Today, airasia grocer has on its platform over 20,000 items from 400 merchants in the Klang Valley, Penang and Kota Kinabalu. Leveraging the Group’s land and air logistics capabilities, it has flown frozen and dried seafood, fruits and other Sabah specialities from Kota Kinabalu and Tawau to serve customers in West Malaysia. In the other direction, it has satisfied cravings for Perlis’ famed Harumanis by taking these mangoes to Sabahans. airasia grocer has even piloted an export shipment of live mud crabs to China. The platform business was rolled out in Singapore, but subsequently scaled down to allow the team to perfect the business model before resuming Asean expansion. Under its standard offering, items are delivered within 24 to 72 hours after an order is placed. However, with the launch of the Fresh X-press store in June, customers can choose to receive their items within the same day. Even better, the Fresh from the Farm store enables customers to purchase directly from the farm, with produce being delivered on the very day of harvest. Movement restrictions due to the prolonged pandemic have acted as a double-edged sword for airasia grocer. While most businesses have had to restrict their operations during the lockdowns, loss of sales from the B2B segment have been compensated for by increased sales from the B2C online store. On the whole, the team was able to maintain the Group’s value proposition of offering the best deals thanks to strong supplier relationships and support from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry (MAFI), which enables direct contact with farmers. Further boosted by a continuously expanding inventory of products and merchants as well as the promise of same-day delivery, airasia grocer was able to increase its sales over the course of the year. For the B2C business, gross merchandise value (GMV) in the second half of 2021 was 52% higher than in the first half of the year, while the number of orders grew 46% and number of customers increased 25%. To cope with the expected increase in sales volume, airasia grocer initially converted space at Wisma Tune into a mini warehouse. In December, a full-fledged warehouse was opened in Seksyen 51 Petaling Jaya. Having built the foundation of airasia grocer in 2021, the team will work to strengthen it in 2022. Among others, focus will be trained on brand-building and creating greater awareness of the platform’s key propositions. A lot of effort will also go towards enhancing logistics efficiencies so as to reduce delivery fees to a minimum. Once the platform is robust and thriving in Malaysia, it will be expanded to other markets in Asean. Ventures a i r a s i a g r o c e r What started out as airasia fresh within the airasia Super App has been rebranded as airasia grocer and merged with airasia farm, a subsidiary of RedBeat Capital (formerly known as RedBeat Ventures). The idea is to offer not just fresh produce but a full range of consumable groceries for the consumer (B2C), business (B2B) and export markets. • Offers over 20,000 items from 400 merchants in Klang Valley, Penang and Kota Kinabalu Key Achievement Business Review (cont’d.) 0 9 2 C A P I T A L A B E R H A D
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