E-commerce-focussed logistics firm Xpdel plans to invest around USD 50 million or about Rs 370 crore to expand business in India covering deliveries in 60 per cent of the country’s geographical area, a senior official of the company said on Thursday.
The US-based logistics firm plans to hire around 1,500 persons in two years to manage its fulfilment centres across 20 e-commerce markets in the country, Xpdel APAC co-founder and CEO Ashish Chadha said on the sidelines of announcing the company’s services in India. “We plan to set up fulfilment centres in 20 markets in India, which will cover about 60 per cent of the geographical area of the country. We will plan to have a team of around 1,500 persons in the company in the next two years,” Chadha said.
He said that the company will focus more on the delivery of groceries and food items. Xpdel has already set up three fulfilment centres, which are located in Delhi-NCR, Bhiwandi in Maharashtra, and Bengaluru. The company has been operating in India since 2020 and has one client currently. “We are expecting 4-5 customers to join us in the next two months. We will be setting up 20 micro fulfilment centres in two years, which will have a footprint in the range of 10,000-75,000 square feet and we are exploring a model for setting nano-fulfilment centres which will have an area of 2,000-5,000 square feet,” Chadha said.
He added that the company has been making profits since the beginning of operations, and investment in India will be made from its internal accruals. As part of its global expansion, the company aims to launch in Europe and Canada by 2022. Xpdel shared that India’s e-commerce sector is expected to reach USD 111.40 billion by 2025 from USD 46.20 billion in 2020, signifying an annualised growth of 19.24 per cent.
The company said grocery is expected to be one of the key pillars of growth and it is predicted to reach USD 18.2 billion in 2024 from USD 1.9 billion in 2019, expanding at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 57 per cent. “In the US, we pick, pack and ship but in India, we will pick, pack and deliver by having our own drivers. We will initially hire 400 drivers for a pilot in Delhi and Mumbai and then expand delivery service from there,” Chadha said.
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