Visit to a local meat or fish market in India isn’t a very pleasant one, with flies all over the place and a stench that you can smell from meters away.
But when Nishanth Chandran came across a local meat market in Europe, he was quite taken aback. The meat was clean hygienic and even had multiple choices of grading, for the customer, he says. This gave him the idea to embark upon his entrepreneurial venture TenderCuts.
Once back in India, Nishanth founded TenderCuts and launched pilot operations in January 2016 in Chennai.
TenderCuts is a meat retail and delivery firm that sells high quality meat. It has developed a state-of-the-art facility where the stock is received, processed, packed and delivered entirely in cold chain.
“This is to ensure maximum freshness in 0-4 degree Celsius without exposing it to microorganisms. All the packaging is done with food grade containers and leak proof methods and final quality check is ensured before it is delivered in insulated cold containers to the end customer. We also ensure that the products are cost effective as we charge only for the meat, and not by the weight of the order,” Nishanth says.
It sells all varieties of fresh-cut meat like chicken, goat, sea food, marinades, lamb, mutton and exotic meats. And to ensure quality, TenderCuts conforms to the standards of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and World Health Organisation (WHO).
Nishanth claims that multiple checks go in to place to ensure that the meat that reaches the customers is fresh and hygienic.
It procures livestock breeds directly from farms and fish from fisherman. To recondition the livestock, they are introduced into a close-to-natural habitat for a period of time. After this, the livestock is processed following the halal method and uses RO water to clean the meat.
Weight and health of the livestock is checked and monitored to meet industry quality standards.
TenderCuts team with brand ambassador Chef Damu (centre)
Nishanth says that the meat is stored at a particular temperature to make sure that the taste and quality are preserved. After this, the meat is processed into predefined cuts.
TenderCuts, follows an inventory-based model, where it buys and sells the livestock and products and make a margin out of each sale. In fact, the company claims that at the unit level, it has always been positive.
Started with an initial investment of Rs 3 crore, which was self-funded, TenderCuts has also raised angel funding of Rs 4.6 crore from Suresh Krishn, MD, Isha Homes.
TenderCuts currently has about six outlets in Chennai. It has over 30,000 customers and is growing at 100% every three to four months.
TenderCuts operates in a market that is currently quite populated with several such products such as Licious, MeatRoot, OnlyMeat, FreshRocket and more. Additionally there are also grocery delivery players like BigBasket, Godrej Natures Basket that offer such services.
But TenderCuts claims that it is currently the only offering an omni-channel buying experience being available in physical stores, online, a mobile app, which will soon be launched. It also takes orders through direct calls.
The company says, other factors that set them apart are the fact that they directly procure meat from farmers and fishermen. The meat is chemical, preservative, antibiotic and hormone-free, which adheres to FSSAI and WHO standards.
With the positive response it is seeing in Chennai, it plans on opening 30 more outlets and reach 500,000 customers in Chennai. By early 2018, it will be expanding operations to Hyderabad and Bengaluru.
In fact, the 100-member company has a big-bang marketing campaign in the pipeline to increase customer base through radio, newspaper, OOH and social media channels. It also plans on launching a B2B segment as well, where it will cater to restaurants.
Having turned positive at a unit level positive already, TenderCuts expects to breakeven by the end of FY18.