The Story of Country Delight: Revolutionizing Daily Milk

Chakradhar Gade and Nitin Kaushal, IIM Indore alumni, founded Country Delight in 2015. They entered the milk industry without a background, which helped them approach challenges with a unique perspective. Country Delight's innovative farm-to-home delivery model has transformed customer experiences by providing high-quality dairy and grocery products directly from local farms.

Dreaming beyond today

The founders of Country Delight's vision is to provide their customers with the freshest products, just like they would get from a farm neighbourhood. This serves as the guiding principle towards success.

Purpose in Action

They believe that India has a highly unorganised sector where quality is unreliable, and the essence and naturalness of food are entirely lost. So their mission was to provide customers with superior quality fresh milk. And to gain customer loyalty.

Read Also- CurryIt: Revolutionizing Home-Cooked Meals with Convenience and Flavor

Overcoming Obstacles

As they started their journey without a background in the dairy industry and a little money, they had to face many challenges. One founder stated that they started the journey by purchasing 50 cattle and identified a land parcel. They didn't understand how to manage the cattle, so milk production reduced as the milk cycle became unpredictable. They were producing 200 litres of milk and thought they would reach 5,000 litres in two years, but it ended up taking them six years. At this point, they burnt through 70% of the bootstrapped capital. So it was a long learning curve to get where they are today. The team had to figure out multiple aspects: how to procure milk, fix last-mile delivery, and deal with customer acquisition costs. But at last, they were able to overcome these challenges by integrating their supply chain with technology and building scalable options. 

Expanding Horizons

Country Delight followed a direct-to-consumer (D2C) model, bypassing the conventional supply chain and sending farm-fresh milk directly to customers' homes, and has partnered with 5000 farmers. This has not only maintained quality control but also eliminated the middlemen, which resulted in competitive pricing. Today, they successfully executed 8 million deliveries a month, with different products like staples, fruits and veggies, and more, across 15 cities and 11 states in India.

Country Delight has raised Rs 76 crore ($9 million) through debt and equity from Alteria Capital. This is the second funding for the Gurugram-based company this year. In May 2022, Country Delight raised $108 million in a Series D funding round led by Nicholas Cator-backed Venturi Partners and Temasek. Country Delight raised 20 million in its Series E round from Temasek, Seviora Capital, Venturi Partners, and others. 

Advertisment

Loyalty Through Quality

While "freshness" is undoubtedly a key differentiator for Country Delight, its true success lies in unwavering trust and loyalty among its customers. In a market where adulteration is common, Country Delight goes beyond just offering fresh milk. 
Strategies used by Country Delight in maintaining trust and loyalty:
1. Partnering with small, local farmers
Country Delight has partners with over 250 small and medium-sized dairy farmers. This helps in stricter control over the entire milk production process, from ensuring high-quality feed for the cows to maintaining hygienic milking practices. And also reduces the chance of adulteration and allows them to trace the origin of every milk packet back to the specific farm. Partnering with small local farmers also builds a positive social impact.
2. Implementing strict quality control measures
Country Delight implements industry-leading quality control measures. Their milk undergoes testing for over 75 parameters every 15 days in NABL-accredited labs.These tests ensure the milk meets the highest safety and quality standards, exceeding FSSAI requirements. They make milk testing results publicly available. Customers can easily access the report through the mobile app. Moreover, they also send a milk testing kit with the customer's first order.

3. Using technology to build trust
Country Delight's user-friendly mobile app boasts over one million downloads as of 2023. Customers can subscribe and manage deliveries with ease, can also track their orders in real time, and get a detailed milk testing report, fostering transparency and building trust with the customers. Each pack comes with the QR code, so when scanned, customers can get the virtual tour of the farm from where milk is sourced. This personalises the experience and allows them to see the source of their food firsthand, further strengthening trust and building a connection with the brand.

Vision for Tomorrow

The founder stated that they want to focus on improving the farmer's ecosystem.
For the product front, the company plans to increase and include more Indian cities.  Chakradhar says they plan to import their farmer network and want to be a one-stop platform for a better lifestyle. They plan to expand their product portfolio. They also plan to increase their farmer network. In essence, they want to be a one-stop platform for wellness and to live better.

The Takeaway

Indian households now have better access to fresh, premium dairy and grocery products thanks to Country Delight. It has established a strong brand that blends convenience and health by emphasising direct-to-consumer delivery, transparency, and trust. Its model illustrates how supply chain innovation and technology can reshape conventional industries, generating benefits for farmers and consumers alike.