Licious Expands Its South India Operations 2024: Acquires Bengaluru-Based My Chicken and More

Licious Expands Its South India Operations 2024: Acquires Bengaluru-Based My Chicken and More

In consolidating its market leadership position and expansion of the business footprint in South India, meat and seafood brand Licious on Tuesday announced acquiring Bengaluru-based startup My Chicken and More. This deal will further strengthen the supply chain of south India for Licious and give it a much stronger grip, even on the fresh meat segment. The company announced the deal on October 14, 2024. This kind of deal will improve operational efficiency and provide customers with wide choices for fresh meat.

Rise of Meat Industry in India

In the last decade or so, the Indian meat industry has been graduating toward more organized retail and better quality products. D2C fresh meat market is estimated at $40 billion today and would explode in growth as consumers started looking out for their health and demanding better quality, hygienically processed meat.

Licious stands out as one of the most transforming companies in space. Its founders, Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta, started the company in 2015 to define the way Indians buy meat-fresh, responsibly sourced meat products, direct to the consumer. In a world that has remained unorganised and dominated by the ubiquitous neighborhood butcher, owning every step of the supply chain-from procurement to delivery-positioned Licious uniquely in that industry.

Why Licious Bought My Chicken and More

Acquiring My Chicken and More, a Bengaluru-based startup is part of the bigger strategy Licious envisions to get its act right in selective markets, more prominently in South India, where demand for fresh meat remains strong. My Chicken and More has created a brand through which it offers quality chicken products through retail stores across Bengaluru. It has a streamlined supply chain, and operational strength is an added attraction to become a relatively good acquisition play for Licious.

Merge My Chicken and More’s supply chain and retail network into the existing structure of Licious, thus creating a platform whereby it could scale up its operations and work more effectively to meet the growing demand in that region. An acquisition that pushes Licious closer to its objective of being one of the top players in the organized meat retailing sector when that market is expected to grow substantially going forward.

The second one would be to purchase the local smaller players such as My Chicken and More in order to quickly gain access to fresh markets and develop the logistics network. Given the experience they have regarding the local market, Licious is best positioned to meet specific needs of South Indian consumers in a manner different from others in the country because of their propensity for fresh meat and seafood.

Supply Chain Improvement and Customer Experience. Another success factor for Licious has been complete control over the supply chain, thereby ensuring freshness of products reaching customers while maintaining rigid standards for hygiene and safety. Thus, acquisition of Licious would mean strengthening the supply chain infrastructure in Southern India and enable the company to process and deliver its products effectively.

More importantly, it will sync Licious’ high tech platform with My Chicken and More operations, be reducing timelines in the delivery process and then focus on bettering the overall experience for the customers. After all, the integration of Licious’ tech-driven operations and localized knowledge at My Chicken and More would create a more robust supply chain that would be more efficient in handling volumes of demand.

The best possible technology enables real-time tracking of an order, effective management of inventory, and optimization of routes for delivery so that fresh and quality meat products reach the customers. This technology-driven approach has just worked like a wonder for Licious in the Ultra-Competitive D2C meat market.

Embracing the ever-growing need for fresh and hygienic meat products

This has led Indian consumers, for the past few years, to demand fresh, hygienically processed, and conveniently delivered meat. Increasing income levels and a change in preferences of the consumers forced consumers to turn away from all times-compromising unorganized markets and opt for a premium, safe, and reliable alternative like Licious in organized players.

This is where Licious has taken an opportunity with a brand that is set to cut across consumers focusing on quality and hygiene. The company ensures its products have quality checks and processing in state-of-the art facilities that meet international food safety standards. Acquiring My Chicken and More will allow Licious to continue to supply a steady stream of fresh meat products to a growing base of customers in South India and to keep its focus on quality and trust at the heart of its operations.

This acquisition makes solid strategic sense in the competitive landscape of this market. It is part of the holistic scaling of Licious into and outside India. This company has been able to lure large investments, allowing it to grow organically as well as inorganically. Stood atop its shoulders to help it scale up rapidly were investors in Temasek, Multiples PE, and 3one4 Capital became the leading D2C meat brand in the country.

The fresh meat and seafood market is highly aggressive with a number of players in fray looking to corner all the market shares. In fact, Freshtohome and Zappfresh, both have increased their reach and have raised funds to corner a greater share of the market. Going by this perspective, acquisition of My Chicken and More is bound to make Licious take the front seat in competitiveness within South Indian markets because, apart from local knowledge, the success of any business is very much dependent upon supply chain infrastructure.

The company would further direct its energies into further acquisitions to enhance its footprint in other key geographies across India. It has already made some good inroads in a few of the major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad. Definitely, this acquisition will make it the market leader in the meat retail space in Bengaluru and the rest of South India.

Future Prospects and Growth Opportunities

Company Plans and Future Prospect According to Licious’s plans, it is going to create growth in the company size. Therefore, with its products like chicken, lamb, seafood, and ready-to-cook items, the company would want to become a household name in the Indian meat and seafood market. Apart from that, international business opportunities also lie ahead beyond Indian borders; for example, business focus will lie on foreign markets of the Middle East and Southeast Asia where demand for fresh and quality meat products is on an increase.

It is a huge opportunity with high-degree growth for the fresh meat industry in India, projecting to grow at compound annual growth rate of 25-30% for some years. Regional players such as My Chicken and More would take a quicker growth pace for Licious, which would emerge as the “go-to” brand for fresh meat and seafood in India.

Conclusion

Acquiring My Chicken and More by Licious will enable aggressive focus by the company on the expansion plan simultaneously meeting its commitment toward the consumers of high-quality, hygienic meat products. Fresh meat market in India will continue to grow, and Licious would be well positioned to take advantage of the trend as it moves forward to become the market leader in D2C meat and seafood.

With such a structure-good investors, a technologically driven approach, and a robust supply chain-Licious is all set to look forward to an exciting future not merely in South India but everywhere across the country and possibly across the globe.
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