Country Delight is a natural food essential brand. “We believe that our customer should consume products that are close to nature. There is a huge opportunity and global trend is going back to nature. Our idea is to get all countryside products to cities where the customers reside,” said Chakradhar Gade, co-founder, Country Delight, in a telecon to Nandita Vijay. Excerpts:
How did you come out with this concept of coconut water in its original shell with a wide mouth design?
In these summer months and otherwise too, tender coconut water is a popular natural beverage relished by all age groups. Our effort here was to capitalise on the acceptability for health and refreshment and come out with a unique packaging that could stand apart in the market.
Since its introduction, the demand is going through the roof. The freshly harvested coconut was sourced from Pollachi in Tamil Nadu directly from the farmer and it was transported by road under reasonable refrigeration condition in our in-house logistics service to reach various cities across the country. For instance in Bengaluru it reaches within 36 hours. Mumbai is 48 hours. Delhi is 78 hours. We deliver the product within 24 hours from after it reaches us.
Currently the innovative pout embedded into the fresh coconut is plastic and we are working on a biodegradable design. We have our own manufacturing units in each city, the whole coconut design is happening.
The company is well known for its slew of products, so how are you positioning it in the market? Would you be looking at retail?
No as we are a pure direct-to-home brand, we work on a daily subscription model serving customers fresh cow & buffalo milk, ghar jaisa dahi, desi daanedar ghee, taaza paneer, and fresh breads & eggs. Our intent is to build a direct-to-consumer brand because in this way we will have a stronger control over the supply chain and be able to solve all the issues that come our way. This is the only way to deliver our customers a good quality product consistently. Our entire thought process has always been to have full control over the product all the way to the customer.
The products are available via your app. Going by the growth of e-commerce platforms do you see competitiveness coming in because consumers can access wider range of beverages?
Absolutely. But we are a natural food essential brand. We believe that our customer should consume products that are close to nature. Therefore if you look at any of our products be it fresh cow milk or even the processed products, we try to make it in a natural way with minimal processing with no artificial additions. Since we closely monitor the sourcing, it is delivered as fresh as possible. We are totally a natural product focussed brand and also know this makes us lose out on a lot of opportunities compared to others in the market. But we are very clear in what we want to give our customers and have positioned ourselves as a natural food essential. There are more offerings from us like the Ratnagiri alphonso mango fresh to the doorstep. Here the idea is to have a control over from the farmer to the consumer and ensure one gets the purest of the product possible.
Research is underway for fresh juices. But there will soon be lassi and butter milk using sulphur-free or rock sugar which is again healthy and minimally processed and close to nature. We are also working on jeera salted lassi and pudina masala lassi, similarly jeera salted chaas and pudina masala chaas. So the idea is to offer all natural ingredients freshly made and delivered in 24 hours ensuring that there are no artificial substances and the customer has the best taste experience.
What is the kind of market opportunity sighted in this space?
There is a huge opportunity and global trend is going back to nature. We are a very consumer-centric brand . Whatever we do is purely on customer feedback. The idea is to get all the countryside products right to the cities where the customers reside.
From the point of view of financials, would you be able to tell us if you have raised any funding for expansion?
We have venture capital funds supporting us. We raised $25 million Series C funding led by Elevation Capital, the erstwhile Saif Partners with participation from schemes managed by IIFL AMC. The round also saw participation from existing investors Matrix Partners India and Orios Venture Partners.
Going forward would you raise more funds?
Not in the immediate six months. We are busy focussing on the launch of fruits and vegetables category pan-India across our customer network. Here there is a lot of work involved in both supply chain management and tech-embedded processes to trace and track that we are investing in to give our customers fresh minimally processed products in a consistent manner.
How soon would that be?
We have done pilot launches for the entire category. These are mango, litchi among other regional specific offerings. Apart from this, we are expanding our entire F&B operations across NCR now. In the next 3 to 6 months we will be able to provide the fresh fruits and vegetables across all cities. We are also going to start cold pressed oils. Most of the oils that are consumed today are chemical solvent extraction based. We are working to develop natural products and to the original food forms. We are trying to bring back edible oils in the original wood pressed and cold pressed space which is by June this year.
What are the challenges you have faced as an entrepreneur in this direct-to- consumer platform?
One is having a full stack model and control over the sourcing. There is need to invest in technology for traceability. Our entire production and sourcing is based on Internet of Things (IoT) and video analytics. For us last mile connectivity and maintaining cold chain are critical for our business. Technology plays a major role in monitoring the product and ensuring consistency. We deliver to 3.5 million households on a monthly basis all products put together. So our model customers service through technology. Customer feedbacks help us to perfect on the flaws.
How receptive are the venture capitalists and private equity to this space?
If companies are doing a good job with viable products with positive customer feedback, there is no reason why VCs and PEs should not fund. Hence if companies have the right ecosystem, they can access ideal funding partners who understand the business model.
How easy is it to attract the workforce to the direct-to-consumer platform?
What we are doing is unique and disruptive and it all depends on the candidate’s concept of the business. If they are able to build from a customer view point and solve problems at scale, then there are a lot of people out there who want to be a part of this. We have been fortunate enough to have a very good team to solve many of these problems in different aspects. We have about 900 full-time employees and a morning rider network of about 3,000 riders who do more than one point delivery.