Beyond Margin Pressure: Pallet Highlights the Rise of Unified Operations in India’s F&B Sector

BANGALORE, India, March 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — For the last five years, India’s restaurant ecosystem was defined by a single metric: Order Volume. But as raw material inflation hits double digits and operational overheads climb, the narrative has shifted overnight. The new north star is Unit Economics, and for most restaurateurs, the math simply isn’t adding up.

Caught between the ‘Aggregator Tax’ (commissions upwards of 30%) and a fragmented backend that bleeds efficiency, restaurants are facing a stark reality: automate or perish.

This is where Pallet comes in. While most tech companies offer small, separate tools (one for billing, one for stock, and another for delivery), Pallet is doing something different. It is an AI-powered platform that brings everything into one place, helping brands move away from burning cash and toward making a steady profit.

Plugging the 20% Leak 

The core thesis of Pallet is that F&B’s biggest problem isn’t demand; it’s leakage.

“The average restaurant tech stack is broken,” says Santosh Bojarajan, Founder of Pallet. “You have data silos everywhere. Sales don’t talk to inventory; logistics don’t talk to accounts. We are seeing operators lose 15 to 20 percent of their margins simply to operational friction.”

Pallet’s solution is a full-stack overhaul. By unifying front-end logistics with back-end compliance and inventory, the platform claims to slash Operational Expenditure (OPEX) up to 20%.

The Hybrid Logistics Pivot 

The platform is capitalizing on the industry’s massive shift toward Hybrid Logistics. The binary era of ‘Aggregator vs. Own Fleet’ is over. Brands like Dum Durusst, a rising cloud kitchen player, are using Pallet to manage a complex mix of third-party aggregators, hyperlocal delivery partners, and their own riders, all from a single dashboard.

“We couldn’t afford to be dependent on just one channel,” says Swarn Kamal, Co-Founder of Dum Durrust. “To scale, we needed a hybrid approach. Pallet let us integrate aggregators for visibility while building our own D2C rails for loyalty. We own the customer data, we control the logistics, and we stop bleeding commissions on repeat orders.”

From ‘Software Vendors’ to ‘Operational Ownership’

While the industry often focuses on features, the real battle for survival is fought on the ground. A tech stack is only as good as its uptime and the support behind it. For brands looking to scale, the transition from simple ‘digitization’ to a truly ‘unified system’ requires a partner that treats the restaurant’s challenges as their own.

For Manish Kankaria, who manages multiple outlets across different concepts, the value of Pallet lies in the marriage of an intuitive interface and a deeply responsive support culture.

“For a growing F&B brand like ours, a dependable and intuitive POS partner is essential, and Pallet has delivered on both counts,” says Manish Kankaria, Founder of Bombay Kulfi Ice Creams & Canteen Coimbatore. “Their platform is highly user-friendly and competitively built, backed by a team that shows true ownership and responsiveness. They treat our brand like their own and ensure quick resolution of any challenges, enabling a seamless, end-to-end system across our outlets.”

Santosh Bojarajan notes that this level of trust and dependability is the baseline for the next phase: Real-Time Intelligence.

“Restaurateurs don’t need more spreadsheets; they need a system they can trust to run 24/7,” says Bojarajan. “Once that foundation is built, we move beyond basic reporting to square-foot level profitability. Our AI tracks revenue and operational costs in real-time, telling an operator exactly how much profit a specific square foot of their kitchen is generating at any given hour. That is the difference between guessing and operating like a tech company.”

The Era of Precision

As the sector matures, the operators who survive will be the ones who treat their restaurants as data-driven assets supported by robust partnerships. Platforms like Pallet are facilitating this shift, proving that in a low-margin world, a dependable, analytic edge isn’t a luxury; it is the baseline for staying in business.

About Pallet 

Pallet is an AI-powered, unified retail management platform designed to streamline the complexities of modern commerce. From restaurants and grocery stores to pharmacies and specialty retail, Pallet empowers businesses to orchestrate their entire ecosystem—integrating both front-of-house customer experiences and back-of-house operations into a single, intuitive interface.

By consolidating fragmented workflows into one seamless digital backbone, Pallet enables operators to drive efficiency, reduce overhead, and scale with confidence. Whether managing real-time inventory, optimizing service delivery, or leveraging AI-driven insights, Pallet provides the tools retailers need to thrive in an increasingly connected marketplace. To learn more about Pallet, visit: www.palletnow.co

“This is a company press release that is not part of editorial content. No journalist of The Hindu was involved in the publication of this release.”

Published – March 16, 2026 06:14 pm IST