Godrej Nature's Basket consolidates business; to focus on fresh food

Godrej Group is reworking the business of its gourmet food retail chain Godrej Nature’s Basket and is in the process of consolidating the chain.
In an exclusive interview with Indiaretailing, Category Head, Godrej Nature’s Basket, Avinash Tripathi revealed, “This year, we are focusing on the consolidation. As of now, we have shut down some stores in Delhi, Hyderabad as a part of consolidation strategy. Next year, we will focus more on the consolidation, building the strategy on fresh food and then in 2018-19 will be a year of expansion.”
He further added, “So next year we will be opening just 4-5 stores. And now we are not going to shut any more stores going forward and Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru will be our focus market and then again we will go back in Delhi.”
Godrej Nature’s Basket, which is aiming for sustainable profitable growth through Omnichannel expansion over the next three to five years, has closed six stores in the NCR region and operates only two at present.
“Right now, we are focusing on all the fresh food categories we would like to be focusing more on this category for the next two years. It is a very well planned move that we have taken,” said Tripathi.
He further added, “We will be opening a new flagship outlet in Mumbai this month. Focus will be on fresh delicatessen which includes – fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh mutton, chicken etc and dairy. As we are a neighborhood store so we would like to be the fresh food destination for our customers.”
Currently, the brand is operating 14 stores in Mumbai, 10 in Bengaluru and three in Pune.
As per the company’s annual report of FY 2015-16, it was operating 37 stores of Nature’s Basket in Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore.
The company, which gets 8 per cent of its overall sales from online, had invested Rs 65 crore in Nature’s Basket last fiscal to support its growth plans.
It had a sales turnover of Rs 271 crore in FY2015-16, delivering a year-on-year growth of 30 per cent. However, it had registered a loss of Rs 62.69 crore last fiscal.