Country Delight milks its way into kitchen essentials

Aiming for profitability by 2024, Country Delight, a D2C milk brand, has decided to enter the organic food segment and deliver kitchen essentials ranging from pulses to cookies.

The brand started in 2005, saw a surge in demand, post-COVID, clocked in operating revenues of Rs 321 crore in FY21, and has witnessed 7-10% month-on-month revenue growth across India. Over the last three years, Country Delight has grown 10 times in scale and is currently valued at Rs 900 crore.

“Milk was a hook to enter the kitchen essentials category,” reveals Subhashini Rajaram, general manager, communication, Country Delight. She says the company will be “expanding into fruits and vegetables and the complete kitchen essentials segment.”

The company has already started with pulses, poha and dry fruits. “Over the coming two years, we will be catering to kitchen essentials, starting from biscuits to cookies. Our products will be chemical-free and fall within specific standards."

Country Delight, with this move, tries to grab a bigger share of India’s overall grocery market worth $15 billion in the top 10 cities. Milk constitutes 20% of this market and the company has a 2-3% market share in the milk segment.

Potential of subscription-based delivery platforms

India saw a post-pandemic boom in the fortunes of D2C brands. Country Delight is no different with more than 80% of its sales coming online.

A customer has to subscribe to Country Delight to receive its milk delivery. It counts the likes of BBDaily, HomeExpress, and Supr Daily, among others as rivals. However, can a subscription-based delivery model work in India? In the past, Swiggy scaled down the operations of its Supr Daily due to a surge in demand.

Country Delight’s business model “ensures delivery in 24-36 hours. It has a fully integrated, just-in-time supply chain. All of the above have helped us in building a successful subscription-based delivery model,” responds Rajaram.

The brand has completed eight million deliveries per month across 15 cities. Its supply chain spans across 11 states.

Digital focus

Advertising and marketing hold incredible importance for D2C brands. One can spot ads from Country Delight not only on platforms like YouTube and Instagram but gaming platforms too.

"We have been present on every platform. Our target audience is women, men as well as kids. Since many homemakers are into mobile phones, we try to have a direct connection with them via casual gaming," explains the general manager. Country Delight has also been associated with celebrities, such as actress Twinkle Khanna, track and field athlete Neeraj Chopra and shuttler Lakshya Sen.

It recently released two ads of which one prioritises work-life balance while the other focuses on spending time with your family. Both ads were conceptualised by the brand’s in-house creative team and directed by Jeet Lotia from Another Idea Productions.