Latest News | Food Delivery Startup RailRestro Sees 50pc Decline in Sales Due to COVID Surge

Kolkata, Jan 25 (PTI) RailRestro, a leading food delivery startup catering to train passengers, has witnessed a 50 per cent decline in sales, amid fresh COVID-hit turbulence in tour and travel activities, an official said on Tuesday

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Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC)-authorised food partner has termed the present crisis as a "blip" and is hopeful of seeing a recovery soon, RailRestro founder and director Manish Chandra said.

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“In the third wave of COVID-19, the government has not imposed lockdown. Local businesses are running but there is an impact on the travel industry. Our sales have decreased by about 50 per cent because people are avoiding travel unless it's very urgent,” he told PTI.

Chandra also said, “The number of daily orders started decreasing from the first week of January from a range of 10,000 -12,000 to 5,000-6,000. Approximately, there is a 50 per cent decline in orders per day."

The food delivery platform claimed to have served more than 30 lakh customers with 60 lakh meals till now.

Asked about the future, Chandra said the start-up firm remains optimistic that the intensity of the current COVID wave will be less with greater vaccination coverage and normalisation in the travel industry will be restored.

"We are working to expand our e-catering services to 300 stations in the next one or two months. We are also planning to double the number of restaurant partners in 2022," Chandra said.

RailRestro has over 2,500 restaurant partners approved by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and it currently provides food in 220 stations across the country

"We have a plan to add our own delivery fleet at more than 200 stations by the end of this year,” he said.

Asked about funding for the start-up, Chandra said, “We had discussions with several venture capitalists before the pandemic. And now in 2022, we are planning for some investments to boost our overall business."

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)