BigBasket's Hari Menon says he was 'in denial' about quick commerce

Stepping down as CEO, Hari Menon says BigBasket initially underestimated quick commerce and now expects the Tata-owned firm to prioritise profitability over market share

BigBasket co-founder Hari Menon, who recently stepped down as the company's chief executive officer (CEO), said that he initially underestimated the quick commerce (qcom) wave and was "in denial" about the idea of 10-minute grocery delivery.

 

"I've said it before and I'll say it again, I was in denial about the idea of QC. If you'd asked 100 people back then whether they wanted groceries in 10 mins... most of them would've said no. But the moment we gave it to our customers, they lapped it up," Menon wrote in a LinkedIn post announcing his transition.

 

In the same post, Menon announced that he is handing over the CEO role to Nanda, while continuing to serve on BigBasket's board. Before joining BigBasket, Nanda served as director, Selling Partner Services, at Amazon India.

 

 

Speaking with this newspaper earlier, Menon had said that he is stepping down only from the executive role. "I'm just stepping down from the CEO role. Founders never quit, and I'm going to continue on the board, mentor the team and the leadership as much as they need," he had said.

 

Looking ahead, Menon said the Tata-owned company's priority will be profitability rather than market share. "One fundamental direction that the company is going to work on is chasing profitability, not market share. We should achieve profitability in the next 12-15 months."

 

BigBasket currently operates more than 900 dark stores and expects to cross 1,000 within the next one to two months, after which expansion will become more calibrated.

 

"We will get to 1,000-plus stores very soon... Then, we are going to be very careful in opening new stores. We will work to make sure that we get store-level profitability very fast," Menon said.