On-demand rickshaw aggregator and delivery company Jugnoo has entered the food delivery segment via its recently re-launched hyperlocal delivery service ‘Fatafat’ app. Jugnoo’s team of auto-rickshaw drivers will deliver food “during their free time”, according to the company.
The service is currently live in Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali via its mobile app. The meal delivery service will take orders between 12 midnight to 12 noon. Users can choose between two delivery slots: 12:30 pm-1:30 pm, and 1:30 pm-2:30 pm. Jugnoo adds that it’s planning to launch meals for evening snacks and dinner as well, within a week’s time.
No minimum order: The menu will be “daily-changing and handpicked”, it will include “premium sandwiches, meal combos and exclusive desserts, among others without any minimum order price.” Food will be sourced from “some popular brands in Chandigarh,” the company said and they will be put through quality checks.
On why Jugnoo is branching out to food delivery: The company says that the reason behind this move is for ‘ensuring profitability of its hyperlocal delivery business category’. Drivers have a “lucrative role” in every delivery service of its including Fatafat and Dodo deliveries; and by branching out to food-delivery the company claims that it is trying to ‘allocate logistics resources optimally’.
“We are definitely expanding, but with each expansion we are creating new avenues for our drivers to earn extra”. We don’t want to burn cash like other players in this segment. The intention is to focus on quality rather than quantity. We plan to keep the demand limited and get the food sold within a timespan of just 15 minutes,” says Nitish Singh, CFO of Jugnoo and head of Fatafat and Meals verticals.
Jugnoo claims that it has over 40,000 people transacting per day on its platform on both delivery and on-demand auto-rickshaw service. It also claims to have over 12,000 autos under the brand at present across 35 cities.
Snapdeal food delivery: Another example of a company diversifying out to food delivery business, but not actually related to the business is the ecommerce marketplace Snapdeal; it is currently offering food delivery through its mobile app from restaurants nearby a user’s area; this was launched in April, in partnership with Zomato. It also offers bus, fligh , and home services through a partnership model via its mobile app.
Ola had tried food delivery and shut down within a year
Ola debuted its food delivery service called OlaCafe in March 2015. Users could order food from nearby restaurants using the Ola app. It was available in parts of Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi and Mumbai and users could pay either via Ola money or through cash.
By March 2016, Ola shut down the app; a Livemint report stated that OlaCafe ‘failed to meet expectations’ after it faced competition from other food delivery services like Zomato, Swiggy, and Tinyown, according to sources that spoke to the publication.
