In a tete-a-tete with Restaurant India, Anuj Rakyan, CEO, Raw Pressery shares about the idea of starting a fresh juice concept.
Growing up in as an athlete, Anuj Rakyan's mother always ensured that he had a balanced diet. Not only did she ensure that his food was healthy, she made sure it was tasty, just like mothers do across the world. There was an inherent lack of products which are free of preservatives and added sugar and taste just like nature intended. This gap needed filling by clean label brands which share the same love, transparency and respect for their consumers. He believed that it was time to make a product that delivers just that and Raw Pressery was born. All Good. No Bad. Made with love for the ones we love and where Healthy Meets Tasty.
Tell us about the Eureka moment.
Healthy Self. Heal-thy Self. It's the way you look at it. I was nursing an injury I had while playing football with the boys. I was asked to increase the protein content in my diet. Being a vegetarian the protein could come from leafy vegetables and fruits. I began looking up recipes and blending the produce together in my Norwalk presser. I discovered that nutrition from fresh fruit and vegetables can be absorbed directly by the bloodstream if it's consumed as a juice. I discovered that healthy could be tasty and that thought gave birth to Raw Pressery.
It has been quite a journey – we always believed that we had a great product. However, scaling up to new geographies and channels was challenging. Lack of a reliable cold chain, poor infrastructure at retail checked the growth of the brand. We are learning every day and adopting practices which have never been the norm in the industry – air freighting across the country (and now even overseas) to ensure freshness and customer experience, commitment to replace stocks ahead of the expiry date and delivering direct-to- home orders with our own cold chain logistics, to mention a few.
Tell us about your brand portfolio?
RAW Pressery is India's leading clean label beverage brand. Established in 2013, RAW Pressery pioneered cold-pressed juices in India. Our portfolio spreads across cold-pressed juices, smoothies, coconut water, nut-milks and ready-to-consume soups. All variants in the portfolio is an amalgamation of freshness, nutrition & taste and are free of preservatives, added sugar, chemicals and colour.
Change is a constant. It's what keeps us going. At the core of our business is innovation; it's all about simplifying the consumer and always giving back to the consumer. The approach trickles down to every level of the organization and allows being in sync with consumer preferences, market trends as well as competition.
What's most exciting part of being in the industry?
The most exciting part of being in the industry is being able to celebrate a journey of change and transformation from people, through people and for people. Our journey too has transformed from a small start-up from Mumbai to a category leader to now a brand that consumers believe can give the biggies a run for their money. We started off with a portfolio of 6 juices in 2014 to over 27 variants in 2017 available across 1100 points of sale in 2017. This bares testimony to the fact that one must never stop believing in the product, the process and the people. And any journey will be magic!
Raw Pressery has grown from strength to strength, expanding business to achieve its goal to be India's largest clean label Food & Beverage Company. We're currently available in 10 cities, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Gurgaon, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai Chandigarh, Kochi & Ahmedabad. This year, we have also forayed into international markets with Middle East being our first stop. The brand is available across Lulu Hypermarket stores in U.A.E. and Qatar.In the coming year the brand will look at placing an intensive focus on new product development and targeted marketing to our audiences.