Future Group To Launch 1,000 Outlets For Milk Delivery At Users’ Doorstep

Even as speculation around Kishore Biyani’s grocery delivery app and Retail 3.0 model are still rife, there are reports about another exciting development: Biyani’s Future Group is now looking to enter the milk and dairy products delivery segment, according to an ET report.

The Mumbai-based retail group plans to start delivering milk, eggs, and bread at users’ doorstep every morning by launching 1,000 outlets under the Easyday, Nilgiris, and Heritage brands.

The service is expected to be launched in metro cities in the next two weeks and will be expanded to other parts of the country later. Also, other verticals such as fruits, vegetables, and groceries will be added after the milk delivery model is in place.

“This new initiative of home delivery could generate around INR 20 Lakh per store per month of additional revenue. Consumers can place orders through a mobile app, and Easyday and other outlets will deliver the items within a 2-3km radius,” said the report.

Earlier, in April 2018, Inc42 reported that the Future Group plans to increase its network of Easyday outlets to 10K by 2022 from the present 950 stores.  It plans to dot the country with around 10,000 Easyday stores in the range of 2,500 sq ft and plans to increase the membership base to about 20 Mn. The Future Group is in talks with various logistics firms for last-mile delivery of daily essentials, added the ET report.

“Fruits and vegetables are a great way to get customers frequently. They are daily products. We want the first-mover advantage. Delivering fresh fruits and vegetables from a central warehouse to customers’ houses (which most e-commerce players do at present) is unimaginable,” said Vinay Bhatia, CEO, group loyalty and analytics, Future Group, in a media statement earlier.

In line with his plans to capture the Indian retail market, both online and offline, Biyani had also announced the launch of retail 3.0 business model ‘Tathaastu’, which would blend technology with brick and mortar. With this model, it plans to become Asia’s largest integrated consumer retailer by 2047 with a revenue in excess of $1 Tn.

According to RedSeer Consulting, online milk delivery is a market worth $1.2 Bn (INR 8,000 Cr) owing to the opportunity to push other high-margin product categories, along with milk, to consumers.

In the past few years, the milk delivery segment has attracted interest from startup stakeholders. While the market is largely dominated by local doodhwalas, the existing major players in this segment, like Milk Basket and Supr Daily, have attained a good user base.

It was recently reported that Swiggy is in early talks to acquire Supr Daily and BigBasket has held buyout talks with Pune-based Rain-Can, Gurugram-based Milk Basket, and Bengaluru-based Daily Ninja.

Also, e-commerce companies like Flipkart and Amazon are trying to expand their verticals in the grocery segment. Flipkart recently piloted its grocery delivery app in Bengaluru while Amazon already has Amazon Pantry. And once the infrastructure is in place, making their way into hyperlocal the milk delivery segment will not be difficult. Looks like the Future Group has its competition cut out.