Tuesday, May 27, 2025
The 85-year-old Azad Corporate House, one of the oldest in the food business in India launches 1940 India by Azad, India’s first Slow Food Fast Service Ethnic Restaurant chain.
The new brand 1940 is all set to bring about a revolution in the food industry in India by announcing the international slow food movement in India and by introducing a new category in the restaurant business – India’s first Slow Food Fast Service Ethnic Restaurant category.
Slow food as a modern revolutionary food movement was started in Italy in 1986 as a counter to the fast-food movement.
The idea of the new Azad 1940 brand is to celebrate healthy food and the Indian tastes for the worldwide audience. Even though creating an ethnic slow food category and a unique brand in the slow food space is an extremely difficult task. But, for Azad it was only the very next step in business as all other four restaurant brands of Azad were serving local tastes for the local audience using a local supply chain and at a fair price.
The new brand celebrates the most vibrant decade in modern Indian history, the 1940 Indian independence movement decade and the unique Indian mindset of unity in diversity and simplicity in complexity. The brand line ‘Great Indian Desi Tastes’ amplifies this glorious Indian tradition and mindset.
The objective of this new Azad brand is to familiarize the traditional original Indian tastes to the growing younger Indian population and to make it a part of their regular healthy food consumption. To attract this specific audience, their popular food palette is also included in the menu. The 1940 India menu celebrates the mindset of India that blends tradition and modernity.
The new brand was developed under the Azad Corporate by the Managing Directors of different business verticals Mahin Azad, Wazim Azad and Ozman Azad under the leadership and guidance of the Azad Corporate Chairman Abdul Nazar Azad and Managing Director Nazeera Nazar.
“As the Azad business is moving into the third and fourth generation, we wish to establish the traditional Indian tastes in the food habits of the new generation and spread the Indian cuisine to a global audience to be a part of the resurgence of a new India in the global sphere being the largest populated country on the planet. We will be doing all the hard work required to make 1940 the landmark Indian restaurant chain across the globe”, said Abdul Nazar Azad, Chairman, Azad Corporate.
The 1940 brand name is also special for the Azad businesses as this was the year the Azad brand was established 85 years ago. This is also probably the first time in restaurant business history in this part of the world in which a menu is not classified using the traditional product categorization method. The 1940 menu takes an innovative method of categorizing the menu focusing on specific customer segments and preferences like ‘I am young’, ‘I am India’, ‘I love Asia’, etc.
The strategy for the corporate restructuring programme of Azad and the strategy for its new category restaurant vertical 1940 was formulated by &Matthai Strategy Consulting of The Breakthrough Group.
“Creating and developing new categories by Indian business houses is the primary way India can establish its mark in the world business landscape. The 1940 Strategy to create a Slow Food Fast Service Ethnic Restaurant was formulated over two years ago and it took us two years to implement the strategy in developing it as an innovative and unique product. Azad Corporate is doing yeoman service to humanity by their concern to preserve the traditional tastes of the world in its original form”, said Manoj Matthai, Founder & Strategist, &Matthai Strategy Consulting.
The recipe research and standardization of traditional Indian delicacies were done by ‘Once Upon a Time’ an Azad brand that identifies, preserves and documents traditional original tastes. The Architectural design and implementation were done by Lleenmaskan celebrating its ideology of ‘Progressive Lifestyle’. The foundational strategic brand identity of Azad Corporate and 1940 were created by BiblioBuddha. The 1940 strategy implementation designs were done by Breakthrough Brand & Business Consulting. The brand story and the brand narrative were set by Storilines and the Branded Spaces was created by StoriSpace.
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This news story was reported and published by India’s leading National Dailies – Times of India, The Tribune, Business Standard, The Print, PTI News, ANI News, The Week, Mathrubhumi, Kerala Kaumudi, Deshabhimani Deepika, Kala Kaumudi, Mangalam, Janyugam, New Age, etc.