With consumers increasingly breaking out of their cola addiction to move on to healthier food and beverage options, a host of start-ups have jumped in to capitalise on this trend. One such company is Storia Foods & Beverages, started by 29-year-old entrepreneur Vishal Shah in 2017. Two years down the line, Shah has taken up aggressive expansion plans to score big in the burgeoning market.
“Globally, consumers are shifting to health-focussed beverages and the market is growing exponentially. We began with market surveys to check the gaps in the food industry as well as to find emerging categories within the segment that could grow in the next decade. Then, we came up with innovations within that which include natural coconut water, shakes and juices,” said Shah, who is also the managing director of Storia.
Storia aims to scale up these innovations by expanding its retail footprint, while also strengthening its distribution network to enter the snacks segment. This year, the company plans to double its retail presence to one lakh outlets.
“The idea is to be available across all trade channels by the end of this year,” Shah explained. In modern trade, the company has tied up with Spencer, Reliance, Metro Cash & Carry and Walmart in the offline space, and with BigBasket and Amazon to expand its online presence. “Talks with Future Group are also in the final stage and we believe we’ll be launching with them in another 2-3 weeks. Before summer — the peak season for beverages — kicks off, our infrastructure should be in place,” he added.
On export opportunities, however, Shah said the company will expand in the US and Myanmar where it had recently forayed into, but is in a wait-and-watch mode for venturing into new markets. “We are testing waters in Canada, UAE and Malaysia.
But we’ve prioritised the launches because in times like these when the economy is faced with a slowdown, consumers aren’t as experimentative as they would be in good times,” Shah noted. The company, which entered the market with coconut water, is selling about 2 lakh packs of coconut water a month and has cornered about 6 per cent of the market, which is estimated at about Rs 100 crore. The target is to cover 15 per cent in FY21.
Storia also plans to launch new products in the beverage category this year and ready-to-eat healthy meals later as part of its food business, as the company hopes to build a full-fledged portfolio of healthy food and beverages and a nutritionally stronger nation.
2 lakh packets of coconut water sold by Storia Foods & Beverages in a month currently, cornering about 6% of the market 15% market share in financial year 2020-21 is being targeted by the company