Licious loss, expenses widened in ’21

NEW DELHI: Meat and seafood delivery brand Licious, operated by Delightful Gourmet Pvt Ltd, reported a net loss of ₹369 crore in FY21, against a loss of ₹146.3 crore a year ago.

Raw materials such as meat, poultry and seafood products were the largest cost centres for the brand in FY21, accounting for 49.3% of the annual costs. These costs grew in line with sales, growing 3.05X to ₹318.7 crore in FY21 from ₹104.3 crore in the previous fiscal.

The company offered regular discounts to customers in order to drive sales, shelling out ₹34.5 crore on discounts in FY21, compared with ₹10.4 crore in FY20, the company’s filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) show.

Licious has witnessed a sharp rise in total income to ₹435 crore in the current financial year compared with ₹138 crore last year.

Revenue from operations increased from ₹131.82 crore to ₹420 crore.

However, expenses stood at around ₹646 crore against last year’s ₹283 crore.

According to the report, the company relies on systems including information technology systems -- to manage its business and their failure could adversely affect operations.

Founded by Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta in 2015, Licious became India’s 29th unicorn in 2021. In October 2021, Gupta told VCCircle the brand’s initial public offering (IPO) could be two to three years away.

Gupta futher added that profit margins have been under a strain because Licious has been spending money on marketing.

Last November, the company announced a new employee stock ownership plan, christened ‘Everyday Vesting, Anytime Liquidation’, starting this year.

At present, the firm has a 3,500-member team with employees across different disciplines and functions.