Hungry for growth

A food distributor starts branded meat stores

From being a marine engineer to a retailer, Vinay Adhye, 48, has sailed through it all. In what he considers forward integration, he has moved away from logistics to the front end, catering directly to customers. Less than a year ago, Adhye, along with friend Narendra Poddar set up Wet Stores, "a one-stop shop for fresh and frozen fish, meat and poultry products" in suburban Mumbai.

Today, their company, Agri Solutions, already has four outlets in Mumbai and Pune, with plans for another 10 in the next three years.

But Wet Stores isn't exactly a greenfield project. Adhye's Retail Concepts and Services (India), where Poddar has a 49 per cent stake, acquired existing cold storages which were then spruced up and rebranded.

"Our unique selling proposition is offering clean and safe non-veg food as opposed to people buying unhygienic stuff from the streets," Adhye says. Adds Poddar, "Wet Stores was born out of the concern for food safety."

So how different are the over 260sq ft stores from the ubiquitous cold storages littered all over? Apart from cleanliness, the company maintains a proper cold chain distribution.

For instance, the products arrive at the company's 6,000 sq ft distribution centre in refrigerated vans with frozen food maintained at -18 degree Celsius and fresh food chilled between 1-4 degree Celsius. At the outlets, the food is once again displayed at the same temperatures.

These details are something that the duo picked up along the way. Adhye, who also runs the wet and dry provision convenience store at the Bombay Gymkhana, began his career in the merchant navy.

With family help, he cut his entrepreneurial teeth setting up two companies, one to supply fresh fruits and vegetables, and the other to supply meat.

And his main clients? Radhakrishna Hospitality Services (RKHS), the country's largest food services company, and a clutch of 5-star hotels and restaurants. Later he joined Foodland, the sole retail outlet of RKHS.

Last year, he struck out on his own to get into food distribution and maritime support services. Says Poddar, "Logistics is our forte and the retail outlet was one way of going up the value chain."

Apart from consumer retail, Wet Stores also supplies top-end hotels in Mumbai. Negotiations are on with leading retail chains to become the sole supplier of fresh and frozen meat, fish and poultry.

This, says Adhye, is only the beginning. With the backend "" sourcing, storing and distribution "" firmly sewed up, he is aiming to grab a larger size of the management contract market, like he is doing for Bombay Gymkhana. From there, launching his own convenience store could be only an idea away.