Kick Startup: In India, the majority of people prefer to pursue their career in the field of their interest, even after knowing that they all are going to become someone's slave. In addition to this, India is the only country that has the caliber to perform well in every term of sector whether it's about studies, finding their dream job, or starting a business.
However, Indian Startups have changed peoples' point of view and showed that with minimum investments and marketing skills, everyone can scale their business to the next level.
Here in this article, you will get to know about the success story of an Indian startup named 'Alpino' peanut butter. How six childhood friends plan out a strategy with a 5 lakh investment and made it a 5 Crore turnover company.
After being informed by many manufacturing businesses that they would never succeed, the Alpino founders went on to create a successful peanut butter brand that is now accessible on several internet platforms.
Six childhood buddies from Surat with mom-and-pop business roots and enormous dreams discussed becoming businesses in their own right and time. This was in 2012, and they had all recently graduated from high school. Priyank Vora, Milan Gopani, Hiren Sheta, Mahatva Sheta, Umesh Gajera, and Chetan Kanani may have parted ways, but they remained in touch.
“We would continuously discuss various concepts, attend trade shows, and yet manage to study”, says Chetan Kanani, Co-Founder of Alpino.
They finished from college in 2015 and began researching supplement proteins and healthy living spaces in India. They quickly realized that whey protein substitutes and healthy fats like peanut butter were not popular in India.
Almost all of India's peanut butter production is exported. We thought that if peanuts are farmed here, why not create peanut butter here as well? "The competition study revealed that the hard effort we needed to put in was for category marketing," Chetan explains.
But, apart from market research, they ran into trouble when they asked a manufacturer to provide them a few cases of peanut butter to sell under their own label. The manufacturer informed the guys that they would need to purchase at least 500 cases.
"In most situations, individuals leave. But we remained firm and began haggling with him. Our perseverance in refusing to accept no for an answer served us well. "By the evening, we had persuaded the owner to give us 100 cases," Chetan recounts.
The team labelled the peanut butter and began selling it on Amazon and Snapdeal under the brand Alpino, which had previously been picked and trademarked. However, it took them three months to resolve 100 instances.
The next time, they inquired about the sorts of peanut butter being exported by the producer, discovering a crunchier variant. They purchased them and began promoting on Amazon, earning Rs 25 lakh in income for the fiscal year 2016-17. The crew noticed that individuals preferred the crunchier type.
Observing their clients' pincodes, they discovered that every piece of their merchandise was purchased in Haryana, Punjab, or Delhi. They realised that in order to scale, they needed to establish distribution.
Soon after, they established 15 distributors in the north who would sell peanut butter under exclusive agreements. In 2017, the crunchy peanut butter sold 50 cases per month, expanding their market.
"We travelled about demonstrating the benefits of peanut butter for bodybuilders, even giving a presentation at an international health and fitness organization." "People started trying the stuff," Chetan adds.
In three years, the company has earned Rs 5 crore in sales and is one of Amazon's best-selling youth brands. The firm is now expanding its product line.
By the end of the year, they want to have whey and olive oil on hand. At the moment, they sell peanut butter on all ecommerce platforms in India, and they are considering becoming nationwide. The idea is to convince Indians to substitute peanut butter for jam.
In India, the market for peanut butter consumption is less than $100 million. But it's enormous business in the United States. According to the IMARC group, the worldwide peanut butter industry is currently worth $ 3.3 billion, with demand increasing at a CAGR of roughly 6% between 2010 and 2017.
The key causes driving this increase include a diversity of flavors’, innovative mixes, rising disposable income of customers, and a growing demand for healthier products.
Alpino intends to develop to a Rs 50 crore business in a few years by collaborating with 200 distributors. India is undergoing a fitness revolution, and the corporation wants to capitalise on it. According to a Deloitte India estimate, India's fitness business is valued 1.1 billion dollars.
Imagine millennial discovering that peanut butter is superior to simple jam. That's when Alpino would have earned a name for itself.
