Bigbasket ventures into easy-to-cook segment

Online grocer Bigbasket is testing an idea to sell easy-to-cook meal kits aimed at those who want to experiment with different cuisines at home. This is also part of the firm’s game plan to expand its private brands.

Bigbasket has been piloting the concept called Happy Chef in its home turf Bengaluru for a month. Seshu Kumar Tirumala, National Head - Buying and Merchandising, Bigbasket said: “The idea is to provide an entire recipe, mostly in the international range, in a box with all ingredients and recipe. Our internal study says that many consumers these days wants to try out new things but doesn’t want to order from a restaurant, but make it on their own. The trend is fast shifting to convenient cooking.”

Tirumala, who joined Bigbasket two years ago from FMCG giant ITC, said ready-to-eat was a popular segment few years ago and now it is about convenient cooking. Other than ITC, several other start-ups such as iChef are now in this space. He added that the concept will soon be launched in nine major cities, out of the 26 where Bigbasket is present.

Talking to BusinessLine on the sidelines of the India Retail Forum, Tirumala said: “Every company should conduct quick, multiple small pilots instead of doing one big project so that one doesn’t end up investing a lot.”

Bigbasket plans to carry out another pilot to see whether consumers would be interested in buying through a subscription-based model.

The company, owned by Supermarket Grocery Supplies Pvt Ltd and funded by investors such as Abraaj Group, Bessemer Venture Partners, Sands Capital and International Finance Corp, is experimenting with different business models even as it faces competition from Tiger Global and SoftBank-backed Grofers and global giant Amazon that is slowly and quietly ramping up its grocery business.

Amazon has started a two-hour delivery service of daily essentials, called Amazon Now, in Mumbai and Bengaluru. Bigbasket has also started a similar concept called Express Delivery in about nine cities where the company delivers products in two hours from its small distribution centres called Dark Stores.

Bigasket also recently entered the B2B segment in the hospitality and healthcare sectors to sell its private labels to boost its revenues and margins.

Tirumala said the firm, which sells only food and staples under its private labels, is already witnessing about 35 per cent of the total sales from its brand. Bakery is the highest selling category, with 50 per cent sales coming from its private brand despite the presence of brands such as Modern and Britannia.

“Food is a bigger business than personal care. We will soon come out with processed food such as snacks, marmalades, dips and flavoured honey under our private label,” he said, adding that private label is a profitable proposition.

Bigbasket has grown from ₹30 crore since its inception in 2011 to about ₹700 crore in the previous fiscal. “We have doubled our sales every year and this year we expect it to be over 2.5 times.”

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