India Is the Next Market Premium Brands Should Be Watching

A lot of European food and lifestyle brands rule out India before they've really looked at it. The assumption is understandable: a market of over a billion people, most of it thought of as price sensitive, doesn't sound like natural territory for a premium or luxury product. It's a fair instinct. It's also increasingly out of date.

India isn't one market with one price point. It's several markets layered on top of each other, and the layer that matters for premium brands has been growing quietly for years and visibly in the last few.

A market built in tiers, not in one price band.

Think of India less as a single country-sized market and more as a stack of consumer segments. At the top sit the metro and Tier 1 cities, tens of millions of consumers with spending power comparable to mature European markets, already buying premium and imported goods across categories. Below that is a fast-growing Tier 2 segment, cities most European brands have never heard of, where incomes and aspirations are catching up quickly, often driven by the same digital access and social exposure that shaped buying habits everywhere else.

According to IMARC Group, India's luxury goods market reached US$7,7 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach US$13,83 billion by 2033. That is not a niche pocket of spending, it is a structural shift, and it sits on top of a broader premiumisation trend running through food and grocery too: India's premium chocolate segment alone is on track to grow from US$1,25 billion to US$2,24 billion by 2034.

What actually changed

The pandemic reshaped how Indian consumers think about spending, in a direction that favours brands like yours. Discretionary spending recovered faster than expected, and a meaningful share of it shifted toward quality, wellness, and considered purchases rather than impulse buys. That shift has held. It shows up in premium packaged food, in gifting categories, and increasingly in cities well beyond Mumbai and Delhi, as rising incomes and better logistics bring Tier 2 consumers into the same premium conversation that used to be metro only.

For a European confectionery or biscuit brand, this matters directly. The customer base isn't shrinking to fit a price-sensitive stereotype, it's expanding to include exactly the kind of considered, quality-focused buyer your product was made for.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with President of the European Council António Luís Santos da Costa and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, at Hyderabad House in New Delhi on Tuesday. (DPR PMO/ANI Photo via Reuters Connect)

The other half of the story: the EU-India trade deal

Consumer appetite is only half of why the timing works. The other half is cost. In January 2026, the EU and India concluded a trade agreement that meaningfully lowers the import duties European food brands have absorbed for decades. We covered what that means for exporters in detail in our piece on the EU-India trade deal: duties that once ran 30 to 50 percent on processed food are coming down, changing the basic economics of entering India.

Put the two shifts together, rising premium demand and falling entry costs, and you get a window that doesn't stay this open indefinitely. The brands that move early get to build distributor relationships, shelf presence, and consumer familiarity before the category gets crowded. The ones that wait tend to enter later, at a higher cost of catching up.

Marche Retail proudly unveils Le Gourmet at The Chanakya, New Delhi—India’s first-ever luxury grocery destination.

Why this isn't a leap of faith anymore

None of this requires betting on India's future potential. The market has already arrived at a point where premium and specialty grocery retail, quick commerce platforms, and the beginnings of modern trade distribution all exist and are actively looking for the kind of brand you already are. India isn't a market you need to wait for. It's a market that's ready now, and getting more competitive by the quarter.

How OnRoute India fits in.

Entering a new market with unfamiliar retail structures, compliance requirements, and distribution relationships is a lot to take on alone, and it doesn't need to be a solo project. OnRoute India exists to be your single point of contact for exactly this: connecting your brand to an established, pan-India distribution network and guiding you through market entry from first conversation to ongoing representation.

If you've been curious about India but weren't sure where to start, get in touch and let's talk about what getting started could look like for your brand.