For True Elements, a zero-sugar breakfast and snacks brand based out of Pune, the nationwide lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic was the ideal time to come up with one more innovation. Its customers can track the quality of the product they buy, including the raw materials, at all stages of the manufacturing process.

Customers have to go to the company’s website and key in the batch number of the product they have bought and they will be able to see its entire history and quality report, says Sreejith Moolayil, Co-founder and COO, True Elements.

There was a lot of scepticism, he says, over quality, specifically because of the lockdown and that is why the company speeded up the process and introduced the technology to track the product’s history. Initially, True Elements planned to provide this facility just before Diwali, but the pandemic and concerns over quality got the company to introduce it now.

The inputs used in the products include grains, seeds and flavours. In some cases, the company sources the inputs from processors instead of directly from the farmers and quality reports are available from that stage. Each product has 8-9 ingredients and the company provides information on the entire chain.

A lot of queries on the company’s customer-care section related to product information and source of ingredients, was the trigger for the company to provide the tracking details to its customers, according to Moolayil.

He said True Elements was taking all precautions in the factory and had ensured that there was no human physical contact at any stage — from ingredients coming in and finished products being shipped out. All invoices and product reports were done digitally.

The company used to get 45,000-50,000 orders a month and hopes to close this month with 80,000 orders, through e-commerce marketplaces and on its own website

Plant operation

Moolayil said the company continued to operate the plant because it had moved its workers, especially those from other States, into the factory premises, where they were staying since the lockdown began. “We have thus avoided their external world contact and secured their health and confidence,” he said.

The company has 115 employees, of whom 95 are in Maharashtra. Of this, nearly half are from other States. The company has a capacity of 130 tonnes a month and can produce three lakh units with all three shifts operating. It is now working at half the capacity due to shortage of packaging material and inputs.

Published on May 25, 2020