From farm to kitchen: WayCool lends a helping hand to entrepreneurs and larger companies

Grading of groundnuts at Waycool’s packaging facility at Jigani, Bengaluru | Photo Credit: BIJOY GHOSH

Between leaving the soil and landing up in a consumer’s shopping bag, agricultural products go through several steps of value addition. WayCool, the ₹1,700-crore Chennai-based, IPO-bound agritech start-up is into this segment of the supply chain — sorting, grading, quality-check, cleaning, packaging and delivering to retail outlets.

Since its inception in 2015, WayCool was doing all this for itself — it has several brands such as Madhuram, Kitchenji, Freshey’s, Dezi Fresh and AllFresh. But three years ago, the company ventured into a side business — providing services for brands owned by others. This contract manufacturing division has grown at an astonishing rate —ten times from just ₹50 lakh. And, according to Vignesh Manogaran, who heads the contract manufacturing division, the business is set to grow 60 per cent annually.

The logic is pretty simple. Small farmers and agri enterpreneurs, some of whom may be running a one-man company, don’t have to waste time and effort sorting, grading, cleaning and packing grains or fruits and vegetables. WayCool, has a large set-up for carrying out these tasks. Today, WayCool’s marquee customers include Nilgiris, Tata Consumer, Flipkart, AVA group, Dunzo, Spencer’s, Xeom Consumer and Thillai across modern retail, online retailers, food processors, and several others, he said.

Makhana being packed at Waycool’s packaging facility at Jigani, Bengaluru | Photo Credit: BIJOY GHOSH

So, in bengal gram from Hubbali, Karnataka ending up in a kitchen in Madurai, WayCool may have had a big hand.

Explaining the CM concept, Manogaran, said that first value addition is done at the source area itself. Then the product is shipped to Bengaluru, where it is packed and labelled for brands in their private labels, at the company’s packaging unit in Jigani. Finally, it is shipped to the client and ready to be picked up consumers from the stores or to be delivered at homes, he said.

Formalising supply chain

WayCool’s business is an effort in formalising the agricultural supply chain, an $800 billion business that has largely been in the hands of the unorganised sector. Out of the $800 billion, nearly 40 per cent of the value gets added to the supply chain, ie. after the product is harvested, be it is onion, apple or a dhal. Three-fourths of the agri products are sold through retail outlets, the rest goes into what is called HoReCa — for hotels, restaurants and catering — which generally laps up out-of-shape products that consumers do not pick from shop shelves. The packaged agri product market is worth around $10 billion.

Formalising supply chain adds value because often the processing is best done overnight, to preserve the freshness of the products. The sector is unorganised due to lack of transparency, inefficiency and complexity in the supply chain, resulting in nearly 35 per cent food wastage, he said. “Just like people look for the Intel Inside logo while buying a personal computer, our brand should be looked in a package,” he added.

Waycool’s packaging facility at Hosur | Photo Credit: BIJOY GHOSH

If a company wants to sell dry staples without investing in a manufacturing facility, WayCool can offer help. For instance, a single-person company need not waste time on procurement of the products, grading and labelling them. All these can be left to WayCool while the entrepreneur or the company can focus on branding and sales. The CM division of WayCool will take care of the entire value chain — right from procurement of the raw material from various sources to testing the quality, cleaning it, grading it, packaging and labelling it with the client’s name and logo, he said.

WayCool’s CM offers service to to over 100 clients, helping them to launch and scale in staple brands. It has 250 plus products and over 500 variants. It packs from 50 grams to 50 kg across facilities in Hosur, Bengaluru, Bagalkot and Chennai. “We pack around 2 million packets every month across all units,” Manogaran said.

Waycool’s packaging facility at Hosur | Photo Credit: BIJOY GHOSH

Sanjay Kesavan, Co-Founder & CEO, XEOM Consumer Private Ltd. ( Trade Mark MAI RASOI), said, “WayCool has streamlined our production process, alleviating the burden of capex investment and ensuring the right products are procured, packaged and labelled with precision.”

On WayCool’s IPO plans, he said, “Our Mission 2025 is to make WayCool a profitable and public-listed company.”

(The writer was in Bengaluru and Hosur at the company’s invitation)

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