Fruitz Koncepts, Delhi based Startup with a unique idea of Fresh Fruit Bouquets

Operational since July 2010, Fruitz Koncepts^TM serves fresh and delicious bouquets from a hygienic production facility based in Vaishali (U.P.) and premium raw material suppliers based all over Delhi and NCR.In conversation with Abhilasha Dafria for YourStory.in, founder Neha Aggarwal tell us more about how she went about this unique concept of Fresh Fruit Bouquets from ‘Fruitz Koncepts^TM’ and helped her customers bestow their loved ones with beautiful assortments of delicious, exotic fruits complimented in different shapes and sizes!

Neha, please introduce yourself and your venture to our viewers.

I am a Food Technologist and had served in private job for 4 years before I started up this unique venture of Fresh Fruit Bouquets. I started as a proprietorship in the name of “Fruitz Koncepts^TM ” and with its encouraging response from our clientele, soon this small venture turned into a company – Fruitz Koncepts India Pvt Ltd.

It’s a 100% edible fruit assortment presented in innovative style of bouquets – making it a unique gift / party snack for any occasion. Thus, it’s named as Fruitz Koncepts^TM i.e. Koncept of Fruits. Extremely proud to mention that Fruitz Koncepts^TM (a brand under Fruitz Koncepts India Pvt Ltd.) is the “first company” to introduce this wonderful idea in India – precisely in Delhi/ NCR to begin with. It’s a freshly assorted fruit bouquet replacing party’s regular options of heavy snacks, sweets etc. into one of the healthiest options and making it a complete package of value for money, innovation and nutrition!

How are fruit bouquets, as a concept, being accepted in the domestic market?

Fresh Fruit Bouquets by Fruitz Koncepts^TM, been introduced for the first time in town, has created a momentous sound round the corner since its inception. We have great fruit lovers and health lovers who have loved this Koncept in the market. We have, in fact, many repeat customers, who now prefer to gift Fruitz Fresh Fruit Bouquets^TM to their loved ones at any important events, be it their parents’ anniversary or spouse/ friend’s birthday or even when they have meetings in their offices. Fruitz Fresh Fruit Bouquets^TMprovides a refreshing option for them when too much of stress is bursting out in a conference room!

How do you maintain the ‘freshness’ factor? What is their estimated shell-life?

The commodity we are into, most important is to maintain its freshness which is only then going to make it saleable. Thus, after several trials and services, we have created a standard protocol of choosing the right fruit, time spent in preparing a bouquet and time taken to deliver. Taking it conclusively, we maintain strict hygiene while cutting of fruits and assorting it in bouquet style, wrapping it immediately with food grade polypack once it is done, and then dispatch it within no time under cool temperature so to maintain apt environment for fruits avoiding oozing out of juices or spoilage.

With above controls, Fruitz Fresh Fruit Bouquets^TM can stay upto 10 hours (after it reaches to the customer). With certain juicier fruits included, bouquets become little shorter in their shelf life, which we clearly inform before confirming the order to our customers.

Where are you based? Any interesting trends about the market you are trying to capture?

Fruitz Koncepts^TM is based mainly in East Delhi with its two kiosks at Pacific Mall, Kaushambi and PVR, Mahagun Metro Mall, Vaishali. But we are not limited within this area as we provide “Home Delivery” to any point in Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad and Ghaziabad, Noida (NCR).

The most interesting trend is that people are enjoying fresh exotic fruits in their gala moments too, otherwise fruits would merely remain as delicacies or salads. Fruitz Fresh Fruit Bouquets^TM are becoming an excellent gift that can be shared by all. Let’s say, you take it your friend’s birthday party and now everyone can enjoy fruits, stick by stick, with no guilt of extra calories consumed or feeling heavy for next day. Fruits, picked, eaten and gone! They are light as well as refreshing. In a gathering, especially ladies who are health conscious and choose their meal very carefully, can easily hop on these bouquets, which can be customized according to their favourite fruit(s).

Where is most of your clientel from (metros, city-wise break up, etc)?

Being available to any customer across the globe who wants to get bouquet delivered anywhere in Delhi / NCR, we process significant no. of orders received from USA, Dubai, UK, West/ South Delhi and Noida.

How many people visit your site everyday for online purchases? Unique visitors?

With such a unique Koncept of Fresh Fruit Bouquets, which was never seen in market before, it was very important for us to reach to our clientele in most viable way without wasting fruits (for creating live samples) and we launched ourselves with an e-store @www.fruitzkoncepts.com . This showcases pictures of all our fresh fruit bouquets along with their price range and detailing to our customers on just a click. Since an e-store is open worldwide, it has made it possible for us to serve our clientele from various parts of the world too. They need to just select, click, make the payment and there you go. Additionally, now almost every lady at home is techno-savvy and there we find our major clientele. We come at the first position and in some keywords, at the second position in web searches, and therefore, we receive a significant number of visitors per day who prefer to book order online when they are clear about what they would like to order. In certain cases, when client doesn’t go for e-store, we have an order booking no., which can be reached everyday between 1000 – 1800 hrs to book order over the phone itself.

What is the mode of payment?

Our customers can connect to us in two easy ways – web or phone. If they have made up their mind and are confirmed on their selection, they place the order and our website automatically takes them to payment gateways, available for both domestic and international customers separately. Customers can easily make the payment either through credit card/ debit card/ net-banking via e-store or through IVR in case of phone order.Could you tell us a little about your tie-ups?

Fruitz Koncepts^TM has successfully linked itself to major Spa and saloons across Delhi where you will find our posters or fliers to get the first line info and that has all information on how one can connect to us or place the order. We are now in move of tying up with the corporate, where health and nutrition has become one important concern for their employees.

So how did you come up with this idea?

I began with serving an NGO Industry Association, in Food Processing Dept. after completing my Food Technology from Delhi University. Having being exposed to almost every sector of food i.e. dairy, fruits and vegetables, cereals, meat etc., my focus, incidentally, remained on Fresh Fruits. I, myself, am a fruit lover and practically all figures and facts of Indian market showed that we are actually under-utilising this amazing gift of nature. We have ample variety of fruits available all round the year in India and still we do not consume them in the adequate amount unless being referred by a dietician or a doctor. This calculation kept popping in my mind until I decided to make it work and there comes this idea of Fresh Fruit Bouquet. With this Koncept, I thought that I would be able to bring a big difference in people’s preference over their snacks or party gifts.

What were the challenges you faced while starting up? Tell me about your initial hurdles.

The most important task was to reach out to people and make them aware about it. So, we had to try out many ways of marketing (investing a good amount of money) to outreach our actual clientele. Secondly, it was the cost of our raw material i.e. Fresh Fruits – which have very fluctuating pricing in Delhi Market. We then thought of utilising fruits more in quantity so that it reduces my cost because of bulk purchasing. This calculation, brought us to open kiosks in Food Court of different malls wherein we can make excellent and additional commercial use of fresh fruits in form of fruit salads, smoothies, juices, shakes etc., which we are now selling in the Food Court @ Pacific Mall, Kaushambi and in PVR, Mahagun Metro Mall – a unique service which makes you enjoy salads, fresh juices, smoothies while you enjoying movie! This whole has brought considerable cost reduction in purchasing my raw material.

How big is your team?

We started as a proprietorship which has now turned into a private limited company with 3 Women Directors (including me) and 7 employees.

Did you fund-raise to startup? Are you looking at getting funded now?

 We have not taken any funds yet to launch this concept and have been able to operate with our Director’s personal share as Capital. And yes now, with loads of request from different states to begin with this, we are very keen to get into the hands of a well-experienced group who can support us full-length in terms of experience, administration, infrastructure and funds to expand our services to different states and people as well, possibly through Franchises.

How does the revenue model work?

Fresh Fruit Bouquets, as an individual business, has proved to hold huge margins, especially when multiple orders are served in a single day. This is simply because of maximum utilisation of fruits with no or minimal left overs and half used fruit can’t be used next day. And now with our kiosks, we have been able to make the utilisation commercially more viable as we are not supposed to throw away the remaining or unused fruit but is used in salads, juices etc. We plan to develop this more in quantity once we get to open more stores across.

Where and how do you see yourself going ‘bout this in the next 5 years? Anything else you’d want us to mention?

 We now look forward to make our services available in other cities ofIndia and other countries across the world too, for which we are receiving lot of requests. We are also looking at growing with a group that can push this up further with a defined funding and franchisee structure. It brings a lot of potential and we are very excited to explore further with it.

With your esteemed portal, we put forward our need of the hour to many of the venture capitalists/ funding groups out there to support us move forward and first.

For more details, please visit their website - www.fruitzkoncepts.com

- Abhilasha Dafria