Curefoods hopes to handle 75,000 orders per day by the end of this year and anticipates turning a profit by June 2023.
In New Delhi: Ankit Nagori, CEO of cloud kitchen operator Curefoods, stated in an interview with ETRetail that the company anticipates profitability and an ARR of Rs 800 crore by June 2023. The brand is currently expanding at a rate of Rs. 550 crore per annum, he continued.
Presently, the company is well-funded with $110 million in equity and $20 million in debt.
Nagori claimed that the market for internet food delivery is expanding quickly. Over the next five years, the market for meal delivery, according to him, will treble. And if the market continues to get more organised, it will increase from the present 3 million daily orders to 8-9 million. He therefore anticipates that over the next three years, business will continue to increase at a CAGR of almost 75%.
Talking about the cloud kitchen business, he said if it is done in the right manner then it is profitable yet a low-margin business.
From the company’s portfolio of online brands, EatFit presently manages 4.5 lakh orders a month and Cakezone manages 2.5 lakh orders a month. These online-only brands are expected to become very large brands and the company hopes to grow 4-5 times in the next 5 years.
Growth plans
The company is present in 15-16 cities and plans to increase its presence to 25 cities by this year’s end. In 2023, it aims to open 50 kitchens in about 7-8 cities.
Further, it targets to expand in 50 cities in the next 5 years and maintain its profitability. Also, it focuses on increasing its online presence and strategically building its offline business.
Currently, Curefoods has over 150 cloud kitchens and manages 35-40 thousand orders a day. It aims to manage 75 thousand orders a day by the end of 2023 from the current 37 thousand orders a day which is about 1.1 million a month.
The company said it may also look to open experience centres in tier 2 and 3 regions in a couple of years to cater to the increasing consumers in those cities.
Manufacturing and overall business
Curefoods has 5 manufacturing units in cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Pune – from where it supplies almost 70 per cent of its finished products to its cloud kitchens.
The company’s more than 50 per cent of business comes from everyday food, and categories including desserts, pizza, and biryani contribute to most of its business.
About 70 per cent of its orders are fulfilled by Swiggy and Zomato, and the rest 30 per cent through its own delivery network. It expects its own network to be about 40 per cent by the end of 2024.
As the company has its growth plans for this year, it will also look to hire about 500 more people to strengthen its workforce.
On the overall food business, Nagori shared that the last two years have been tough for the food industry because of the inflation, and prices went up. Due to Lumpy disease, dairy products also saw a rise in prices and supply shortages.
He added, “Now, the monetary crisis seems to be stabilizing and this year it would help the overall profitability for the companies and affordability for the customers.”