In Short:
Delightful Gourmet, owner of Licious, cut its losses by 44% to ₹293.77 crore in FY24, despite revenue falling to ₹685.05 crore. The company faced challenges from closing distribution channels but saw a 35% growth in quick commerce deliveries. They plan to open 500 offline stores and are aiming for profitability in the current financial year with 85% of sales from their app.
Positive Progress for Delightful Gourmet’s Licious Brand
In an encouraging turn of events, **Delightful Gourmet**, the proud parent of the popular direct-to-consumer (D2C) meat and seafood brand **Licious**, has successfully slashed its losses by a remarkable 44% for the fiscal year 2024. The company reported losses of ₹293.77 crore compared to ₹524.18 crore in the previous fiscal year (FY23). However, it’s worth noting that revenues from operations saw a slight dip, standing at ₹685.05 crore, down from ₹746.38 crore a year earlier.
The Shift in Strategy
Based in the vibrant city of **Bengaluru**, **Licious** attributes this drop in revenue to the winding down of certain distribution channels, particularly **Dunzo**. The company has also trimmed its engagements with modern trade and local stores, shifting its focus toward enhancing its owned channels.
Quick Commerce Steps Up
While the closure of **Dunzo** and **Swiggy Meatstore**, alongside the scaling back of modern and general trade, weighed on their revenues, **Licious** found a silver lining. The growth of quick commerce deliveries has proved beneficial, boasting an impressive increase of 35% year-over-year.
Sales driven by **Licious**’s platform have also seen growth, rising by 5% as the company fine-tunes its front-end distribution with an eye on profitability. The co-founders of **Licious**, **Ajay Hanjura** and **Vivek Gupta**, remain optimistic, forecasting that the company will reach EBITDA breakeven or achieve profitability in the current financial year, all while aggressively expanding their offline store presence.
Aiming High with Offline Expansion
Looking ahead, **Delightful Gourmet** is keen on fortifying its omnichannel strategy, setting ambitious plans to launch 500 offline stores across key markets in the coming years. “During the pandemic-driven surge in online consumption, our focus was on scaling our supply and cold chain operations to unprecedented levels in India, and we’ve achieved that,” they stated.
The co-founders went on to explain, “Last year was all about transitioning, with some short-term impacts stemming from our strategic shifts. However, we anticipate that these decisions will yield positive outcomes by the conclusion of FY25.”
Strong App Engagement
Presently, a staggering 85% of **Licious**’s transactions take place on its app. Their flagship loyalty program, **Infiniti**, is thriving, boasting 2 lakh weekly active subscribers who provide a significant contribution of 58% to the company’s monthly business.
