Chennai-based omnichannel meat and seafood brand TenderCuts will anchor its growth around physical retail stores, according to Sasikumar Kallanai, Co-Founder and CEO, TenderCuts.
In an interview with businessline, Kallanai said that the company plans to expand its current store footprint of 18 to about 50 in the next 12-18 months.
He added that the expansion will be restricted to Chennai, as the brand seeks to densify demand in a stronger market and target specific micro markets in the city rather than venture into new markets
“Over the past few years we at TenderCuts have positioned ourselves as a offline retail-first omnichannel brand. This is not a category where the usual D2C growth and expansion at all cost mindset works. Indian meat consumers are value conscious which means your model in turn must be capital efficient,” he said.
Kallanai believes that going forward physical stores will be the main customer acquisition engine going forward, where new customers can experience the product and touch and feel the brand’s offerings. Subsequently, online can become the demand centre where acquired customers can repeat purchases.
TenderCuts posted revenues of ₹70 crore in FY26 and Kallanai expects the company to grow by 100 per cent for the current fiscal.
He added that currently TenderCuts’s revenue mix included 60 per cent online and 40 per cent physical stores but the company intends to split it evenly in the next few quarters.
On the product side, he mentioned that the brand sells over 250 SKUs with the core categories being poultry, fish and seafood and mutton. “Value added products like ready to eat convenience foods are seeing strong growth as well. These products currently contribute around 10 per cent of sales and we expect it to grow 20 per cent over the next 12–18 months,” he said.
As for expansion to other southern cities, Kallanai said that once the Chennai market is fully saturated, the company sees Bengaluru and Hyderabad as other high potential markets.
(With Inputs from BL Intern Mahalakshmi)
Published on May 22, 2026