India Cuisine is a food ecommerce start-up with an online store that sells regional cuisine and food products from West Bengal across India at a reasonable price. Spare a few minutes to know more about it.
Indian foods are loved
Indian foods are among the most popular across the globe and almost kind of dishes are loved everywhere. Even Bengali dishes remain in a demand for their lip-smacking taste.
The rich Bengali food culture prompted husband-wife duo Umashankar Mishra and Shruti Mishra to pass on the delicious cuisine to every nook and cranny of India. In January 2021, they started India Cuisine in Kolkata.
What is India Cuisine?
India Cuisine is a food ecommerce start-up with an online store that sells regional cuisine and food products from West Bengal across India at a reasonable price. The startup offers Bengali sweets, authentic Bengali groceries, desi ghee, dry fruits, sweets, snacks, drinks and beverages, fryums, instant mix, fasting and falhari food products, and staples and spices that are a speciality of West Bengal.
The founders of the startup
But in 2020, after a few days under the lockdown, the couple went out of stock with sweets. Umashankar says that he always wanted to start an ecommerce business and during the pandemic, I got time to shape my dream. I did research on authentic local brands and realised that though they gained years of faith and recognition worldwide, many remained unorganised. I saw huge potential in this sector and now my dream is that the cuisines of West Bengal reach every Indian meal,” says Umashankar.
Starting with 51 products and five categories, today, the startup deals with 400+ products across 10 categories, India Cuisine and Food Product Pvt Ltd is also recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), a Government of India initiative.
Journey of the founders
The start-up that began its journey with a two-member team has five members. Prior to starting India Cuisine, Umashankar had 20+ years of experience running a sole proprietorship business delivering more than 2,000 varieties of products to different jute mills in West Bengal.
Shruti comes with over 11 years of experience and has worked with top Indian companies and MNCs in accounts, finance, costing, company law, and compliance. At India Cuisine, Umashankar takes care of procurement, dispatch and shipping, while Shruti takes care of finance, costing, compliance, company law, accounts, procurement, business model and revenue.
The startup operates on a B2C model where it takes orders from customers through their website and delivers it to their doorstep. They ship sweets through air mode and the rest of the products through other means of transport so that they can be consumed within the shelf life. The startup uses international as well as national courier brands such as Delhivery, Blue Dart, Xpressbees, Kerry Indev, DTDC, Gati etc to deliver its products across 26,000+ pin codes.
The startup sources products directly from the company, distributor, or from local markets or shops. It does not charge any commission from the businesses/vendors from whom they procure products. Products are bought on wholesale basis, and the startup charges a margin on the wholesale price from customers.
Over 2000 customers served
The start-up claiming to be profitable has products range from Rs 38 to Rs 1220. So far, the startup has served 2,000+ customers. Shruti explains that the number is low because of the pandemic-led lockdown.
However, the startup plans to reach 20+ million customers across India, and 10+ million outside India in the coming years. At the end of FY 2022, the company’s turnover was Rs 2 million.
The way ahead The founders bootstrapped the startup with an initial investment of just Rs 21000/-, but after seeing a steep growth in sales they have invested in the business as per the requirement and till now their total investment in the business is Rs. 10 Lakh (including fixed cost).
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