A woman entrepreneur who sells minimally processed farm produce
Advait Living is a brand that does sell through WhatsApp and website. It creates its customer base by participating in farmers’ markets
Sonu Kishore Mehrotra and Meenakshi Kishore are sisters who own Advait which is all about organic and conscious eating. It’s about selling climate positive, natural, minimally processed, traditionally made and nutrient dense food.
Journey
As she says her journey began in 2017, when Sonu started working with her husband who was working for an NGO helping micro businesses. He was also working for women farmers, and since they had a farm they thought of selling products themselves under the brand name Advait. At this stage her sister Meenakshi also got involved in the project with the help of her father.
Started with a limited range of products but today the products include all cold pressed oils, ghee, millets, Khandsari, atta, besan, jaggery, and whole masalas, all, chemical free. Coming up with new products for instant use like turmeric latte, moringa sattu, gulkand and white butter.
Even though the turnover for the sisters is 50-60 lakhs annually, the scope for growth in the organic food segment is huge. People are moving towards conscious eating.
According to estimates, the market size of organic food was worth about Rs 22 billion in the year 2021 and is likely to increase to about Rs 64 billion by financial year 2025.
Target Market
Her target market is health conscious individuals, including those seeking to maintain a balanced diet, adopt cleaner eating habits, or manage specific dietary needs. However, the market has already grown exponentially and the competition has become stiff. People are organically becoming very conscious. For instance, they know what is billona ghee and cold pressed oils.
“We at Advait are trying to develop products that are minimally processed, fresh and seasonal. They all come in small batches”.
Business Categories Relevant To Their Target Market: Sustainable Clothing, Health Tech
Distribution Model
Her distribution model is sales through Whatapp marketing and website and promotions through Instagram. She also said that she has been participating in farmers markets organised by Meenu Nageshwaran in Sundar Nagar, and Puneeta Chadha, (Horizon), Gurgaon.
As far as pricing is concerned, we build all our costs for organic products with a profit margin of about 20%.
How does she plan to grow the market of conscious customers? Only way she can do is by building trust, she said.
Try the products, sample them and then decide. She said, “We are always there to take your queries”. She said we have created our customer base by participating in farmers markets where people tasted our products and have become our regular customers.
