Suguna Foods, with its headquarters in Coimbatore, introduced the Delfrez brand of processed poultry and mutton products in December 2021. The company has already found success in Kerala and plans to expand to a few other cities in the North, West, and the rest of South India in 2023.
The company’s (turnover of Rs. 10,750 crore) Delfrez brand distributes processed chicken, mutton, and eggs both online and offline. As of January 2023, Kerala accounted for 75% of the brand’s $250 million in revenue.
“The brand recall for Delfrez has increased much beyond our expectations.” At least 20 to 30 percent of Kerala’s meat consumers are now aware of the brand Delfrez, according to Krishna Prasad, Vice president of Suguna Foods’ processed food division, in an interview with MediaNews4u.com.
Thrissur, Calicut, Ernakulam, and Trivandrum are home to 60% of the brand’s offline locations. The rest are dispersed throughout the state. In 2021, the media reported that the group planned to invest Rs. 100 crore in the brand and open more than 1,000 locations by 2025.
Regarding the state of the stores, Prasad stated, “In the chosen cities, we hope to open 180 stores in 2023.” We intend to work on 14 to 15 stores monthly starting in April 2023.
The company wants to expand its presence in the South by opening new locations in Kerala, Coimbatore, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad. It will launch outlets in Pune and Navi Mumbai in the west. It will spread northward to Chandigarh, Mohali, and Panchkula as well as Delhi and the NCR.
According to the spokesperson, Delfrez, which had a turnover of Rs 250 crore, intends to end the current fiscal year with Rs 750 crore. In 2022, Suguna Foods became an official partner of Kerala Blasters FC. This was done to help people remember Delfrez.
Suguna Foods’ own D2C platform and app will be available soon.
Suguna Foods has four verticals: soy, feed, foods, and poultry farms. Of those, the farming industry makes up the most, at Rs. 7,000 crore, followed by feeds, soy, and foods.
According to Prasad, this industry primarily consists of four verticals or functions. Production, which for us is the farm business, comes first. Regarding the poultry industry, Suguna is ranked first in India and eighth overall. The broiler bird is treated in the following stages under hygienic circumstances: The fourth one is further processing the goods, and the third is branding.
According to him, Suguna is one of the very few brands that has gotten it right from breed to breed.
Despite the fact that many D2C players buy processed meat from suppliers like Suguna and brand it, he pointed out that Suguna has an advantage because it owns the chain from source to “end.” “Along with the commercial benefits, it also offers us operational benefits,” he continued.
Suguna has connections to many cities’ online third-party networks. By August 2023, its own platform will be introduced. The testing has already started. “A pilot test for our own platform through our own app has already begun in Coimbatore.” “We hope to introduce it in metro areas by August 2023, followed by Tier 2 cities,” said Prasad.
Unorganized business accounts for approximately 40% of the Rs. 85,000 crore chicken industry. Suguna calculates its share to be 16–17% for the upcoming year making it one of the trending brand’s in the industry. This shall mark a new journey and Market cap for Suguna Foods as an emerging brand.