New Delhi, July 14th, 2025: TenderCuts, India’s first omnichannel meat and seafood brand, has been awarded the ET HR World Employee Experience Award 2025 for its culture-first approach during the restructuring post the crisis. The award was received by Sasikumar Kallanai, Co-founder of TenderCuts & Chief People Officer at an event held recently.
On the honour, Sasikumar Kallanai, said, “We are elated at receiving this recognition for our conscious decision to make a culture-led comeback. The restructuring and revival efforts have been smooth, fruitful and profitable because of our employees. Their empowerment and the trust we placed on them aided the business transformation. This award is a tribute to the people who rebuilt the business from the frontlines. It is proof that resilience, trust, and inclusion can be more powerful than any cost-cutting strategy. We strongly believe that culture — not just capital — will be the differentiator in achieving that growth.”
TenderCuts implemented a radical reset of both its operating model and the workplace culture. Several people-centric reforms were introduced, moving human resources from being a support function to a strategic lever in driving profitability.
As part of its HR 2.0 strategy, TenderCuts empowered store managers with full P&L responsibility, introduced career pathways for meat processing experts, and institutionalised recognition programmes like the Hall of Achievers. The brand also made significant strides in gender inclusion — with 4 out of 18 stores now led by women, and key corporate roles in L&D, infrastructure, and marketing held by women professionals. In a move to solidify its people-first identity, TenderCuts announced that all its front-end retail staff will be known as ‘Store Partners’. These Store Partners play entrepreneurial roles at work managing revenue, wastage and driving customer experience and bottom-line performance.
The company was also recently recognised as the Most Trusted & Futuristic Omnichannel Meat Retailer Brand of the Year 2025 and its founder received the Innovative & Outstanding Entrepreneur of the Year – South India award at The Great Indian entrepreneurship, design, business & startup awards & conference, 2025.
ETHRWorld is the flagship digital platform for the HR vertical of The Economic Times, the second largest widely read business newspaper and digital media platform in the world.