55
/ 2
Min Read
India’s quick-service restaurant (QSR) industry is about to get a much larger player. The merged company will have more than 3,000 outlets across its markets and annual turnover of about ₹8,000 crore. Its brands will include KFC, Pizza Hut, Costa Coffee, Vaango and Biryani By Kilo.
The two companies first announced the merger on January 1, 2026, as a share swap. Sapphire Foods shareholders will get 177 Devyani shares for every 100 Sapphire shares they own. In a separate deal, Arctic International, a Devyani group company, will buy roughly 18.5% of Sapphire’s paid-up equity from its current promoters. Arctic can also hand that stake to a financial investor that both sides agree on.
As per media reports, when they announced the deal, the companies said regulatory approvals would take about 12 to 15 months before the merger could take effect. The CCI’s clearance is one of the main steps in that process.
The companies say a central aim is to turn Pizza Hut’s Indian business around while growing KFC faster. The combined company will run Pizza Hut’s marketing, product innovation, technology and supply chain. Its larger size should also give it more bargaining power in procurement and help it cut logistics, technology and marketing costs.
Devyani already runs a large share of India’s KFC and Pizza Hut outlets. It is also the only Indian franchisee for Costa Coffee, Tea Live, New York Fries and Sanook Kitchen, and it owns the South Indian vegetarian chain Vaango.
DIL Non-Executive Chairman Ravi Jaipuria has called India’s food and beverage market large, fast-growing and increasingly formalised. He cited independent estimates that value the wider food services market at more than $100 billion, with QSR alone accounting for over $25 billion.
In FY25, Devyani reported consolidated revenue of ₹4,951.1 crore, and Sapphire Foods’ revenue from operations was ₹2,881.87 crore. As of September 30, 2025, Devyani had operations in more than 280 cities across India, Nigeria, Nepal and Thailand. After the merger, the combined company’s reach will grow further in India and abroad.
