While the Coronavirus pandemic has ravaged nations across the globe, it has also brought men and women closer to their standard strategies of living and consuming. In India, men and women have began hunting towards Ayurveda as one of the strategies to create all-natural immunity. Many ayurvedic firms have ramped up their portfolios and sales of Ayurvedic goods have gathered a lot steam in the last one and a half years. In an exclusive conversation with the TheSpuzz Online Sanchit Sharma, Founder & Director, Ayouthveda talked about Ayurveda’s comeback, their growth story and a lot more. Excerpts:
Do you feel since of the coronavirus pandemic, the golden days of Ayurveda are back?
Absolutely, the pandemic has made men and women understand the massive worth of Ayurveda and the extent of its influence in maintaining all of us healthful. People have now completely adopted Ayurveda in their each day lifestyles and have understood that Ayurveda is one of the saviours of their life, this trend can be observed by noticing the penetration of herbal goods into people’s properties in midst of pandemic.
How has Ayurveda sector fared in the last one year compared to say 2019?
The Ayurveda sector has grown exponentially owing to the rise in reputation & consumption of well being and wellness goods, now you can see each corporation has its personal variety of immunity boosters. This enhance in sales & consumption has place Ayurveda sector in double digit development CAGR of 15% which is anticipated to continue till 2026
Due to the covid-19 wave, do you feel men and women have turn out to be receptive towards ayurvedic and other organic goods?
I feel Ayurveda has got a which means to its definition in this pandemic, it has really turn out to be a “way of life” for all people, men and women have turn out to be receptive towards Ayurveda & organic goods as they have realised that healthier and greater goods based on ideas of Ayurveda can be offered to them in simple to use kind and they need to have not place any efforts in kind of processing any of the components on their personal. Moreover the pandemic has resulted in a transform in customer lifestyles, with an enhanced focus on preventive healthcare treatments major to a surge in demand for immunity-positioned supplements, like Ayurvedic medicines and goods.
Considering Ayouthveda has been launched in 2020 throughout the pandemic, how has the brand performed in the last one year?
Ayouthveda has accomplished exceedingly nicely in FY 2020-21 owing to robust income contribution from all of its categories, we beat our estimates by more than 2 crores with leading line income of Rs. 12 crores against target objective of Rs. 10 crores. Our Quarter on Quarter (QoQ) development has been 30% with a 22% return consumer price in the initial year of our operations.
At a time when corporations had been hit challenging due to the pandemic, how did you handle to keep relevant in the marketplace?
As quickly as the nation went into lockdown we began to work on our emergent method, we knew that businesses which relied on 60-70% on handful of goods will be hit a lot tougher by the pandemic therefore we brought a wide variety of category & solution mix soon after analysing the need to have of the marketplace for e.g. our R&D wing pivoted from beauty centric solution strategy to beauty with hygiene strategy to launch goods like Intimate hygiene wash for ladies, Exclusive all all-natural Handmade soaps, Gentlemen pH wash, Fruit & vegetable wash, one of a kind herbal handwash and so on. we also enhanced our time to marketplace speed exponentially which helped us in minimizing time expenses and growing revenues.
With respect to the 3 decade legacy of AIMIL, how much has it has benefited when you were planning to launch Ayouthveda?
Aimil’s legacy has been a goodwill asset for us and its brand image has helped us in gaining the trust of our customers for their first purchase. The quality driven product concept of Aimil has always been an inspiration for us. And quality products are one of the most core differentiators in this segment.
How is Ayouthveda different from other Ayurvedic personal care brands?
Ayouthveda is an amalgam of Modern science with Traditional Ayurveda rituals in a unique way that is being liked by today’s youth. Our mission is to help people switch from synthetic & semi-synthetic products to harsh chemical free products. We’ve been completely transparent in terms of product’s ingredients and even excipients, providing authentic Ayurveda experience to our customers because of our own world class manufacturing facility which is not available to other brands making them rely on outsourcing which can affect quality in a major way. Transparency is also important as we believe that today’s youth have a right to know everything that goes in the product he or she uses and also deserves safe & effective solutions for their skin health management
What kind of marketing strategies did you adopt for a launch during the pandemic?
We had worked on all critical success factors of a brand launch which involved building a digital marketing team to promote products of all social media platforms. A strong offline marketing team was also put in place to generate demand at retail stores, one unique promotional tactic which we applied was placement of beauty advisors at point of sales (POS), this was a result of right talent hiring strategy involving recruitment of the laid off employees from other companies. We capitalized on our strong distribution channel to ensure product availability in maximum cities. Also promotion of problem solving products like Anti Hairfall tonic for Hairfall, Acne enemy range for Acne helped us to fulfill the need of the market in the beauty segment.
Considering you might have started the research 1.5 to 2 years before the launch, did the pandemic result in any change in the brand’s approach?
Although we started R&D in 2015, where my team and I played an active role in the development of all products, the pandemic has made us more adaptable & helped us in pivoting to a more diverse category of hygiene. With a decline in disposable incomes & increasing inflation, customers now want “affordable luxury” in response to their revenge shopping behaviour and Ayouthveda with its mass market luxury products is well positioned in the current scenario.
What are your future plans/share your roadmap to the 100 crore club?
This target will be achieved in a phased manner, in FY 2021-22 we are aiming for Rs. 40 crores and in FY 2022-23 we are expecting Rs. 100 crores in our top line. To achieve this we will go full throttle in our expansion by opening more than 100 retail stores all over the country, increasing the number of beauty advisors, sales officers & by building a diverse range of products. Currently we are present in the United Kingdom, from there we will expand to the whole European Union (EU).
Post-Covid, how much do you see Ayurveda market growing in the next 3 years?
Indian consumers are gradually realizing the real benefit of Ayurveda, especially personal care products and have started switching from harsh chemicals products to safe products. This demand along with the growing discretionary spending can definitely help Ayurveda to become $ 15 billion industry two years earlier i.e. in 2023.