What Made This Duo Start a Smoothie Brand that Speaks of 'Nutrition'

Abhishek Sarwate & Shweta Tare Sarwate of Utopian Smoothies had a sedentary lifestyle in their corporate jobs, and wanted to have something healthy and realized there was nothing that was readily available to them for a healthy lifestyle. That’s when the duo started their fresh smoothie dark kitchen in 2020. The trial lasted for nearly two and half years, helping them understand that there exists a love for smoothies with the millennials and Gen-Z. “In this period we identified the right product market fit, the problem faced by our consumers which is more about getting timely deliveries, about convenience and ready availability. To solve this we thought of building a healthy smoothies’ brand in the packaged segment, Utopian Smoothies was launched in June 2023,” they shared by adding that their entire focus is on creating a product that speaks nutrition. We have launched with 4 variants namely Wholesome, Energy, Immunity and Detox; all of them are unique and are in true sense good for you with Vit C-rich fruits, Indian herbs, a lot of fruit, vegetable and superfoods, which are usually not present in fresh smoothies. According to them, these smoothies are something that people can have every day without worrying about consuming extra sugar (it has only natural sugar from fruits and honey), eating any preservatives or harmful colours, flavours and artificial sweeteners. Excerpts from the interview: 

How do you see the market potential for packaged smoothie products? 
 
Our offerings are quite unique. We offer Wholesome and Energy as breakfast-in-a-bottle and Immunity and Detox as Smoothie shots. So, in terms of category, we have products in breakfast and pure juice categories which, according to Goldstein Market Research, will become a $20 Billion market by 2030. We know that packaged smoothie is a new concept in India, but it is very popular abroad with brands like Innocent and Naked dominating the market. Our lifestyles are becoming increasingly hectic, and we believe that the convenience factor will drive growth in the packaged smoothie segment.
 
How has been the response so far as you are a new brand?
 
We are growing 3x month-on-month and plan to continue a good growth trajectory in the near future. We have been doing a lot of sampling and tasting sessions and have built on our retail presence across a number of stores in Mumbai and Pune and we are witnessing good sales through these stores. Also, we are present online on various channels and deliver smoothies pan India and receive a lot of orders from Bengaluru.
 
For the first 6 months, we will be focused on creating brand awareness and educating more people about our smoothies, the benefits of having them on a daily basis, and how they can conveniently incorporate smoothies into their daily routine for a fit and healthy lifestyle. 
 
We also see that brands like Drunken Monkey etc have made a mark with their smoothie. Any competition from them? Also, any plan of opening your own kiosk/stores? 
 
The smoothie market in India is at a nascent stage. Drunken Money is one of the few chains that focuses on smoothies but in the packaged segment there are none so far. We at Utopian Smoothies specialize in creating breakfast in a bottle –on-the-go slurpy breakfasts that are light on your stomach, good for your gut, and heavy on nutritional values. A lot of work has gone into making our smoothies wholesome and nutrition-rich by incorporating millets, oats, good fats, fruits and superfoods, all in a travel-friendly bottle. We want to create a mark with our focused approach towards great ingredients, convenience, and great tasting smoothies. We are also looking at partnership with stores across India that share our brand ideologies and promote clean and healthy eating habits.

What are the different types of smoothies available and how have you priced them? 
 
We have launched with 4 flavours namely Detox, Wholesome, Immunity and Energy. They are priced at Rs. 160 for a 200ml bottle that comes in a premium and sustainable polypropylene packaging, where the bottle can be reused and recycled thus saving the environment.

Sourcing fresh & local produce is the mantra these days. From where do you source the ingredients (fruits/veggies) for these smoothies? Which is your top selling smoothie till today? 
 
We promote local farmers and local produce. We source all our raw materials from the local vendors and farmers from nearby areas like Nashik and Pune. For us sustainability and Indian produce is of utter importance. We take pride and say that our products are focused on Indian Fruits, Indian Vegetables and Indian Millets, and Indian Herbs. Our idea is to make people understand the benefits of Indian fruits and herbs and millets.  
In summer, we were getting more demand for Wholesome SuperSmoothie, which is our Alphonso mango smoothie. But now, during the monsoons, we are seeing demand increasing for our Immunity and Detox variants.

How many bottles have you sold? What’s your market presence? 
 
We are new to the industry & the market; we are witnessing steady growth in these 2 months. We are aiming to close this month with sales of around 3000+ bottles across India. 
 
We mainly sell our smoothies online through our own Website (https://www.utopian.fit), Amazon, JioMart, Swiggy Minis and deliver pan India. We do same-day/one-day delivery for orders in Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, and Delhi. We have started to build our retail presence in Mumbai and Pune and are present in around 30 stores. This month, we have started to build our presence in offices across Mumbai targeting corporate employees via partnerships with co-working spaces such as Awfis (available at all 20 Awfis locations in Mumbai).
 
Are you also targeting the HORECA segment? Who do you target as your customer? 
 
Yes, we will look to increase our presence in the HORECA segment soon. We are currently focused on modern retail, organic sales and online visibility, for the course of the next 3 months. Our customer focus is corporate employees, white-collar workers who need to sit at their desks as part of their job for long periods of time. They are aware about healthy habits but, because of their time constraints, are looking for something convenient to solve their needs. We also want to target fitness enthusiasts and millennials, who are much more aware about what they consume and read the labels before buying any products.

What’s your expansion plan? 
 
From an expansion point of view, we first plan to target the Mumbai city, and sooner into geographies like Pune, Delhi and Bengaluru. We are targeting entering 200 office cafeterias in the next 6 months, where we can sell as well as conduct sampling and information sessions with the customers. For next 6 months, we plan to educate our customers about the product, highlight its benefits, and do more one-on-one interactions with our consumers. The idea is to create an impact with the consumers. This will be a focused and targeted approach in Mumbai, and will soon expand to cities like in Pune, Delhi and Bengaluru.
 
Our idea with Utopian is to make this a brand that’s synonymous with a healthy lifestyle in India. We promote the importance of eating fruits everyday and as most skip doing that we bring Utopian Smoothies for easy fruit consumption. 
 
Are you also in talks with any investor/any funding round? 
 
Yes, we are in the process of fundraising. We are in talks with a few angel investors and VC’s. We will share the news soon. 
 
5 trends you see will change the beverages business in the next 5 years.
 
With the increasing importance of nutrition and the “No Sugar” trend, we feel that the focus has already shifted towards healthier alternatives. There are videos and articles every day that break the perception of “healthy” and reveal the truth about popular brands. Our consumers do not want to have artificial sweeteners and don’t want those sugar spikes, but at the same time want to eat healthy & stay fit. This generation cares about their wellbeing. Our offering is simple, we give the benefits of having good skin, good hair, healthy gut, happy mood all packed in a bottle that is made of fruits and good things only.