India’s leading direct to consumer meat and seafood company Licious has opened its first offline store in Bangalore, where it is also head quartered. The store will offer customization and personalisation real time to shoppers who visit the store.
The inauguration was also played out with an interesting and engaging gamification act – Meat Stock Exchange. Close to 1,000 shoppers bid real time for their favourite meat and poultry products.
The new store has come up at BTM Layout in Eastern Bangalore, which is also one of the largest residential hubs housing well heeled consumers who work in industries such as IT, ITES, Marketing & Advertising.
The company plans to open over 500 such stores across the country which will also provide a seamless, omnichannel retail model, bringing online ordering with offline fulfilment from the nearest stores.
In the immediate future, Licious plans to open stores in the top metro cities such as the National Capital Region around New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata and Chennai.
Vivek Gupta and Abhay Hanjura, Co-founders, Licious. Said, “Licious currently serves over 4 million households, with 90% of our business coming from repeat customers, highlighting the strong consumer affinity for our products. Over 80% of our business happens on our first party app, a significant achievement for a D2C brand,”
“In our next growth phase, we aim to reach close to 30 million households. While our app will continue to be the primary sales channel, our stores will allow consumers to enjoy the experience of buying customized high-quality meat and seafood in person. This strategy will help us redefine how meat and seafood is bought offline in India and enable us to tap into new consumer segments nationwide,” they added.
Licious has invested approximately Rs. 260 crore in developing a robust, industry-first supply chain and cold chain to ensure the delivery of fresh products to consumers’ doorsteps.
The company has also established India’s first ESG-compliant Meat Processing Facility in Hoskote, spanning over one lakh square feet and developed at a cost of $10 million.
Licious’ full backward integration allows for tight traceability and quality control. The same stringent standards will be applied in Licious’ offline stores, ensuring consistent quality across all channels.
The company serves over 4 million households across 20 cities, with over 90% repeat consumption across markets.
Founded by Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta, Licious is India’s first D2C Unicorn, valued at over USD 1 Bn (INR 8,600 Cr). The company has till date raised USD 450 Mn (INR 3,500 Cr).
The company reported a turnover of INR 747 Cr and a loss of INR 500 Cr for the financial year 2022-23.
Several startups in the space had to shut down operations due to the product category that they deal in – fresh meat. While quality concerns and hygiene are always a point of debate, safe and “untouched by hands” delivery remains an extremely expensive proposition for most.
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