Anuj Rakyan, Founder and MD, RAW Pressery
Anuj Rakyan is the founder and MD of RAW Pressery, India’s first and largest clean label company, a part of Rakyan Beverages. His keen interest in health and fitness and his understanding of the space led him to launch India’s first truly healthy, “All Good. No Bad” brand of cold-pressed juices. At RAW Pressery, Anuj’s goal is to address the scarcity of honest and transparent products in India. He aims to plug this gap through an offering that keeps a check on health while delivering a fresh and delicious taste. A graduate from Duke University, North Carolina, Anuj began his career as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley. He then moved to the world of brand consulting at FutureBrand, New York. Today, Anuj is driven by a single-minded commitment to establishing RAW Pressery as India’s favourite food and beverage brand which is synonymous with good health, nutrition and great taste. In conversation with Dominic Rebello, he reveals how, “In five years, he aims to make RAW Pressery juices available at every possible consumer touch point across retail, digital and direct-to-home deliveries”
What drives you?
Raw Pressery is a consumer company. We like to put together products and tailor our experiences around the consumer. We strive to engage the consumer in our value proposition and make their experience thoroughly enjoyable. Our belief rests in the principal of ‘loving what you do-doing what you love’ and in return adding value to all those around us. ‘All Good. No Bad.’
How big is the potential for a business like yours?
Unpasteurized, natural, packed with nutrients, enzymes and flavour, the Cold Press Juice segment is poised to grow to a 1oo crore market in the next 5 years. It’s safe to say that cold pressed juices would dominate the packaged juice category in the next 3 to 5 years. Healthy, tasty and fresh, the cold pressed beverage market promises definitive opportunities of growth.
What do you expect from a business like yours? Any statistics to compare to international standards?
We believe that our juices, in addition to functional benefits, cater to multiple demand moments. Although, these occasions are primarily in-home, there is definitely a potential to go beyond and cater to relevant out of home avenues.
Accordingly, our efforts to build distribution will focus on the Modern Retail, E Commerce & Direct to Home channels. It will cater to the in-home customer base and also expand our foot print across institutions – QSRs, Airports & Airlines, Hotels, schools and offices. We wish to reach to about 1500 points of sale by the end of 2016 and expand to our footprint to a total of 12 cities. The 100% natural category has grown by over 40% in the past 3 years and online and offline retailers are seeing a surge in footfall by stocking clean-label innovations. This is a positive note for brands that go beyond being beverage of affluence to a beverage of influence.
How do you plan to scale up?
We’re currently available in 9 cities, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Gurgaon, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Chandigarh and Kolkatta. We will be soon available in Ahmedabad. We are also receiving a lot of enquiries from the Middle –East. The Indian Food & Beverage market is blossoming with opportunities. We plan to tap into this expansion and invest in healthy snacks and nutriments. We are the only company in Asia employing advanced cold pressurization with High Pressure Processing to maintain shelf life, producing about 8000 units of juice a day. With the coming in of the new state of the art production facility in Panvel, we expect to enhance production capacity by a factor of 2.5.
Who would primarily be your consumer audience?
We those who want to get healthy but feel that it is difficult to find the time. They’re looking for something convenient that can fit into their daily life. Our customers include everyone from athletes to Bollywood stars, as well as industrialists, models, expats, young mothers and businessmen.
Where do you see yourself a year down the road?
In the coming year, we see ourselves expanding to 15 cities in India covering over 2000 points of sale and also pave our way into the Middle East. Making eating healthy easier for the Indian audiences we plan to foray into the fresh food and packaged nutriments. We wish to further establish Micro Cold Presseries across our laid out geographies, each equipped with the best of produce and technology to give the discerning customer a truly phygital experience, integrating online and offline. These establishments will allow a consumer to place an order digitally and see their beverage of choice getting made, in real time.