These women entrepreneurs on a health mission want to solve every household's snacking woes

It’s a dilemma that mothers face every day. What to pack in snack boxes and picnic baskets, or store away for midnight snacks that are tasty but not loaded with preservatives and trans fats?

Mumpreneurs Anchal Abrol and Priya Puri were also sailing in the same boat when they reflected back to their grandmothers’ ways.

“Whether it was samosas or any other snack made of maida (flour), they always advised adding a cup of healthy grains to the mix. We started to conceptualise recipes on the same lines,” says Anchal in a chat with HerStory. 

The long-time friends became business partners soon after, and in 2019 decided to register their Mumbai-based company Snaqary.

The early days and more

However, it took another two years before their products were available in the market.

“After registering the company in 2019, it took us a year to come up with products that were healthier than options available in the market and tasty as well,” Anchal recalls.

With a focus on including natural flavours from traditional ingredients, Anchal and Priya developed products such as baked snacks, crispy sev, multigrain sticks and puris, khakhras, and nut and seed mixes.

Snaqary started out in Mumbai, with the entrepreneurs tying up with vendors who shared their passion for healthy snacks.

“Our recipes went through a whole lot of trial and error. We started with Bajra (pearl millet) puris in multiple flavours like spinach, fenugreek, and cream and onion. To date, these are some of our bestselling products. Then we experimented with multigrain sev, just to give customers something other than the same old sev made of chickpea flour. However, we realised the product was too hard and had to rework it,” admits Anchal, who began and still continues to take Snaqary’s products to exhibitions to get live feedback from customers.

“Some of our best patrons are children and old people. They always give honest feedback,” says Anchal, adding that Snaqary’s products are tailored to be family snacks.

Over the last year and a half, Snaqary has expanded sales to Pune, Hyderabad and the Delhi-NCR region through vending machines. Products are also available online via Big Basket and Amazon.

“We recently launched in Kolkata, and are getting an astounding response from there, Siliguri, and the entire eastern part of India. We've also recently been handpicked by Swiggy as a brand,” informs Anchal, who earlier ran a printing business for 11 years.

According to market research firm Grand View Research, the global snacks market size was valued at $1,450.4 billion in 2021, and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.7% from 2022 to 2030.

A report by the firm stated “rising health concerns globally, and shifting lifestyles and dietary patterns have fuelled demand for a variety of snacking options”.

In recent years, there have been plenty of players in the healthy snacks industry but Anchal says their USP lies in three main factors.

“Firstly, we use traditional grains as the core ingredients in all our products. Second, there is a lot of focus on protein-rich diets, and while we agree, we also believe a balanced diet approach is the best. Finally, there is a lot of misuse of oil in the market. The vendors we work with understand this and make sure there is no scope for complaints,” says Anchal, who has also ensured there is a range of baked goodies on offer for those who want to avoid the oil.

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Growing pains

In less than two years, Snaqary has managed to amass a database of over 50,000 clients, primarily via the offline model.

Anchal and Priya now plan to expand in more geographies, grow their online presence, add at least 10-15 new snack varieties, and introduce beverages.

The path to this growth, though, has not been easy. “There have been challenges every day, whether it was managing cash flow or finding the right people to work with. Initially, nobody would want to work with us - from vendors to staff,” Anchal says.

Finding the right product-market fit, and acceptable price points are other areas that needed to be worked out. “We've made sure to do our research with retailers and customers. Participating in exhibitions to get first-hand feedback from customers also helped,” Anchal says.

Currently bootstrapped by the two co-founders, the firm is open to funding, but Anchal maintains that the support they are looking for is sound mentorship besides financial.

“The rate at which we are growing, we definitely need funds. We also need investors who can probably help us expand our network and advise us on scaling.”

Although Snaqary started out as a two-member team with one warehouse, they currently employ 10 employees (five on the backend and five on frontend sales), and operate out of two warehouses and one office in Andheri, Mumbai.

Speaking about taking to entrepreneurship, Anchal says the journey is tough and sometimes does get lonely, but is worth “fighting for”. “You should never lose confidence. It is okay to fail, what’s more important is to move on.”