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C O V E R S T O R Y

THE BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA FOR TEA

B y R a j e s h G h a d g e I m a g e C r e d i t s - S a c h i n R a n e

Image Credits - Pixabay

Sachin has been in the sales and marketing of the FMCG products segment for almost two decades. His interest has always laid in the food & beverages segment mainly and he has always believed in innovation. Over the years, he introduced many new products to the market but because of his dependency on manufacturers who haven ’t had the capacity nor scope for scalability, made him think twice. However, he continued to use his skillset for new product development for third-party clients.

“We are specialised in the formulation and product development right from the idea to the execution, ” he explained. Sachin has developed more than 200 products to date. “Somewhere in 2015, I decided to launch our own product range instead of just doing the formulations for the other companies. We launched the first carbonated drink, called Nature Day, and introduced local traditional flavours like ginger, kokum, lime and jeera. ” Sachin soon realised that Goa ’ s market is limited for his product range so he extended to other states. “Currently we have a presence in the entire western region including multinational companies such as Reliance Retail, Star Bazaar, Apna Bazaar and Future Groups Big Bazaar and we are doing extremely well. After Coca-Cola and Pepsi, his

Image Credits - Pablo Meza

Image Credits - Shivansh Singh

product range falls in the third position at Reliance Retail. “I have always targeted the national and international markets and now we supply to UAE and UK markets. ” Sachin has recently introduced his new product range at India ’ s biggest Ayurvedic Congress held in Goa in December. “We launched the new product in accordance with Ayurveda which says whatever you apply on the body should be edible, since our body has small pores which absorb the contents applied and that is the reason we apply the coconut oil on our body. Hence, we have developed a product called body butter which is a mix of coconut oil and kokum butter which is edible and you can consume it without any problem. Our product has received a huge demand from consumers and we have always believed

in introducing unique products and this is one of them. Namaste Chai, the Beginning of a New Era in the Tea Industry Chai means tea and it has a huge consumer market share in our country. More than 140 crore cups of tea are consumed in India every day. As the saying goes, need is the mother of invention and it was no different in the case of Sachin. “It so happened that I was in Delhi and the tea that was severed to us at breakfast was not up to the mark. I realised that the best tea one gets in India is on the roadside Tapri (a small Kiosk). So a thought struck me to bring that same Tapri taste with a 5-star hotel level of hygiene and together, it would be a success. Thus, Namaste Chai was born, ” he explained. The Chai brewing technique has remained the same in India for 1 ½ centuries and but the taste is according to how it is brewed and what leaves are used. Also, every family has its own speciality in making tea. “We always expect that one person from our family who makes the best tea should only prepare the tea for us every time as we are used to that taste. At the Namaste Chai, we have standardised this process and we have also applied to patent the same. This way if you drink Namaste Chai at any outlet in the world, the taste will remain the same. ” Sachin started his first outlet of Namaste Chai in Goa and waited for one year to check consumer feedback before opening outlets across the country. “There is no organised player in the chai industry in India. We saw this gap in the market and started Namaste Chai. Looking at the huge response from our store in Goa, we started a total of 28 stores across the

country and we are marching towards a target of 100 stores in the next year. We ’ re even looking to introduce tech into tea-making so consumers at home can brew their tea to taste exactly as they would drink in our shops. They can formulate their own chai with ingredients he wants and he can brew his own tea and lock that taste can be ordered with just a click of one button. ” Speaking on the challenges faced by him Sachin said that the biggest challenge was real estate. “The rents of our outlets are a major challenge for us. We need to have our presence in the most happening locations but rents in these areas are high so it is not possible to spend a huge amount on real estate. As real estate is the biggest challenge, we are working on the tech part of it by installing an automatic tea vending machine controlled by software and operated by individuals with the mobile app. This will shift the entire focus from the physical channel to the online channel where almost 40% of revenue comes from the online channels. You should also know that we are in fact, the first company in India that sells chai by the litre.

One of the major hurdles that Sachin faces at the moment is advertising on national channels as his product is serving consumers at very reasonable costs. “Our Chai starts from 10 rupees which is even cheaper than Tapriwalas in some places, ” he says. “The highest price is 50 rupees as the idea behind our concept, which we want to promote is, ‘the need of Chai’ which means the urge of drinking tea. Our whole concept at Namaste Chai is value for money. ” The other segment that Sachin is catering to at the moment is pre-mixes of Namaste Chai. “The reason behind starting the pre-mixes is to cater to those who can ’t visit our kiosks, like office workers. They can use the pre-mix sachets in the comfort of their offices. We also have brewed milk which caters for different segments. Very soon we are introducing for the first time in India, a 1-litre and 1.5-litre pet bottle of ice tea readily available on the shelf.

Speaking about future plans, Sachin said that IOT-based Chai Dispensers will operate on the mobile app. “We are now focusing on the western region and opening the outlets in the international markets. We will be taking the brand Namaste Chai across the globe and providing the authentic Indian taste of tea. We also have plans of entering the Indian sweets and napkins too but whatever segment we enter, we will always try to be unique.