BENGALURU : With a vision to offer products to the consumers that are innovative and make India a nutritionally stronger nation with healthier food options, a food and beverages startup, Storia Foods and Beverages, is offering products having superior health benefits, unique flavours and richer taste.This young and disruptive food and beverage startup was founded when an entrepreneurial bug bit Vishal Shah and the products were launched in April 2017.
Coming from a family business who are forerunners in manufacturing food ingredients, Shah was always fascinated by sky scrapping spray driers, heavy machinery, the hustle in the labs, the ‘magic’ of liquid converting into powder and the idea of ‘creating’ something. “While being surrounded by a community of brilliant innovators in the food ingredients fraternity and working in the family business, the resolve of making India a nutritionally stronger nation with healthier, convenient food options grew stronger.
The chemical engineering background opened a Pandora’s Box of what the technology could achieve and with this, the vision to disrupt the food industry with innovative products and technologies that could add ease, create value and inspire a healthier lifestyle led to the establishment of Storia Foods and Beverages,” said Shah, founder and MD.
The startup strives to offer products that are not only delicious but also convenient, affordable and inspire a healthier lifestyle. They currently, offer Storia Coconut Water which is 100 per cent natural and contains no sugar and no preservatives, Beverage Whitener, which is a milk substitute that is complete trans-fat free and has the goodness of milk proteins and calcium, shakes in nine variants which are 100 per cent natural, trans-fat-free and contain natural fruits. They recently launched Street Style drinks in eight variants, which contain the goodness of fruits blended with spices.
“We are for all consumers who inspire a healthier lifestyle with convenience and on-the-go demand. While we target millennials for shakes, coconut water is more for consumers who are into health and fitness and street style drinks are for the youth who want to experience the rawness of the street in a more healthier, hygienic, format,” said Shah who holds an M.Tech degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering.
Storia currently has retail coverage of around 50,000 outlets across more than 33 cities in India. Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Guwahati are major cities with Delhi and NCR, Hyderabad and Bengaluru growing at a very aggressive pace.Explaining the challenges he faced while establishing this food and beverage startup, he said, “The battle for shelf space is always going to be a huge monster for all FMCG companies.
Though modern trade and e-commerce have made the entry barrier a lot more relaxed, 77 per cent of the market place is still traditional trade today and brands like us that have the vision to be more mass inclined will have to strive to get a share of that shelf space. That is where innovation is key and being at the forefront of the attitudinal shift of the consumers becomes very important.”
Speaking about the investment and revenue stream, Shah said, “We are currently bootstrapped. The investments have been from the personal front and through friends and family in the range of $3-4 million. We currently have revenues through sales of our products from two main channels: B2B sources through our sales in institutions and HORECA and from our B2C segments through sales from traditional trade, modern trade and e-commerce. We also explored international forays through exports. Our revenues grew over 35 per cent from FY 18 and we are looking to achieve a CAGR of around 90 per cent by financial year 2022.”
Sharing details about the research efforts of the company, Shah said they not only had 100s of trials on the products but also experimented with a lot of technologies until they had the right one. “There
was a lot of market research done through agencies to study the gaps in the existing food industry and a lot of consumer studies to understand what they expected out of the products in that category.
This study was taken to our labs where we built the products and then taken back to consumers until we got a high degree of acceptance after which the products were pilot launched. Post acceptance from these markets, we then expanded our wings to the rest of the country,” he added.The company aspires to become a go-to brand for the masses and to be able to add ease, create value and make a difference in the customer’s life.
“In terms of numbers, our immediate plan is to strengthen our distribution and be available at 1 lakh retail touch points across the country. We are also focusing on our brand communication with the trade and consumers to be able to build a brand for the long run. We envision to create a brand that is timeless, that gives our consumers a sense of belonging and moments of optimism, leaving them with an experience they will always remember,” reveals Shah.
Advising startup enthusiast Shah points out that it is very important to keep growing and not lose sight of the big picture. He added, “A ship is safe in the harbour, but that’s not what ships are for! It takes a lot of brevity to be able to challenge an existing ecosystem and come out of your comfort zone but as long as the motive is right and the resolve to impact lives and give back to the society is strong, you will always find a way. The learning curves are very steep and you will learn newer aspects each day, about yourself, about the industry and about society. Believe in your vision, but also have a great sense of ownership for the brand.”