With the boom in technology and delivery services, it is now possible to get all your daily essentials delivered to your doorstep in a few hours. Country Delight, founded by Chakradhar Gade and Nitin Kaushal, is one such startup that delivers daily grocery items, like milk, fruits, vegetables, and dairy products to your doorstep by early morning. The IIM graduates, started with a milk business that has now turned to be a brand of natural foods.
From IIM to building their own business
Chakradhar Gade completed his studies at IIM, Indore, and joined CFA. He started his corporate journey with Infosys, where he worked as a Software Engineer. After working for Infosys for one year he exited the company to join Indxx Capital Management as the Vice President.
Nitin Kaushal graduated from IIM, Indore and joined HSBC as Associate Vice President in Corporate Banking and after working in corporate for two years he was promoted as the Vice President and he finally left hid banking job in 2014 to join Gade on the business venture.
The beginnings Country Delight
In 2013, Chakradhar decided to start his own venture with Nitin, and created Country Delight, when they saw the huge demand for milk. Back in 2011 according to a Forbes report, around 70 lakh litres of milk was consumed in Delhi every day and Gade asserted that, “Even if you are able to sell 1 lakh litre, it’s a good outcome.” Gade recalls the initial business years, and how during the first year into the business, they found a customer base, though of a different kind. The milk startup had about 100 cattle, was on the verge of being white-washed. “We couldn’t understand how to manage the cattle,” he recounts. After being a bootstrapped company for six years and numerous rounds of funding, Country Delight reached its breakthrough and created a brand proposition for itself.
Operating revenue for Country Delight increased three times from FY18’s operating total of Rs 19 crore to FY19’s operating total of Rs 65 crore and FY20’s operating total of Rs 175 crore. Even after the pandemic, the breakneck pace persisted. The brand is anticipated to complete FY22 at Rs 600 crores, up from Rs 321 crores in FY21 as per Forbes report.
Working on a subscription basis, Country Delight asserted in a Forbes report of 2022 that its 6,000 delivery personnel fulfill more than 5 million orders per month and reach over 3 lakh households. Country Delight expanded its product line beyond milk, which still accounts for a significant portion of company sales, to include items like bread, pastry, ghee (clarified butter), paneer (cottage cheese), yogurts, and healthy smoothies. According to Gade, the company has begun supplying fresh produce to the Delhi-NCR market. It also intends to expand into other product categories, including jams, pickles, rice, wheat, legumes, and grains.
Till last year, the business, was active in 15 cities including Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Bengaluru, Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Chennai.
From a corporate 9-5 to building a business worth crores, Chakradhar and Nitin have come a long way with Country Delights’ success and expansion.
