Enterprise: Daily Fish

Managing Director & CEO: Alex K Thomas

Industry: Food & Beverage

Year it was founded: 2016

Based out of: Kochi, Kerala

Sometimes a legacy business can win hearts with a new growth trajectory. Baby Marine Ventures, founded in 1969, established its presence in the international market by exporting world-class seafood products to retail chains like Carrefour, Metro Cash & Carry, Auchan etc. While the business was doing extremely well in the international market, it struck the owners that the local market and customers lacked access to quality seafood because of lack of end to end cold chain (temperature controlled supply chain necessary to preserve perishable like seafood). This led to the emergence of Daily Fish.

Daily Fish is an online seafood store that brings quality seafood to the doorsteps of its consumers. Customers can place their order on the online store, mobile app or 24x7 call centre. A state-of-the-art procurement, storage and delivery mechanism ensures that the seafood retains its freshness and flavour. Daily Fish currently has more than 100,000 registered customers across four cities from southern India – Kochi, Thiruvanthapuram, Kottayam and Bengaluru, with plans to rapidly expand its presence to other parts of the country. With its ambitious growth plans the firm aims for a 100-crore turnover by 2021.

Alex K Thomas, Managing Director & CEO of Baby Marine Seafood Retail, tells the story of this seafood e-commerce venture…

Business journey: From catch to kitchen
Daily Fish stemmed from the need to provide the people of Kerala with the finest quality seafood. The fish is directly procured from fishermen and goes through a rigorous, foolproof cold chain process before it reaches the consumer.

Coming from the house of Baby Marine Group, Daily Fish has cemented its position as the most trusted source for the finest quality seafood in a matter of few years. It is the rapid development in technology and the major shift to e-commerce that has bolstered our growth. After delighting the taste buds of seafood lovers in major cities of Kerala as well as outside, Daily Fish is all set to open its stores in the suburbs too.

Cold chain process to deliver ‘as good as live’ promise
The fish goes through a 7-step cold chain process and various tests, before reaching the hands of the consumers. These technical upgradations enable us to serve frozen fish that are as good as live.

Our factories are air-conditioned to help maintain the product at the optimal temperature of under +4.4°C. These plants are equipped with advanced impingement freezers.

We make our own ice for fish procurement and processing from modern ice machines like flake ice, tube ice and plate ice makers, providing hygienic ice and most importantly made from only RO (Reverse Osmosis) treated water.  

Formidable challenges overcome
There is no business that can be termed as completely risk-free. We too had to go through many ups and downs. The recent floods in Kerala (August 2018) as well as the formalin incident (6,000 kg of formalin-laced fish seized in Kerala in June 2018) prior to it, created some obstacles. But we successfully managed to overcome these. It is the trust bestowed upon us by our faithful customers and the goodwill we have garnered over the years that has enabled us to sail over such difficult periods.

The GlobalLinker advantage
I came to know about the GlobalLinker during the last RAI (Retailers Association of India) annual member event in Mumbai. It has been very useful in networking and I am sure will greatly benefit the retail and business community in the future.

Big business dream
The dream is to expand the enterprise to more areas and elevate the goodwill and reputation of the brand to greater heights. We plan to expand operations to 10 towns in south and west India. Additional storage hubs are planned in Coimbatore, Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune, Mumbai and Hyderabad. By March 2020, Daily Fish plans to become a household name in 100% end to end cold chain for retail segment with a turnover of more than 100 crores by 2021. We strive to be a brand synonymous with the finest quality seafood.

Advice to aspiring entrepreneurs
Nothing sells better than honesty. If you are consistent in your efforts to serve the consumer and are willing to update yourself according to the times, then success will follow suit.

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