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Recipe for Success: Atchayam’s Foodbox’s USP - Fresh food, convenience
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Wednesday, 01 October, 2014, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Harcha Bhaskar, Mumbai
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fiogf49gjkf0d Atchayam’s Foodbox, an automated retailer, was born out of Satish ChamyVelumani’s dream of the taking the Indian food supply chain to the international level. The company’s founder and chief executive officer said he wanted good, wholesome food to become available at convenient locations to people on the go.
He insists that it is not a restaurant, but a concept wherein food is brought from a number of eateries. It cuts down the time spent waiting for an order to arrive. Moreover it is affordable. And most importantly, it keeps in mind the health of the consumers too - on board is a team of nutritionists that strives to make each meal nutritious, without compromising on the taste.
The inspiration to foray into restaurant retailing came from the lack of quality food from trusted sources while on the move. Rather than complaining, ChamyVelumani wanted to do his bit to solve the problem, which he thought was bigger in India than in most other parts of the world.
The team
ChamyVelumani - who holds masters’ degrees in science (majoring in engineering) and business administration (both from the United States) - worked at 3M for about eleven years, before returning to India to establish Atchayam Business Solutions.
Besides him, the core team of Atchayam’s Foodbox (which was conceptualised in late 2010) comprises Ramesh Narayanan, co-founder and chief financial officer, and Rajsekar Mathuram, chief technology officer.
The former, a chartered accountant, has been running a business process outsourcing (BPO) firm in Chennai for a decade, and the latter, who holds a masters’ degree in science (majoring in computer science) and worked at Verizon in India and the United States for over twelve years before joining Atchayam.
What Atchayam does
ChamyVelumani said, “Atchayam - whose first outlet commenced operations in 2013 - is a retail facilitator. We feed people local dishes on the move. Fresh and fast is the unique selling proposition (USP).”
“We achieve this by aggregating from multiple different restaurants from within the city and retailing through fully-automated outlets, which are located at the most convenient places,” he said.
ChamyVelumani added that the key drivers of this convenience were the 90-second delivery time (from the time of delivery), variety (multiple different restaurants under one roof), hygiene (minimal handling between the time of packing and delivery) and world-class packaging.
“At meal times, he food items are prepared and packed by the restaurants. The supply chain picks up the food and delivers it to the outlets ahead of every meal,” he stated.
“The food packs are loaded onto our dispensers, where the technology keeps them fresh throughout the meal. At the time of delivery, the packs are rethermalised to ensure that the food remains fresh and tasty, and its texture is intact,” ChamyVelumani added.
The beginnings
As a start-up company, Atchayam’s Foodbox undertook market research in 2011 to understand the viability of the concept. This was followed by considerable technological research, which was undertaken keeping in mind the high level of innovation involved. The technology took about three years to develop.
Being capital-intensive and technology-oriented, the majority of the investment went into research and development (R&D) in the last few years. We spent at least a couple of crores in developing the technology.
The first outlets also costed a bit, especially because of the learning (technology) and subsequent corrections. The investment for proof of concept was fairly easy to come up with. Most of the venture capital for the investments came from friends, family and financiers.
ChamyVelumani said, “Though there was an investment crunch, we had strong belief in our dreams as the concept was strong enough to generate enough interest. Moreover a lot of people were confident enough in the team to put their savings in the venture. The technology has been home-grown. I always say that the service is proudly imported from Coimbatore.”
Current scenario and hiccups
Today, Atchayam’s Foodbox has 22 employees, including store operators. Two outlets are currently running, and the third and the fourth are in the works.
The company’s current partners include Adayar Anandha Bhavan, Aasife Biriyani, Karaikudi, Amaravathi, Moti Mahal Deluxe and Mr Chows.
“We had initial hiccups like any other start-up, especially with the technology and supply chain. But our partner restaurants cooperated so well, that none of those difficulties seems big any more,” ChamyVelumani said.
“There was more anxiety than excitement, because of the technology and the fact that we were trying to do this for the first time. Even after multiple trials over several days, the first day was really tense,” he added.
He said, “It is the perseverance and determination to change the market that this business and leadership thrives on.”
“We are creating this new category (ultra quick-service restaurant) as a start-up. This takes an enormous amount of will and perseverance in the face of all the difficulties that we face,” ChamyVelumani said.
The company is on expansion mode. It would be expanding in Chennai in the next quarters, and into Bangalore and Hyderabad by the end of this fiscal year. They intend to go national after that.
Nostalgia
ChamyVelumani said, “I personally love travelling by train. The biggest issue with train journeys in India is the lack of quality food from trusted sources.”
“When I was in the United States, where automation is applied to increase efficiency, the thought of, ‘What if we have an automated dispenser that would dispense food from multiple trusted sources at the touch of a button?’ struck me. We started building on it, and put the team together. Three years later, Foodbox was born,” he added.
ChamyVelumani said, “I have been cooking for my family since I was 17. When I went to the United States, the tradition continued, and I cooked for my friends. And it continues to date. The best food outing that I have had was making chicken gravy and chilli chicken for my friends in the middle of the night in Ooty one New Year’s Eve. That was in my college days.”
“From the point of view of a career, it was not a childhood ambition as such, but clicked in my college days. There was an urge to build something on my own. As an engineer, my first preferences were definitely engineering and manufacturing. But life took this turn, and now this engineer is a retail entrepreneur,” he added.
Summing it up, ChamyVelumani said, “Wouldn’t be great if you can walk in and assemble a meal for yourself from various restaurants (say a roti from one place, a starter from another, rice from a third, and so on), at the touch of a few buttons, in under 90 seconds? That’s what we are dreaming about!”
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