Licious reports 8% drop in revenue to Rs 685 crore in FY24 amid third-party channel closures; losses cut by 44%

Currently, 85 percent of Licious' business is conducted through its app, serving nearly 1.2 million consumers monthly.

Online meat and seafood brand Licious on October 16 said its revenue declined by 8 percent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 685.05 crore in financial year 2023-24 amid the closure of distribution channels and a revamped distribution model. However, the Bengaluru-headquartered direct-to-consumer company reduced its losses by 44 percent to Rs 293.77 crore during the period.

Delightful Gourmet, which owns the brand, said revenue declined due to the closure of Dunzo and Swiggy Meatstore distribution channels, alongside deprioritising modern and general trade. Licious said the company’s focus has shifted to owned channels, as a result of which revenue was dragged down from modern trade and local stores.

Licious' platform-driven sales were up 5 percent in a year after the company rejigged front-end distribution to focus on the route to profitability. The Temasek-backed company aims to turn profitable in the current financial year itself by aggressively ramping up its offline store network.

Currently, 85 percent of Licious' business is conducted through its app, serving nearly 1.2 million consumers monthly.

Licious had earlier told Moneycontrol that the total addressable market (TAM) for meat companies is around 30 million households and Licious has tapped only 4 million so far.

The company’s flagship loyalty programme, Infiniti, now has about 2 lakh weekly active subscribers, contributing to 58 percent of the company's monthly business.

The rapid rise of quick commerce has resulted in deliveries increasing by 35 percent via this route, the company said.

Licious is also piloting 30-minute deliveries in Gurugram, as it shifts to a full-stack D2C model. Earlier this week, Licious expanded its physical retail presence by acquiring Bengaluru-based offline retailer My Chicken and More, bringing its retail points of sale to 26.

"Last year has been a transition, with short-term impacts from strategic adjustments. However, we expect to see the positive results of these choices by the end of FY25," co-founders Ajay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta said.

Earlier, the company said it is also diversifying its offerings by entering into newer categories like momos and the like, which will also push up average order values (AOVs). In May, Licious had an AOV of around Rs 600, up from Rs 500 from three to four years ago, Gupta told Moneycontrol.

Founded in 2015, Licious has grown fast and is the highest-funded company in the fresh animal protein business category. The company has raised about $490 million from Vertex Ventures, Bertelsmann India Investments, 3one4 Capital, and several others. The Kamath brothers, Boat’s Aman Gupta, and others are prominent angel investors at Licious, which was last valued at $1.5 billion when it raised $150 million in March last year, as per Tracxn, a private markets data provider.

Apart from local butchers, Licious primarily competes with Amazon-backed FreshToHome which has raised about $290 million so far.