 "Neeraj Gupta")
Residents of Thakur Village, a popular locality in Mumbai's northwest suburb Kandivali, can walk into five different neighbourhood stores from Tuesday instead of the local market to buy fruits, vegetables, bread and milk.
Meru Cabs promoter Neeraj Gupta and retailing veteran K Radhakrishnan have come together to launch Freshkins, a neighbourhood shopping chain for perishable items, sourcing the produce from local farmers and sorting and packing them at a warehouse in Mumbai.
While big retailers like Reliance Retail and the Future group are doing something similar for their supermarket operations, Freshkins takes the idea to neighbourhood stores. "You have Safal from Mother Dairy in Delhi and Hopcoms in Bangalore, which sell fruits and vegetables. We have begun operations in Mumbai and plan to go to Pune, Chandigarh, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai. In 18 months we propose to have 300 stores, a combination of exclusive outlets, mobile stores and shop-in-shops. The total investment will be Rs 20 crore since it is a franchise model. The back end is where much of our investment will go," says Gupta, chairman of Freshkins.
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The first three months will see Freshkins launch 50 stores in the western suburbs of Mumbai, after which it is expected to go to other parts of the city. "This is because the warehouse, a 40,000 square feet facility for sorting and packing, is located at Goregaon in northwest Mumbai," says company chief executive officer Anjaney Bhutada. The rollout in the city, he explains, will depend on where the company sets up its warehouses because proximity to markets as well as micro- retailers is critical.
Radhakrishnan, who has headed value retail operations at both the Future group and Reliance Retail and is chief mentor at Freshkins, says the company has tied up with the Maharashtra State Agriculture Marketing Board to enlist farmers. "We have collection centres at Nasik and Manchar, near Pune," he says. "The fresh produce will be crated according to specifications at these collection centres and transported to our warehouse in Goregaon to be sorted and packed for delivery to the retail outlets. All of this will happen in 14 hours," Radhakrishnan adds.
The company is eying a turnover of Rs 50 crore in the first year of operation and Rs 300 crore in three years. Micro-retailers will share profits made after selling produce on a minimum price provided by Freshkins, Radhakrishnan says. "The retailers can sell the produce at that price or below it, but cannot go above it," he explains. Prices will be based on prevailing market rates and on how much the company is capable of bringing down waste, Radhakrishnan adds.
