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Enthused by its success in delivering fresh seafood to fish lovers, Pescafresh is in the process of scaling its retail business to North and South India, sprucing up its logistics and also looking to sell fresh fish through e-commerce .
The shore-to-door firm said it is in the process of raising its second round of funding to the tune of $4-6 million.
“There is a huge latent demand for fresh seafood. Prices in the seafood market fluctuate and availability of certain varieties is also a problem. Our aim is to deliver fresh seafood irrespective of seasonal vagaries,” said Sangram Sawant, CEO and Founder, Pescafresh.
The company started operations in 2004 in Mumbai. “We sell fresh fish to over 60,000 households in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru,” he added.
Pescafresh, previously had been funded by Blume and Orios Ventures, operates in three formats – a home delivery model; retailing through shop-in-shops; and selling frozen products through gourmet stores pan-India. Sawant said his company has 40 landing points in both east and western coasts.
Hub and spoke“Logistics is critical to our business due to the highly perishable nature of products. We work on a hub and spoke model to retain maximum freshness in our products” he added.
Pescafresh sells over 45 varieties of fish such as Pomfret, Rawas, Kingfish, Seabass, Redsnapper, Tiger prawns, Lobster and live crabs. It recently signed its first deal to import a fresh species – salmon from Scottish farmer Loch Duart. “These products are sold to discerning consumers,” he added. The per capita consumption of fish in India is estimated at 9.3 kg. Sawant said this is increasing as health conscious individuals opt for fish over meat for their protein intake. “Our average ticket size is anywhere between ₹220-350.”
Institutional salesPescafresh said it is also looking at institutional sales. “We have already started a pilot in Mumbai.” Sawant said the biggest challenge is in convincing consumers to switch from their traditional local wet fish supplier to a brand.
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