. On one hand, when people hear the name, they take notice, but on the other, it brings up the specter of unpaid creditors, soured relationships and dated business practices. The sister's real test lies in transcending the latter. Welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from the Ken. I'm your host, Rahel Phillips, and I don't chase the news cycle.

Instead, every day of the week, my colleagues Nikda and I will come to you with one business story that is worth understanding and worth your time. Today is Tuesday, the 22nd of April. To take into account the Biani family's extensive experience in retail, it may come as a surprise that Ashni and Avni have struggled to scale some of their new brands. Just take their new gourmet supermarket chain and cafe food stories, for instance. Thanks to shoppers at its three stores and through online channels, food stories managed to record sales worth 10 crore rupees in FY24. In comparison, Lamash, the 20-year-old Delhi-based Gourmet supermarket chain owned by consumer goods giant Dharmapal Satiapal group, made nearly seven times the sale

across its 10 stores during the same period. Put simply, food storey sales per store were just about half that of Lamash. Even urban platter, an online retailer of gourmet and specialty food, saw sales of 54 crore rupees during the same period. Of course, both Lamash and Urban Platter are older brands. But the different spotlights just how much catching up food stories will have to do. Now, the reason for this is actually the family's legacy. The Biani's have soured their relationships across the spectrum,

with FMCG companies and with contract manufacturers, as well as with banks. This doesn't really come as a surprise considering the company owed more than 17,000 crore rupees to creditors across the value chain. It's a once-burnt, twice-shy sort of situation. So they're all charging Food Stories higher prices to source items, which in turn is passing them on to consumers. And it's not just sourcing products. They're also struggling to hire talent across the pyramid. A senior executive at a supermarket chain who has interviewed Food Story's employees

said they've now resorted to attracting talent with 1.5 times salaries. Despite all that, Biani's are moving forward with expanding think-9. In fact, the company runs a co-founder program where it invites experienced founders who have clocked monthly sales of one-craw rupees to incubate new brands. But the thing is, at Think 9, bianis are firmly at the helm. So, eight of the 13 brands under Think 9 currently have one of their family members as a co-founder. For instance, Ashney and Avni, who formerly headed future consumers, FMCG business, as well as Food Hall, which was the earlier avatar of food stories respectively,

are now in charge of food stories and the kids' furniture brand Smartsters. Now, that's also why new founders who want some freedom in their decision-making are actually choosing to distance themselves from the family. And I mean that quite literally. For instance, the good bug which was founded by Prabhu Kartikian and Biani's nephew, Keshav Biani, moved out of their common office in South Mumbai as soon as it raised external funding. Stay tuned.

The Kent recently met up with a 25-year-old named Arjun, who fairly frequently visits an outlet of Think Nine's retail store Broadway in New Delhi. He told us that the biggest attraction for him was the vast collection of whites at their in-house apparel brand, Kingdom of Whites. Now, this was a brand that he first discovered on Instagram. In fact, it's among 150 digital first brands across apparel shoes and health that display their products at Broadway. But unfortunately, none of them have quite taken off.

Kingdom of Whites has recorded sales of just about 2.5 crore in FY24, while its competitors like Bombay's shirt company, snitch and rare rabbit, sold apparel worth 50 to 500 crore rupees. One reason for this could be because Think Nines employees are a little more old school and don't fully understand its target audience of young digital natives. Most of these employees are former future group staffers. And in the past two, Future Group hasn't quite been able to address. adopt the digital playbook. But more importantly, experts in the industry say they have a branding

problem. The positioning of most of Think 9's brands just does not sit right. Just take protein brand's super you for instance. The brand's protein wafers are placed in the FMCG section at Food Stories, which is a strategic forepower considering protein products are usually sold at supplement stores or at least placed in a dedicated health section. But beyond all of this, perhaps the only place that the Biani name has really helped has been raising money. So far, Think 9 has managed to raise over $8 million from investors like Fireside Ventures. And then in March, it went ahead and raised the strategic investment from the investment firm Gruhas. While that is some validation for the Biani's, they are still up against VC and PE investors in building new brands.

And to beat them, they'll have to be fiercer and nimbler than they currently are, which is a distant goal. by any standard.