La Fourche is only seven years old, but it has been quite a roll for the French start. During this time, the online retailer has gone through a global pandemic, followed by the increase in fast -tracking beginnings supported by the enterprise that promised food shipments in less than 15 minutes, followed by the explosion of the vertical one.
When talking to the co -founder and CEO of La Fourche Nathan Labat, he does not spend much time living in Flink, Getir, Gopuff, Gorilla and all the beginnings of trade that tried in Europe around 2021. This is because the business model of La Fourche could be considered the opposite of this. Although the beginning is also supported by VC, it has taken a different way.
Most La Fourche’s inventory consists of healthy and organic products with a long shelf life. Think olive oil, diapers, cereals, shampoo and coffee beans.
“I break it into three purchase models. You have a purchase pattern, what is the quick recharge – ‘What will you eat tonight?’ – It leads to very low average average values: 20 to 30 €, ”Labat explained.
“Then you have a weekly model, where you plan more, you go and buy fruits and vegetables, fresh products, etc.”, he continued. “Then you have the option of stock, which is about filling your closets for a month, a month and a half.
“These are three very distinct models. And we are really clearly identified as a stock company.”
The company offers only a small portion of the options for each product category in order to have a wide coverage of its users without exaggerating them. It also offers its own brand products.
In a way, La Fourche has tried to distinguish its offer from what you can get from traditional supermarket chains and their delivery services.
“There is a lack of consumer confidence,” Labat argued – calling out “Catalogy with terrible items, everything you already know as a consumer, which led to the rise of Yuka”, an app for the quality of food health.
Led for income € 100m
With La Fourche, customers pay an annual membership fee to register – currently costs about 60 € per year ($ 65.50 with current exchange rates). After that, customers do not pay a delivery fee for orders on a specified threshold.
In this front, Labat appoints Costco and Thrive Market as inspiration. (But Amazon Prime is probably the most popular user of the delivery membership model). Subscriptions create brand loyalty, increase retention rates, and can even improve the average order of order.
Instead of throwing a reconciliation to get diapers, another to get fresh coffee beans and another for personal care products, customers can get all these products from La Fourche.
“Reconciliation models have become increasingly common,” Labat noted. “You get the impression that in food, it’s interesting because you can offer something like ‘a reconciliation to fix them all.” “
La Fourche metrics tend to support those assumptions. The company currently has 120,000 members. On average, they order products worth about € 120 once a month or every 45 days.
In general, La Fourche says it is on the right track to generate € 100 million in volume of gross goods in 2025.
The economy of the starting unit is also improving. “We went from -15% to EBITDA’s margin at -9% last year, and we are on the right track for -2% this year,” he said, adding: “We aim to reach our first lucrative trimester by the end of 2025.”
Part of the reason why the business model of La Fourche seems to work is that it weighs well. The company does not have to increase marketing costs as it increases because most LA Fourche customers come from the referrals. The start says he spends about 5% of his marketing revenue.
The other big reason is that La Fourche has only one warehouse that covers the whole country. It is now an automated warehouse – built using autostore technology. “We have a relatively wealth light pattern with a high repetition degree,” the lab summed.
As an added benefit, 46% of La Fourche’s customers reside in the village. This is not a beginning that serves only customers living in large cities as they already have many opportunities for food purchases.
In addition, La Fourche wants to grow its customer base in Germany – where it recently launched its organic internet supermarket under the name of the Ackerherz brand. And if it can demonstrate that the model is reproducible in different countries, there are likely to have further geographical expansions on the road.
