Zishta shows how to bring back your grandma's kitchen

Zishta meaning traditional roots, was started to understand the ways of life of our ancestors and get insights on what it takes to lead a sustainable life.

Its products are from artisans who have been working for over eight generations and still follow the age-old ways of making these products by hand.

Zishta was started in 2016 by three enthusiastic young friends who gave up their well-paying jobs to start this -- Meera Ramakrishnan, Archish Mathe Madhavan, and Varishta Sampath

The company sells online on Amazon and Flipkart and will soon have its own ecommerce site up. They have tested their products for harmful metals & chemicals, using the NABL process, a very stringent European process for testing.

The three founders pooled in their savings and invested Rs 8 lakhs to start Zishta. They clocked a turnover of Rs 1 crore last year.

The products at Zishta range from Rs 300 to Rs 9000. Says Meera, “We have built a customer base of around 20,000 across India. Having been in large MNCs heading marketing function, we struggle to go up the ladder in terms of preference, strength of preference, and loyalty. Zishta brand has a strong loyalty and customers become extended family with a strong repeat purchase.”

Meera has 23 years of experience in the corporate world, holding several senior leadership positions in strategy & marketing at Honeywell, GE, Infosys, and ‘The Hindu’. She is passionate about reviving traditions, Archish Mathe Madhavan is an engineer and an MBA graduate. He has worked in the corporate sector for nine years before quitting and starting this firm. His passion for travel and hiking got him hooked to the idea of reviving traditions. Varishta Sampath is a Bcom graduate and is an avid sports woman who dreamt of being an entrepreneur and Zishta gave her the right impetus.

(Video: Dipti Nair; Camera: Tamil Maran)