Founded in 2018 by Mithil Lodha and Rahul Jain, it currently runs about 40 outlets selling fresh juice and other products in nine cities including Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Delhi. About 30 of these are ‘shop-in-shop’ stores placed inside Inox theatres and Reliance Retail outlets, Lodha said.
“Our commitment to The Fresh Press reflects our support for the growing health consciousness among Indian consumers. As people become more mindful about what they eat, I want to support innovative homegrown entrepreneurs who are leading the charge in the health and consumer sectors,” Nikhil Kamath, cofounder of Gruhas and stock brokerage firm Zerodha, said.
The firm is now looking to expand to 150 stores, about 90 of which will be shop-in-shop while the remainder will be standalone outlets. The expansion will take about 18 months to complete, Lodha added.
The funds will also be used to hire more employees and in marketing. The firm is now looking to widen the range of its offerings from fruit juices, milkshakes and smoothies into products with sun-dried fruits.
The company’s sales are evenly split between retail outlets and online channels like Swiggy and Zomato. It recorded Rs 3.5 crore in revenue in FY23, and is set to exit this fiscal with Rs 6.5 crore in revenue, Lodha said. It is targeting a revenue of Rs 15 crore in FY25, he added.
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The company has a store-level earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) margin of 15%, excluding corporate costs, Lodha said. It sees an average order value (AOV) of Rs 200 in its standalone stores and Rs 350-400 in its shop-in-shop stores. On the other hand, standalone stores see more customers with about 3,000 to 4,000 billings per month, against 700 to 800 billings per month for shop-in-shop.“The shop-in-shop stores offer us better profitability even though the number of transactions is lower, given standalone stores are more capex heavy and need more staff, as they are open for longer periods of time,” Lodha added.
