What comes to mind when you hear ‘Prashant’?
Does it remind you of a person you know? Well, for many in India, including me, ‘Prashant’ links back to a flaky, buttery and an oddly familiar snack– Croissant. This small cultural slip, where croissant goofily became ‘Prashant’, did more than just create an internet joke. It softened a foreign name, capturing how once a foreign pastry settled into India’s everyday food vocabulary. And, when a food item reaches a point where birthday parties are thrown in its honour and its mispronunciation becomes internet shorthand, it signals how something larger is at play.
For years, croissants in India lived largely behind café glass counters, brunch items coupled with priced indulgences, something ordered occasionally and pronounced cautiously. But that distance has been steadily shrinking. According to recent data shared through ITC Sunfeast and Swiggy’s CroissantVerse, croissants are now being ordered across meal occasions, not just as occasional treats. In the last 12 months, more than 1.5 million croissants were ordered on Swiggy across major Indian metros, and orders have grown by nearly 20% year-on-year, underlining how quickly this flaky favourite has shifted from a special treat to a regular snack choice.
The repositioning from indulgence to routine is what has allowed croissants to expand beyond cafés into delivery platforms and packaged formats. ITC’s Sunfeast Baked Creations, despite being a relatively new entrant in this space, has leaned into this behavioural change with innovation, formats and flavours designed for Indian snacking occasions. Rohit Bhalla, Business Head – Food Tech, ITC Limited, “We’re seeing that croissants are moving decisively from café counters into everyday Indian food moments, not just as a breakfast option but an on-the-go meal, 4pm snack, midnight dessert, etc. This strong preference shows that consumers are treating croissants as a serious snack choice, competing with puffs, burgers and rolls rather than an occasional indulgence. Despite being a relatively young brand in the category, Sunfeast Baked Creations today is the market leader on Swiggy across Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad.”
He adds that this clear shift gives Sunfeast a mandate “to build the category responsibly” and that innovations like ‘Cropies’ with local and global savoury fillings, plus collaborations such as CroissantVerse, are designed to expand consumption and make croissants a scalable, mainstream snack for Indian consumers.
But food habits rarely change in isolation. Urban lifestyles themselves have loosened around rigid meal definitions, breakfast no longer has definitions, evenings blur into work calls, and indulgence is no longer reserved for weekends. As Yasin Hamidani, Director, Media Care Brand Solutions, puts it, this cultural shift has been crucial. “Croissants have benefitted from how urban Indian lifestyles have loosened up around food. Breakfast is no longer a fixed, home-bound ritual, it’s fluid, on-the-go, and often ordered in. Cafés, delivery apps, and work-from-anywhere routines have made indulgent foods feel everyday. There’s also less anxiety around foreign foods now; croissants sit comfortably alongside samosas and buns, not as replacements but as options,” he says.
The same thought is echoed by Chef Mansoor Yunus Khan, Chef De Partie at Safar by Karimi in Cupertino, who sees croissants following the same trajectory as many international formats that move from aspiration to accessibility. “Croissants were once viewed as foreign or elevated, tied to special occasions. But changing work patterns and café culture have shifted them into everyday enjoyment. Young consumers are open to global flavours, especially when adapted locally, making croissants aspirational yet approachable,” he explains.
Apart from the food habits, delivery platforms like Swiggy and Zomato have also played a significant role in normalising croissants across various time slots and occasions. Sidharth Bhakoo, Chief Business Officer, Swiggy Food Marketplace shares, “The croissant love in India is becoming more mainstream as consumers are preferring various forms of croissants for different eating moments during the course of the day. The rise is also being fuelled by local innovation. Today, a number of new formats and flavours are available including chicken-filled croissants, egg and cheese combinations, mushroom and hearty sandwich-style fillings.” Data backs his claim, according to CroissantVerse reports, savoury ones account for around 56% of total croissant orders, rising above 60% in cities such as Mumbai and Pune.
Bhakoo also notes that the love for croissants reflects the evolving taste of Indian consumers, seeking global tastes redefined by local flavours. He believes the growth will continue as croissants become a quintessential staple and indulgence for many.
So like Bhakoo pointed out, what’s notable is that this adoption hasn’t happened by preserving the croissant in its original European form. Instead, local flavours and snack-meal hybrids have helped it compete directly with established Indian favourites in the same hunger windows.
Yet perhaps the most visible and prominent turning point in the croissant’s Indian journey didn’t come from menus or formats. Somewhere in the entire Croissant ecosystem, I believe, advertising played a major role. When Britannia leaned into humour, from the viral ‘Prashant’ moment to its recent Croissant Birthday celebration on National Croissant Day, the category crossed the boundary of just being a food item and stepped in as a significant member of pop culture.
Shekhar Agarwal, General Manager - Marketing Adjacencies, Britannia, shares, ”Celebrating Croissant Birthday on National Croissant Day was one such moment, where a special day was turned into something fun and relatable. Similarly, the Britannia Treat Croissant–Prashant campaign tapped into the nuance of pronunciation, naturally owned an internet trend, and made it its own. This has definitely helped us in bringing the category closer to consumers. We plan to continue exploring such relevant moments with the aim of making croissant synonymous with Britannia Treat Croissant.”
For Puru Agarwal, Creative Director – West and North, Schbang, the mind behind the Prashant-Crossaint meme advertising strategy, the insight was simple: pronunciation itself was a barrier. “Whenever something is difficult to pronounce or feels unfamiliar, people feel it’s not for them. Croissant as a word created that psychological distance. We realised we didn’t need to sell taste, we needed to sell familiarity. When Prashant happened, it made the product human, relatable, and suddenly everyone wanted to try it.”
Building on this, Agarwal explains that the campaign also marked a shift in how food brands need to think beyond features and taste. According to him, in categories like food and beverage, long-term relevance comes from emotional ownership rather than functional messaging. He notes that while brands often focus on funnels, claims, and rational benefits, consumers respond more deeply when a product aligns with everyday emotions and behaviour. In the case of croissants, the emotion was familiarity, making the product feel simple, colloquial, and unintimidating. By ‘desifying’ the croissant without altering its core identity, the campaign helped the category move out of a niche, aspirational space and into everyday Indian life. Hamidani also points out that brands have smartly leaned into humor and relatability, turning croissants into internet moments rather than luxury symbols. Initiatives like memes, playful campaigns, and even events like “Croissant Birthday” stripped away the formality.
Hence, croissant’s increasing rise in India is a case study in how global categories scale locally. Taste mattered definitely, but tone mattered more. In India, Croissant didn’t go mainstream by staying premium or precious. Delivery platforms turned them into everyday options, brands turned them into conversation, and advertising stripped away the intimidation. However, as croissants move from novelty to routine in India, the real test lies in how brands continue to play with the category, through flavour, format and cultural cues, to keep this familiar favourite feeling new and surprise us with new reasons to choose croissants all over again.
