This Gurugram-based dairy startup has new ways to fight adulteration

A national-level survey carried out by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) last year found that most of the milk consumed in India is adulterated. Unorganised suppliers are not aware of the hygiene and quality standards that need to be maintained. They are in a rush to market impure, unprocessed milk as farm fresh and pure. This risks the health of a large number of Indians and even exposes them to poisoning at times.

On the other hand, India faces a shortage of milk leading to malpractices in production. Similarly, in other food categories as well, there is widespread adulteration in ghee, unchecked use of inverted sugar syrup in honey, and low-quality milk laced with adulterants are used to produce cheese and other products.

Taking note of these disturbing trends, Amit Sharma and Ajay Yadav launched a company with the objective of producing dairy, wholefood and nutritious products backed with state-of-the-art automation to ensure hygiene and innovative standards. 

The company, Credence Whole Foods Private Limited, launched on May 1, 2016, in Gurugram, produces dairy products under the brand name NutriMoo.

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The goals

The founders of the company Amit Sharma and Ajay Yadav have known each other since their childhood. While Ajay comes from a dairy background, Amit comes from a corporate background with skills in managing large and complex programmes.

Their skills complement each other well as Ajay is responsible for procurement and backend operations and Amit focuses on strategy, marketing, finance, sales and IT. NutriMoo presently has a team of 50 employees. 

Nutrimoo promises 100 percent pure, fresh, hormone-free, and preservative-free dairy and wholefood products which it claims are entirely free from any adulteration. The brand offers traditional products and their variants like cow ghee, desi ghee, honey (Himalayan, Tulsi, Ajwain and Cinnamon), dahi (yoghurt), fresh paneer (cottage cheese) and chaach (buttermilk). 

“The milk is collected from handpicked farms in milk-rich regions of North India and put through stringent testing processes at multiple levels. The farm-to-home cold chain is maintained through an in-house integrated system and infrastructure. The maiden milk processing plant at Baghpat, UP, is well equipped and is at par with world standards in pasteurisation, sterilisation and homogenisation with a processing capacity of 50,000 litres per day,” says Amit Sharma, Co-founder and Director, NutriMoo.

“Similarly, honey is procured from large handpicked farms and packaged at a state-of-the-art fully automated plant with a large processing capacity of 70 MT per day,” Amit adds.

New products being launched by Nutrimoo include Processed Cheese Slices in different flavours – Classic, Oregano, Peri-Peri and Pizza Mozzarella Cheese, Multigrain Cereals (Multigrain Oats with Ragi, Quinoa, Wheat and Barley, Muesli with Fruit & Nut and Muesli with Fruit, Nuts and Quinoa), Packaged Paneer, and Cup Curd.

Target audience

“We are targeting mass premium category customers who are from the higher middle class and are willing to pay a premium for high-quality products. Majority of the target audience (TG) is from the upper-middle class and educated women (working and non-working), who appreciate the brand value,” says Amit. 

“To start with, our focus is Delhi-NCR and gradually we will move to other towns in North India in the coming weeks,” he says.

Online presence

NutriMoo boasts of tight quality control over sourcing, production and in keeping the turnaround time as low as possible to ensure freshness.

The brand currently sells through its own website and mobile app available for Android and iOS users as well as through leading online portals – Amazon Prime, Flipkart, Swiggy stores and Bigbasket.

“Nutrimoo is a combination of two words ‘Nutri’ + ‘moo’, which implies delivering nutritious superfood around health and wellness,” Amit says.

The market and revenue 

Besides online presence, NutriMoo is also targeting offline retail distribution networks. 

“As part of Phase-I, the company is aiming to launch products in Delhi-NCR in approximately 2,000 outlets, followed by North India and then pan-India. The company already has a presence in over 500 premium retail stores in Delhi- NCR,” says Amit.

Amit further adds that NutriMoo’s revenues have been increasing 3X in the past three years and is expected to grow further 3X in FY20 from last year.

“FY20 revenue is planned to close at Rs 40 crore and the target for FY21 is Rs 130 crore,” Amit says.

In October 2019, the company raised over $1 million (approximately Rs 7.08 crore) in strategic investment from IndoCan Honey Pvt Ltd, a business entity that focuses on premium quality honey. This investment was subsequent to a large investment made by Brand Capital, the investment arm of the Times Group.

Other players in the dairy segment include Swiggy’s Supr Daily, Milkbasket, DailyNinja, Country Delight and Provilac Dairy Farms while Bengaluru-based Doodhwala closed operations last year.

“There is no hype in the dairy and superfoods industry, rather it is underpenetrated, with huge potential on the upside. With rising incomes and growing awareness, customers are becoming aware of the need to focus on their wellness and health. Hence, we are seeing more and more customers opting for a healthy lifestyle with quality products,” Amit says.

“India’s dairy sector revenue is expected to increase to Rs 10 lakh crore by FY2021 and the branded value-added products market is estimated to be Rs 90,000 crore,” he adds.

(Edited by Javed Gaihlot)