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TABP Snacks and Beverages - the Coimbatore-based start-up - plans to raise $3 million in the next 12-15 months for expansion, said its co-founder Prabhu Gandhikumar, an engineering graduate, who worked in the US for a few years, before returning to Coimbatore to start his own venture.
The company was funded by Angels and a couple of family offices. The fresh round of funding will be used for new product development, territory expansion,field force widening and in manufacturing units and capacity, he told BusinessLine. The company offers snacks, healthy breakfast cereals, millets and juices. "We have a simple philosophy of offering nutritionally loaded food and beverages at prices that are affordable (its products available in ₹10 segment) to all strata of society," he added.
Founded in 2018, the company has invested about ₹8 crore in the venture. Its products are available under five brands - Gulp, Plunge, Tanvi, MilletMight and Thirsty Owl. The company has a concentrate production unit in Coimbatore, and manufacturing units in Coimbatore, Chengapalli, Mysore, Krishnagiri, Chennai and Aurangabad with capacity to produce 600 bottles per min of beverages and 200 kg of snacks per hour, he said.
“Our major markets are the rural areas and urban poor markets. We have presence in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Odissa. We plan to add Maharashtra and Goa this year. We also plan to enter the Northeast,” he said.
On the impact of lockdown on business, Gandhikumar said for beverages most of the sales happen in the summer. Unfortunately, in both 2020 and 2021, the Covid peak happened during the summer months, and affected sales badly.
To ease the impact of lockdown, the company introduced snacks to mitigate the seasonal effects of the business. From being a beverage focused company, it has shifted to food and beverage business. “This not only helped us to keep our staff doing their job but also ensured that none of the staff was fired. We also diversified into millet-based food with the brand MilletMight,” he said.
Gross merchandise value
The company reported Gross Merchandise Value of ₹24 crore in 2019-20 and expects to increase it to ₹45 crore in 2021-22, he said.
Gandhikumar said that the company was not worried about competition. “We operate in the ₹10 segment, in which the large companies do not concentrate.. We have also developed local flavours like grape for Tamil Nadu, and Jeera masala for Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. This has helped us gain advantage over our competitors,” he said.
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