TenderCuts: All about this ‘MEATY’ Affair
Well, buying meat in wet markets or from butchers is an unpleasant experience characterized by a perpetual stench, buzzing flies and the revolting sight of meat hung upside down. Undoubtedly, the experience seems to be pretty horrific. But, who has ever given a thought over easing this stinky experience! Founded in 2016 by a self-professed, ardent meat lover and founder, Nishanth Chandran, TenderCuts was born of the vision to provide fresh, quality meat in line with WHO standards, the desire to bring back the real taste of meat, and to give people unlimited choice of meats, cuts and flavors, in the comfort of their home. TenderCuts is committed to delivering farm fresh, healthy and hygienically processed meat right to your doorstep in 120 minutes. “We offer the finest selection of chicken, mutton, seafood, exotic meats and marinades, non-veg pickles that can be ordered online, on your phone or at the TenderCuts retail experience store. Our premium range also includes free-range chicken and goat,” proclaims Chandran.
TenderCuts, India’s first omni-channel meat company
We sell through retail stores, direct orders from our website, Mobile app and call center. TenderCuts prides itself on its pristine industry standards and for the following quality differentiators:
- Fresh and hygienically processed meat/seafood
- Experience the real taste of meat
- Antibiotic/Hormone/Chemical/preservative free
- RO washed and pre-cleaned
- Cold chain technology that preserves freshness
- Meat sourced from local communities
- Meat is handled by trained personnel within completely automated systems and at our state-of-the-art facility, where the pre-cleaning and washing of meat is done with RO purified water
Today, the brand is on a ‘meaty’ voyage to transform people’s experience of buying meat, as the experience of buying one isn’t a cakewalk. Not only is the meat stale, unhygienic, low on taste, but is also unfit for human consumption, according to World Health Organization (WHO). Guidelines state that the meat kept at temperatures between 5 to 60 degrees Celsius, which becomes poisonous with time. The quality meat and seafood provided by TenderCuts conforms to FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) and WHO (World Health Organization) standards on the distribution and consumption of fresh–cut meat.
“We have successfully gathered 1 lakh+ customers within a short span of 3 years. We have partnered with 100+ farmers in giving fair price & timely payments at the same time ensuring stringent quality standards for customer’s hence encouraging micro entrepreneurship,” asserts Chandran.
Obstacles are the part and parcel
“Being an avid meat lover myself, I wasn’t satisfied with the quality of the meat I get from the market. The meat is not hygienic and there were no convenient options to purchase the meat. There weren’t any players who delivered quality meat at the doorstep. There was a definite gap in the market on what people want and what was available. This got me thinking about options that we can explore to penetrate this niche segment. Therefore, this gave rise to TenderCuts, remembers the meat lover.
Multiple challenges were faced by them at various phases. Educating the customers was a major challenge. Since most customers are accustomed to buying from local markets, it was their initial challenge to communicate about the disadvantages of warm meat, but once we communicated, we pretty much got them coming back to us. Another challenge they faced was to train the butchers in the market and improves their life. They trained them on multiple cuts, hygiene cuts, etc. They also ensure that all butchers are healthy and even performed their medical test every month.
The first phase of the pilot operation was launched last year to understand the product and user behavior. By September 2016, the company expanded to most of the parts of Chennai and by January 2017 they got Dr. Chef Damodaran on board as their brand ambassador.
Future Prospects
At TenderCuts, innovation & new product development has been the core and the company has been innovating products by making life easier for families and one of the biggest innovations, which has been brought about, is the ready to cook category is the marinated meat, using marinated meat our customers can not only save time also cook the most delicious recipes under 5-7 mins. Apart from this they have been constantly innovating new products in the ready to cook category, such as starters & gravies, etc. The vision is to become a single brand for all your meat & seafood needs.
The highly unorganized market and the consumer awareness on buying high-quality hygienic meat are increased and therefore there is a potential growth of 300% year on year. As the consumption of meat is increased there is no supply chain player in the industry, being a strong supply chain player we deliver the freshest and hygienic meat & seafood from FARM to CUSTOMER. So the growth percentage is higher and hence it’s a very scalable model.
We currently have 12 TenderCuts stores in Chennai and recently launched our 1st store in Hyderabad, Banjara Hills on 14th December 2018 and plan to open another 18 stores in Chennai & 14 stores in Hyderabad in the next 2 years. Also aims to expand 70 stores in other major cities in the next 5 years.
