In a major deal in the grocery retail sector in Chennai, the ₹2,000-crore WayCool has exited from retail operations run under the brand name SunnyBee Market, and the same has been sold to Fresh2Day for an undisclosed sum, said sources.

WayCool will continue to focus on strengthening its supply-chain business that has over 20 distribution centres.

“Waycool continues its B2B enterprise business in the areas of fresh, staples, and dairy, supply chain management, and contract manufacturing,” the source said.

Founded in July 2015, SunnyBee is a one-stop premium food store that offers a wide assortment of more than 5,000 SKUs across multiple categories such as regular and exotic fruits and vegetables, dairy, staples, Indian and international foods.

Operating 11 stores in Chennai, SunnyBee Market also conducts SunnyBee Santhai, a farmer and consumer connect platform. While SunnyBee mobile app helps in getting products delivered at the doorstep, shopping inside the store is safe with the Self-Checkout service.

Fresh2Day, a food and grocery store in Chennai, has over 200 handpicked products in its catalog. “Our main goal is to provide a hassle-free and premium shopping experience with fresh and top-quality products at the lowest prices in the market,” says information in social media.

WayCool Foods is India’s leading food and agtech platform and through its farmer engagement programme, Outgrow, it works closely with 2,00,000+ farmers.

WayCool’s consumer brands basket consists of Madhuram, Kitchenji, L’exotique, Dezi Fresh, Freshey’s, AllFresh and Just Potate.

“With the addition of SunnyBee stores inventory and more, our plan is to reach 35+ Superstores by the end of this financial year,” T Annamalai, Founder & CEO, Fresh2Day, told businessline. With 23 retail Superstores in Chennai, Fresh2day has become the second largest fruit and vegetable format player in Chennai, he added.

“Sourcing is key and is the most important aspect of our business. We work with several farmers across south India through our collection centres, and our stringent quality checks makes this brand popular among customers,” he said.

“Fresh2day has hired most of SunnyBee’s staff as an internal understanding with its parent company. With this takeover, the company has more than 400+ staff taking care of the needs of its 10,000+ daily customers, said Sanjoy Das, Chief Strategy Officer, Fresh2Day.

R Sathyanarayanan, Associate Professor of Marketing, IFMR Graduate School of Business, Krea University, said: “Waycool is a strong supply-chain and agritech player. Though they manage various businesses in the farm-to-fork value chain, the multi-store, brick-and-mortar retail business is a different ball game and capital-intensive. To be a completely vertically integrated player at this point might dissipate the firm’s energy and resources. The move to focus more on the core business will help WayCool strengthen itself, he said.

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