Camel milk startup Aadvik Foods is tackling opposition from dairy giants which includes Amul with a farmer-first technique to procurement and a large cognizance on technology in the cold chain
The Rajasthan-based totally startup claims to be handing over 10K orders on a monthly basis in frozen camel milk, camel milk powder and different fee-introduced merchandise
Currently bootstrapped, Aadvik has released private label entity Hye Foods to promote greater cheap camel milk startups and diversify its sales channels
There are several elements that a enterprise needs to bear in mind whilst working in a gap section, and a new-age, bootstrapped startup running with camel milk is as niche as it receives even in India’s big dairy industry. Having the primary-mover benefit in this area, Aadvik Foods changed into sitting pretty on this small market, however when huge dairy agencies start eyeing the territory, what is going to be the X-component for the Rajasthan-based startup?
Cofounder Shrey Kumar believes it is going to be accept as true with and tech. The former is built at the back of a community of over 200 camel farmers, with a wholesome customer base of two.5 lakh purchasers, in addition to a few companies. While disruption inside the deliver chain and realignment of the complete bloodless chain operations, intended the network of farmers has now dropped to a hundred and fifty, it's miles now delivering close to 10K orders in line with month, as compared to pre-Covid times in which it turned into doing 6K orders in line with month.
As for tech, Kumar stated that the integration starts offevolved proper from the procurement level. A massive majority of camel farmers in India are sceptical to deliver camel milk for business use because of cultural differences. Moreover, preserving and processing of milk also are tedious. Typically, the shelf existence of camel milk is 3 days from the time of milking, furnished it's far maintained underneath the right conditions. The frozen milk, but, is predicted to have a shelf lifestyles for 1 year, which makes it higher suited for processing and different use-instances.
Founded in 2015 through Shrey Kumar and Hitesh Rathi, Aadvik Foods procures and sells camel milk, besides processing it for frozen camel milk, milk powder, price-introduced merchandise consisting of chocolates and skin care products. It’s additionally working with goat milk farmers to go into into every other niche milk marketplace. Currently, it has over 60 SKUs and claims to have customers from the US, Singapore and the Middle East besides India, with international income accounting for 5% of its basic sales.
In terms of sales distribution of its merchandise, Kumar stated that the revenue from sale of frozen milk levels from anywhere between 25-30%, followed through 30-35% from powdered milk, and ultimate 70% comes from its candies and skincare products. In the non-milk class the skin care products and sweets were doing truly well, he delivered.
“The future is beyond simply the supply of milk, there are other fee brought products like exclusive goodies made from camel milk, ghee, butter and yoghurt and so forth, and there is lots of scope for such products in India in addition to outside the united states of america,” Kumar said, including that more merchandise are within the pipeline to be launched next yr.
Bootstrapped Aadvik Foods On Leveraging Tech To Build Trust And Taking On Dairy Giants
Shrey Kumar and Hitesh Rathi, cofounders at Aadvik Foods
The Tech Behind Camel Milk Supply
“Typically, camel milk calls for a special technique to pasteurise, not like cow milk which goes via the extremely-excessive-temperature (UHT) approach. However, for camel milk, we use high-temperature short time (HTST) pasteurizer method to preserve the composition of milk as it's miles fed on by means of purchasers for its medicinal homes and values,” the cofounder brought.
Also Read:- How to Expand Your Business Overseas
Aadvik has invested closely in building bloodless chain skills which ensure the premiere temperature at all times across the supply chain. This tech integration is also a part of constructing the consider.
The UHT and HTST techniques used for pasteurizing animal milk kill harmful endemic bacteria and viruses, and this is a crucial component in imparting secure milk.
As for the era used in the cold chain, that’s still below improvement with IoT and sensors being advanced through the employer. Presently, Aadvik tracks the camel milk throughout the deliver chain using personnel, and is the reason why the Covid-19 pandemic had a big effect on the agency. With tech at its core, Kumar said the usage of IoT throughout diverse contact factors will boom efficiency and distribution to new audiences.
The third thing inside the tech stack is the freeze-drying strategies for manufacturing camel milk powder, which provide the enterprise a competitive facet over larger dairy corporations. Aadvik claimed to be the first company within the united states of america to try this, in contrast to other brands which use spray drying strategies for changing liquid milk into powder, which reduces the genuine nature/characteristics of milk.
Under its newly released non-public label entity known as Hye Foods, Aadvik additionally makes use of spray drying method so it has each facets of the marketplace protected. The distinction in pricing between spray-dried powder and freeze-dried powder permits it to sell extra via its internet site and ecommerce marketplaces and diversify its product portfolio.
Bootstrapped Aadvik Foods On Leveraging Tech To Build Trust And Taking On Dairy Giants
Going D2C And The Competition For Aadvik
Following an omnichannel approach, Aadvik Foods today has been leveraging each offline and online channels to promote its products, inclusive of Amazon, Bigbasket and Milkbasket, and shops in places like Delhi NCR, Punjab and Haryana amongst others. It is also planning initially a subscription version in the coming months, that is currently performed manually with the prevailing clients. “At gift, 55% of the sales comes immediately from its D2C local internet site.”
In phrases of sales, Aadvik Foods instructed Inc42 that it finished a revenue of INR sixty five Lakh in FY17, followed by means of 7x to 8x increase in FY18. However, in FY19, the employer said that it witnessed a stagnant increase of 30% revenue, and it hopes to improve this to 70-eighty% sales growth in FY21. Aadvik’s financials for FY2019 and FY2020 have no longer been publicly released.
On the flipside, Aadvik might compete with brands like Bigbasket, Milkbasket and Milkmantra within the close to future that have tech and distribution capabilities to expand into camel milk enterprise.
To this, Aadvik cofounder stated that it isn't always going to be easy because it isn't some thing that you pay the camel farmers and procure the raw substances and start the production. It doesn’t work that way in fact. “Farmers will consider most effective the ones who have helped them inside the past, and we have built that non-public relationship with them. Not simply farmers, even clients, in terms of handing over best products that add fee to their health and life-style who in particular come to us to buy camel milk merchandise,” stated Kumar.
According to IMARC, the worldwide camel milk merchandise stood at $five.Ninety eight Bn in 2019 and is anticipated to witness moderate growth inside the subsequent five years, growing at a CAGR of 6.Eighty four% due to increase inside the number of dairies generating camel milk and huge call for from the Asia Pacific and the Middle East location.
In India, however, the intake of camel milk is still in the nascent stage. With simplest a handful of companies in the camel milk business, along with Aadvik Foods, Camel Charisma, Nutra Vita, As Fresh and Amul, the market possibility is large, and so are the demanding situations. As in step with Livestock Census, India’s camel population stood at 2.Five lakh in 2019, from 5.2 lakh in 2007. And there are approximately 25K to 35K camel farmers/breeders in the us of a. Unfortunately, camels are also becoming obsolete, making them less and less beneficial, and camel-breeders also are unable to come up with the money for their maintenance.
At present, Aadvik Foods claimed you purchased camel milk immediately from neighborhood farmers in Rajasthan and Gujarat on a weekly and month-to-month basis, and system and keep the milk at its ultra-modern facility positioned in Delhi. Even although all of its merchandise are manufactured and processed domestically, the costs of its final merchandise seem to be plenty better in comparison to other milk-based totally products and options.
Given the perceived and acknowledged fitness advantages of camel milk, there’s lots of interest from health-aware Indians who are lactose illiberal or may also want to add opportunity ingredients to their way of life. Aadvik’s cofounder informed us a huge majority of the purchasers come from Tier 1 cities, and that’s not about demand or distribution by myself. Kumar said that Aadvik procures camel milk at a rate better than milk corporations together with Amul. That allows it to construct at the believe with the farmers but in the end, the price is excessive. “Obviously, we're paying extra than the per liter rate that has been given by means of the giants, because the camel milk must be premium.”
The organization additionally instructed Inc42 that it allows them in putting in financial institution accounts and guarantees that the money receives credited to their account on a monthly/weekly foundation, unlike different irregular procurement from a cooperative or milk producer affiliation, which results in profits leakage.
Beyond this in terms of manufacturing and processing, Kumar said that maximum spending is going into maintaining the milk and bloodless chain, accounting 70% of the final price.
Also Read:- What’s the Difference Between Unmetered and Unlimited Bandwidth?
“Initially, 1 litre of camel milk changed into approximately INR 600. But, now we're selling it at INR 400. Similarly, for camel milk powder it was INR 7500/kg, and we have reduced it to INR 3000/kg,” said Kumar, mentioning that the call for and supply of the milk frequently affects the price of the final product. On the alternative hand, dairy massive Amul, which ventured into camel milk products final 12 months. Its 500 ml and 200 ml PET bottles are retailed at INR 50 and INR 25 respectively, sincerely indicating the already strong infrastructure and community it has installation in location with its already present cow milk enterprise and different cost brought products.
Camel Milk Farmers In Rajasthan
Customer Behaviour, Investor Sentiments
Though camel milk has health blessings, the flavor and smell of it's far something specific that most of the clients throughout the country would either adore it or hate it. Also, those who try for the primary time regularly have questions in their thoughts associated with the smell and taste. Aadvik Foods said that they've been getting numerous queries associated with this from clients through the years and claimed that a few the primary-timers are actually normal customers.
“In truth, 90% of queries that we get on a normal basis had been related to this, wherein purchasers ask for diverse residences and fitness benefits related to camel milk, along side the answer for purchasing used to flavor and scent,” he added. “We continually inform that it is an obtained flavor, Once the consumer starts offevolved consuming, the flavor for camel milk receives higher.”
Currently, strolling its enterprise in bootstrapped mode, the employer said that in the coming months it is looking for strategic buyers who can assist scale its enterprise multifold. “We strongly agree with in the concept of producing earnings for all of our stakeholders and our largest stakeholders are at the lowest of the pyramid, observed with the aid of our group. For investors to see earnings on this space, it takes a minimum of 3 years, and when we find the proper investor who aligns with our values, we will raise budget,” concluded Kumar, on an positive observe.
