This case study “Grofers’ Growing Ambition in Online Grocery Business in India” discusses the journey of online grocery delivery service company, Grofers India Private Ltd (Grofers), and its growing ambition since its inception in 2013. The company was named Onenumber when it was launched and the name was then changed to Grofers in December 2013. The case describes Grofers’ journey post its launch in January 2014. It discusses the release of its mobile application in 2014,, how it tied up with local kiranawalas the same year for the delivery of groceries at customers’ homes, the way it revolutionized the market with 90-minute delivery of products, again in 2014, and its expansion into 26 Indian cities by 2014-2015. The case study also describes the problems faced by the company which included losses amounting to Rs 2.25 billion in FY2016, a fragmented supply chain, diseconomies of scale, and dislocation of activities and eventual shutting down of its operations in 9 cities. The case then describes how Grofers improved its supply chain by establishing company warehouses in 2016 and how it changed its delivery slot from 90 minutes to 24 hours the same year. However, it faced difficulties with losses mounting to Rs 2.68 billion at the close of FY2017. From 2017, Grofers re-launched its operations in 5 out of 9 cities, expanded its product categories (2017), launched its own label, “Grofers” (2018), began bringing local kiranas under the Grofers brand (2018), and modified its supply chain by adding 6,500 local service partners, to solve the pick-up and distribution problems (2018). Grofers recorded revenues of Rs 10 billion in FY2018, amidst losses of Rs 2.58 billion. The case concludes with the present financial and operational status at Grofers and its future prospects amidst competition from new and existing players in the industry such as Bigbasket.com in the highly competitive online grocery market in India.

Leadership and Entrepreneurship Case Studies | Case Study in Management, Operations, Strategies, Business Environment, Case Studies

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Issues

The case is structured to achieve the following teaching objectives:

	How a startup company sensed opportunities in the business environment and seized them to launch new services.
	The strategies adopted by a startup to grow from a small player.
	How an entrepreneur overcomes the challenges in a competitive business environment.
	How startups with innovative business models are disrupting the traditional vertical industries.
	How to find success in an super competitive business environment.

Contents

INTRODUCTION

A BUSINESS IDEA CALLED GROFERS

THE RESURRECTION

GROFERS’ GROWING AMBITION

BUSINESS PERFORMANCE

COMPETITION FROM OTHER PLAYERS

FUTURE PROSPECTS

EXHIBITS

Keywords

Grocery business; Grofers; Supply chain; Startup; Business Environment; Business Models; Online Grocery; BigBasket; Hyperlocal; Kiranas; Delivery model; Softbank; Nature’s Basket; Swiggy

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