How True Elements is Disrupting the Healthy Snacking Market

True Elements, a clean label, and a 100 percent grain-certified food brand has been making ripples in the healthy foods and snacking category with its plethora of offerings. The brand specializes in products wherein 100 percent taste is achieved with 0 added Chemicals, Preservatives, and Sugar.

In a conversation with the Indian Retailer, Puru Gupta, Co-Founder, and CEO of True Elements, gives insight into the brand’s journey and its vision.

Inception

Losing his father to cancer, Gupta realized there exists a gap in the market wherein a majority of the consumers were unaware of the food available in the market and its constituents. The same allowed the founder to embark upon his journey to introduce True Elements. 

His brand thus has been able to gain phenomenal consumer response witnessing a massive repeat purchase ratio. “What works for our brand is that we do not offer solutions or promises, we offer products which are true to its core elements which help us gain the trust of our consumers as they keep coming back for our honest products,” said Puru Gupta. 

True Elements thus follows a rigorous procedure to maintain the quality of its products, the brand states that it has one of the highest rejections in the industry when it comes to selecting raw materials. The brand follows strict guidelines before onboarding new products and looks into the kind of grain, its quality, and its size not compromising in any aspect. 

Healthy Snacking- a Trend?

The founder believes, that healthy snacking is more than a trend and it is here to stay. He adds, that snacking exists as a category and to replace it with healthy clearly indicates that people will not be compromising on taste. 

“The form of the product that is being offered is very important, it must fit into the existing taste palette of the audience. Also, the texture of the product should be appealing enough for an individual to switch from regular snacking towards sustainable healthy snacking,” added Gupta. 

Moreover, the regional taste palettes also have a significant contribution in terms of acceptance as there exists a change in taste palettes in every second state in India owing to the vast availability of raw ingredients. 

Current Market Scenario

Post Covid a significant shift can be witnessed in the market wherein a larger part of the population has started becoming much more conscious about their health. There is an increase in awareness amongst the masses about healthy eating, with them becoming averse to the pros and cons of the habit which can be seen as a positive growth of the market.

“As a brand, one of the biggest things we believe in being a part of the trend is offering what our customers need. While doing so we however stick to our promises and offer the same without compromising on quality or our ethics,” commented Gupta. 

He further adds, “Ideally, if a brand is able to build good memory structures, good brand experience and follow it up with a good physical availability or good go-to-market. This allows us to scale up much faster.”

Technology and True Elements

Being a brand that completely believes in technology, it is one of True Elements’ biggest enablers to drive scale. The brand has built everything in-house without using any third-party tools including the ERP, the website, and everything else.

One of its biggest differentiators is traceability, every product offered by the brand comes with a barcode on its packaging, scanning which takes the consumer to the brand’s website allowing them to know every detail of the product. 

“This informs our customers of every minute detail including where and when each of its ingredients was taken from, right to the farm, to the entire supply chain. It further tells them the exact procedure, how it is made, when it was made, where it was made, to the extent of the supplier's detail,” said Puru. 

True Elements also offers an application ‘Tool Lens’, which allows users to determine the quality of any packaged product available in the market categorizing them in 3 colors- red, orange, and green. “One can scan any product of any brand from the market, the app runs an algorithm and informs which products are good or bad. This further helps in building trust with our customers, giving them accurate information,” commented Gupta. 

Options Galore

Currently present within the breakfast and snacks category, True Elements specializes in premium snacks including seed mixes, and graphic mixes, slightly in the premium category. In the breakfast category, the brand comprises- ready-to-eat, including western hot and cold. 

While the brand has Pancakes in western hot, and granolas and oatmeals in western cold category.

It further offers regional breakfast, including Poha, Upma, and Dosa in the breakfast category. Apart from these, the brand has a regular pantry category offering seeds, oats, and millets to name a few, having recently launched a full range of specialized atta (Flour).

The brand further aims to expand into 5-6 categories in the next 2 quarters.

Growth and Investment

True Elements has been witnessing a 100 percent year-on-year growth in the last 5 years and is expecting faster growth in 2023 as compared to the previous years. 

The brand recently received an investment from Marico which according to the founder has been great as it offers a completely different dimension to the FMCG space, providing the brand with a good understanding of the sector. 

"For us having Marico as a majority investor is great, since they have the infrastructure and built of an established organization but their mindset is that of a startup which gives us a great confidence boost," stated Gupta. 

Retail and Marketing Strategy

Being present in over 6,000 stores apart from its own D2C channel, True Elements follows an Omnichannel marketing strategy. The brand further aims to scale up the said number by 50 in the next 5 years. 

The brand continually keeps launching campaigns in order to build credibility around itself while driving more food partners and subsequently building a business around it. Moreover, being a Digital-first brand, three-quarters of its business comes online, however, going forward the brand aims to build a stronger hold in the offline market. 

Future Plans

Currently servicing 3-4 countries, True Elements aims to expand its geographical footprint.

“We aim to grow up to 5 times of what we are currently, without compromising on our ethics,” commented Puru Gupta. 

The brand thus aims to be where its customers will be, making sure more people are aware of the brand while being available across platforms. 

“We hope whenever people talk about being true, True Elements is the first thing that comes up, that is the association we hope to win,” added Gupta.