Cluttered competition and unorganised market are two biggest challenges in healthy food category says Yamnish Kaul

How did Indian Earth started? What was inspiration behind? Also shed light on your entrepreneur journey so far?

Indian Earth was conceptualised by Mr. Anil Gupta and Mr. Ravi Gupta who are based out of London, United Kingdom. The inspiration was to provide quality food products to the deserving Indian consumer. We wanted to introduce the ancient wisdom of Seeds and grains used by our ancestors in a modern avatar.

The Indian Earth brand was launched by me, with a motive to be true to the Indian roots and go into market with superior quality products that have goodness of nutrition and taste wanted by the current generations that have access to global FMCG brands. Indian Earth conceptualised year ago and now we are team of 30 working to ensure that we cater to our consumer with nutritious food/snacks and superior quality. We have already launched 13 different products into super seeds and Gluten free Corn flake.

How do you see the market of healthy snacks is evolving? Do you see the traction from tier 2 market is equal?

The market of healthy snacking is evolving very quickly. We have realised through consumer surveys that people especially in Tier 1 cities are always looking for something new to munch on during the day at work and with fitness slowly becoming a lifestyle for a very high proportion of individuals and millennials giving more and more thought about what they eat- the consumer is very smart with respect to what he puts in his body.

The traction from tier 2 market has not been equal to the cities but it is a promising response. A few years earlier – a very low percentage of population knew about flax seeds – now – a lot of people do. So the word is getting there- slowly but surely.

What of distribution Indian Earth has right now? What would be the strategy to scale up the distribution in the time to come? Are you working with organise retail chains such as Big Bazaar, Foodhall etc? 

The physical distribution at the store (General Trade + Modern Trade) is limited to Delhi NCR and a few regions of Haryana. We will have our distribution expanded to cover entire North by Dec 2018  followed with North east and West. But with E-Commerce – our distribution Indian Earth is Pan India on E-commerce with products available on a variety of platforms like – Amazon, Flipkart, 1mg, bigbasket, snapdeal etc. More and more are being added as we speak to make it more reachable to everyone looking for quality food products ranging from seeds, dehydrated fruits like cranberry, trail mixes and breakfast cereals.

Kindly shed light on your price points? How many units you are selling in India?

Our price points have been kept competitive same time maintaining the high quality of product so as to build market share. We see very good sales coming on our way and hitting our sales target without miss. We believe in our products and once the consumer tries our brand – chances of him/her being a repeat/loyal customer are high. 

According to you what are the major retail challenges in healthy product retailing?

Retail challenges in healthy product retailing would be :

1. Cluttered competition, unorganised market.
2. Awareness of benefits of each product
3. Variance in quality so the price points. Challenge to compete at low price point and at same time providing superior quality.
4. Shopkeeper confidence for new product range  

Who do you see as your competition within same space?

There are few brands already in the space and we have plan to compete with them on Quality and Pricing.. We are creating our own space by providing superior quality and a premium feel when consumer looks at, holds and buys our product.  

Are you boot strap or have raised some sorts of funds so far?

We are internally funded.

Kindly shed light on your best selling product category? What are the plans to expand the product portfolio in the time to come? 

Our best selling product category has been Seeds – Flax, Sunflower, Pumpkin, Sunflower, Grow Fit and Stay Fit Trail Mixes, Gluten Free Corn flakes

We plan on expanding and stay focused in four categories -

1. Speciality Pasta – We have developed few variants that will be first of its kind pasta in Indian Market
2. Tea, speciality of Dhauladhar range of Himalayas
3. Breakfast Cereals