Consumers above 35 are most aware of buying organic products

Nobody had ever imagined this colossal growth of the organic brands in India. Not just that this industry has numerous e-commerce players, but those too who are scaling greater heights via franchise route. With the growing responsiveness about organic food and other products, consumers are even ready to pay a little higher for such products. What started as a concept years ago, has now transformed into more than a 1000 crore industry. Read on to get a more detailed view of this revolutionary industry.

Founded by S. Kavitha, Organic Gold is South India’s first public limited company in organic bio food products. Organic Gold started franchising in 2012 and now has 650+ franchise retail outlets pan-India. The brand sells 300+ varieties of organic food products and offers free home delivery too. Co-Founder and CEO of Organic Gold, Senthil Kumar Soundaryarajan tells us: ‘Seeing the down trodden condition of the farmers, we started this organic brand and work with farmers. Now, 35+ age group buy most organic food from us.’ As per few researches, these buyers are those who are enlightened and understand the importance of healthy and safe products for themselves and their families. Mumbai based Organic Garden was a dream come true for its Founders, Kiran and Manisha Temkar. The brand is authorised and certified to sell food, vegetables, grocery, health products, hair care; processed food etc that are laboratory tested on multilevel. Spokesperson of the brand, Prakash Manik informs: ‘We have our own vehicles and we distribute across Mumbai via those vans. We also supply organic food to schools, hospitals and hotels. We tie-up with farmers and grow our own products. Mostly 35-50+ age group buy from us. It is mature enough to understand the importance of organic and for 50+ this has become a necessity seeing the health hazards of the food grown with the use of pesticides etc. This industry needs more light and attention.’

Lack of awareness in organic beauty

SeaSoul Cosmeceuticals is an expert in miraculous spa and skincare products. The brand has two stores in New Delhi and Pune. Manisha Chopra, Co-Founder of the brand says: ‘The biggest challenge is the gross abuse of word organic or natural in the Indian market. Many players in the market who claim to be either natural or organic are actually selling product loaded with chemicals. Lack of regulation and consumer awareness is the key hurdle for players like us who are striving to bring in accredited organic /natural products. We now largely engage in consumer awareness programs regarding organic beauty products.’

Another brand, Bhusattva makes eco garments and organic shoes that regulate body temperature and have therapeutic effects on body too. It caters to many Multi-Designer Stores across more than 30-40 cities in India along with covering Europe, South Asia, Latin America and Middle East Internationally.It works internationally on fashion agent model, and franchising model. 25-50+ is the age group that buys from them the most.

Joy Of Life, was incubated in the prestigious IIT Delhi Campus and owns three patents at USA, Europe and India and one more pending in India "Method for Dyeing a Textile product using Neem and Holy Basil Extract". The Company has developed first of its kind Green Proprietary Textiles Processing Technology to produce Organic Herbal Garments with Skin Fortifying & Wellness properties using Modern Biotechnology Applications and by Bio-engineering Natural/ Organic Herbal ingredients only. MD of the brand, Rajiv Rai Sachdev tells us: ‘These are garments that have excellent protective and curative properties and will also have profound psychological impact on its users to use it again and make them feel younger and fit. There is surely lack of awareness regarding the organic products in India.’

More support needed from Government

Soundharyarajan of Organic Gold informs us: ‘The main challenge lies in educating the farmers in the right way. We are also conducting classes for farmers. Organic farming is very less as compared to other methods. We have to increase land and farmers both.4666 farmers directly work for us. Finance is another challenge. We have approached angle investors, venture capitals many times, but they only support e-commerce websites and not us. The saddest part is, even the government does not support us and thus private funding is the only way to grow and do better for the nation via organic farming.’

On the contrary, Manik of Organic Garden says that much support is needed from government in educating the farmers on organic farming. Otherwise there are certain benefits like Tax reductions, rebates, No octroi and also logistics become easy. Bhusattva Founder, Jainam Kumarpal says: ‘The benefit that we should get from the government policies doesn’t reach us. So, to overcome this we have developed our own processes and are still trying to introduce new processes from dying, weaving, etc. to turn things easy for us.’

Road ahead

• In the next 5 years, Organic Gold sees itself opening traditional high end outlets. The brand seeks foreign investments from UK and European countries and wants to add 500 more stores via franchisees.
• Organic Gold franchise model requires an investment of Rs 5 lakh with an area of 300 sq ft.
• SeaSoul Cosmeceuticals aims to widen its footprint by opening 200 outlets pan-India by Q3 2017 via the franchise model in next two years.
• Bhusattva has more than 50-60 stores pan India and it is planning to get into Kid’s wear and Essential Oils in the near future.