How the fork, an organic supermarket online, is booming after fluffy Q-commerce fluffy

The fork At only seven years old, but it was a roller coaster for the French startup. Meanwhile, the online grocery retailer crossed a world pandemic, followed by the rise of fast trade startups supported by a company that promised grocery deliveries in less than 15 minutes, followed by the implosion of this vertical.

When you speak with the co-founder and CEO of the fork, Nathan Labat, he does not spend too much time lingering on Flink, Getir, Gopuff, Gorillas and all the Qusted Q-Commetus who invaded Europe around 2021. It is because the commercial model of the fork could be considered the perfect opposite of all this. Although the startup is also Supported by VCHe took a different path.

Most of the fork inventory consists of healthy and organic products with a long shelf life. Think of olive oil, diapers, cereals, shampoos and coffee beans.

“I break it down into three purchasing models. You have a purchase model, what is fast recharging – “What am I going to eat tonight?” – This leads to very low average control values: 20 to 30 €, “said Labat.

“Then you have a weekly motif, where you plan more, you will buy fruits and vegetables, fresh products, etc.”, he continued. “Then you have the storage opportunity, which really consists in filling your cupboards for a month, a month and a half.

“These are three very distinct models. And we are really clearly identified as a storage company. »»

The company offers only a handful of options for each product category so that it has a wide coverage of the needs of its users without submerging them of choice. It also offers its own brand products.

In a way, the fork has tried to differentiate its offer from what you can get from traditional supermarket chains and their delivery services.

“There is a lack of consumer confidence,” said Labat – calling “the crushing catalog with horrible things, everything you already know as a consumer, which has led to the rise of Yuka», A quality of food application.

Directed on 100 million euros in income

With the fork, customers pay annual membership fees to register – it currently costs around € 60 per year ($ 65.50 at current exchange rates). After that, customers do not pay delivery costs for orders above a certain threshold.

On this front, Labat names Costco and Prosperous market as inspirations. (But Amazon Prime is perhaps the most familiar user of the delivery model for delivery). The subscriptions create brand loyalty, increase retention rates and could even improve the average value of the order.

Instead of getting rid of a subscription to get diapers, another to obtain fresh coffee beans and another for personal care products, customers can get all these fork products.

“The subscription models have become more and more common,” noted Labat. “You have the impression that on food is interesting because you can offer something like” a subscription to govern them all “.”

The fork measures tend to support these hypotheses. The company currently has 120,000 members. On average, they order around € 120 in products once a month or every 45 days.

Overall, the fork says it is on the right track to generate 100 million euros in volume of gross goods in 2025.

The economy of the startup unit is also improving. “We went from -15% on the sidelines of Ebitda at -9% last year, and we are on the right track for -2% this year,” he said, adding: “We aim to make our first profitable first quarter by the end of 2025.”

Part of the reason why the commercial model of the fork seems to work is that it evolves well. The company does not have to increase marketing expenditure as it grows because most customers of the fork come from references. The startup indicates that it spends about 5% of its marketing income.

The other great reason is that the fork has only one warehouse that covers the whole country. It’s now an automated warehouse – Built using Autostore technology. “We have a relatively active model of light with a high recurrence rate,” said Labat.

As an additional advantage, 46% of fork customers live in the campaign. It is not a startup that only serves customers living in big cities because they already have many options for grocery store.

Then, the fork wants to develop its customers in Germany – where it recently launched its online organic supermarket, under the brand Arable heart. And if he can demonstrate that the model is reproducible in different countries, there will probably be other geographic extensions on the road.