How Omnichannel Brand Cravova Grew 500 pc in Just One Year

Cravova, established in 2019 by Farhan Gigani and later joined by Satish Negi as Co-founder is one of the fastest-growing Mumbai-based beverage brands that is offering innovative new-age beverages at an affordable price to the young generation of the nation. 
 
It provides one of the greatest assortments of indulgence, thanks to a product range that has been painstakingly built over a number of years. With a certification of FSSAI, Cravova promises to deliver only the best and prioritize customers’ needs over everything else and manufacture products accordingly. It is this drive that has led Cravova to become widespread and one of the fastest-growing companies in the F&B industry.

“We did some market surveys and found that there was hardly any such beverage in the market and whatever we saw in the premium stores is either very expensive or targeted to only very niche customers. And that's how the idea started to start a consumer brand that is innovative, convenient, and affordable at the same time,” Satish Negi, Co-founder, Cravova shared.

“We believe innovation in real terms only makes sense when it can be experienced by a larger consumer base and keeping that in mind we always want to serve a larger consumer base with mass premium positioning rather than limiting it to the niche premium segment. So if you see other products in a similar category, they are double the MRP compared to us. We want to offer consumers exciting beverages which are convenient and affordable at the same time,” he added.

Retail and Marketing Strategy 
As of now, Cravova is available across 25 cities in India including Tier l-ll cities through the offline distribution channel. Being an omnichannel brand, it is reaching other small cities through online marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, Meesho, and the online website of the brand.

“We are primarily present in RTD beverages including the Aerated and Dairy categories. Since we have received immense love and response from the consumers, therefore, we are thinking of extending the formats of these categories with different pack sizes and packaging. Currently, we have 4 SKUs that come under the categories of beverages and snacks,” he said.

“Our customers come to know about our product through our social media page as well as offline visibility in the Modern Trade and General Trade stores. We also use our social media pages to interact with customers to understand their preferences for new flavors and feedback which helps us to launch new variants and correct if anything is not as per the expectation. For offline awareness, we use sampling in shops and residential societies, we also participate in events and use these as an awareness platform, “he added.

Cravova has also tied up with 500+ standalone cafes and restaurants along with their supply and productions to the Taj Gateway Hotel in Mumbai and has tied up with Swiggy-owned kitchens and dark kitchens as well.

“These restaurants are available across major cities in India which include, Pune, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and to name a few. Additionally, we are also working on building a separate HoReCa sales team, currently, the same sales force serves both market. Our products are placed in 10,000 stores across 20 cities including metro and tier-II cities, “Negi asserted. 

Omnichannel Strategy
Omnichannel allows brands to connect with its consumer anywhere. It is a seamless integration of branding, messaging, and online and offline touchpoints as consumers move down the sales funnel, enabling a more impactful customer experience.

“It is important for brands like us today to have an omnichannel presence, it's not about choosing D2C or offline, it's about reaching your customers wherever they are so if they are shopping online then we got to be present online and if they shopping offline then we got to be present in General Trade and Modern Trade format. Being a mass premium product, our major revenue will always come from offline but online is something where we get the data of our customers and get the opportunity to have 2 ways to communicate with our customers which allows us to design our communication strategy as well help us in launching new products,“ he said.

Technological Integration
Cravova is are using one of the finest bottling plants in India to manufacture its products, and this helps it to monitor quality and scale fast when it comes to growth. 

“Since there are a lot of verticals involved in our business including manufacturing, warehousing, supply chain, end mile tracking of stocks, it becomes important that these different verticals are talking to each other to create the symphony of work in a seamless manner,“ Negi said.

Future Plans
Year on year, Cravova has grown 500 percent from 2020 to 2021. The brand has sold nearly 2.4 million units of just the Mojito range of its product in this period. So in order to fuel this growth, Cravova is certainly looking to raise funds in the near future.

“During the year 2021-22, the brand witnessed Rs 16 crore GMV sales. We are targeting to reach Rs 100 crore in the next 2-3 years. We are currently looking to explore the Middle East market for exporting our products and we are also in talks with a few importers. Primarily, we also got queries from Eastern European countries like Poland and African countries like Ghana. We would be increasing our scalability by diving much deeper into metro cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, and Delhi. For a smooth supply chain, we are increasing the presence of our warehouse hubs from 1 in Mumbai to 3 more to cover pan India,“ Negi concluded.