Interview-Sanjay Kumar, Founder and MD Vitaminhaat
Our Company Sub dairy Varion FoodSciences Pvt Ltd. was formed with the premise to offer effective and affordable solutions to health enthusiasts. Today, Our Company offers India’s largest range of genuine health supplements across categories that includes all major brands. It has grown from a team comprising four members in June 2016 to 10 plus and aims at becoming India’s Numero Uno in this segment. A team comprising trained nutritionists, counsellors and product experts, help customers in choosing the right product/service via live chat, email and phone.
Sharing his insight on the business, Sanjay Kumar, Co-founder and MD of this company, says, “We source the best health and wellness products from across the globe and provide them to every Indian via premium online shopping experience. Our offering covers categories like Nutrition, Sports and Fitness, Diabetes, Home Devices, Eye, Personal Care, Beauty, Parenting and Premium Organic, Ayurvedic health and beauty products. We partner directly with brands and their authorized channels, to ensure strict quality control and deliver 100% genuine products.”
“We believe it is high time that we combined great technology, smart design and awesome customer care to give India a massive health and wellness boost. While there are challenges that need to be overcome, we are driven by our vision to become a dependable, household name in India, and offering customers direct access to genuine health products at best prices,” added Sanjay Kumar.
The venture is backed by eminent Ayurveda practitioners Ayurveda Shri M. N. Choubey and Dr. Prof S. Tiwari and Dr. N. Panchakshri and Dr. R. Panchakshri and Dr. Minal Vaze who have served through several generations and Industry stalwarts from US, like Mr. Sid Shastri, who has co-founded Jarrow Formulas US and given their life to this Industry.
We have filed 3 patents for innovation and we are looking forward that our scientific team will be filling some 9 odd patents lined up. It will boost our visibility in the market as a Innovator of supplements for Indian and other markets.
Sanjay shares his views on e-commerce in the health vertical
Is buying health online similar to any other e-commerce transaction or is there any kind of hesitance?
Authenticity plays a major role in health related purchases. We invest heavily in our supply chain to ensure we effectively fight against grey/fake products. Consumers are unaware of
the rampant grey market / fake products in health and come to us for the genuine guarantee quality products.
Can you give us an insight on the growth of this company?
It has seen fast growth from a less than 5 person team about two years ago to almost 10+ team as of now. We started with 200 SKU’s and now stock over 3,000 SKU’s. We are the dominant player in a number of our core categories and are larger than most of the offline retail chains in this sector.
What are some of the products that do well on the website?
Our top selling categories are Ayurveda supplements for all modern lifestyle related and chronic problems and sports nutrition, fitness, health devices, diabetes etc.
How have you been promoting the website?
We promote largely through online media. This includes advertising on Google, Facebook, and other ad networks, SEO, Social Media marketing among others.
Going forward, how will this company evolve as a healthcare brand?
We intend to be the one-stop shop for all health and fitness supplies.
It launched a magazine, what was the rationale behind it?
We see a gap in information around various topics related to health. We have a lot of in-house content that we wanted to share with the online community. Doing an online magazine is the first step towards that.
How does your delivery model work?
We deliver through various logistics partners. Usually delivery happens within two business days to metros.
What is the kind of funding you have received and what is the revenue model?
We are initially resistant to go for outside funding as we might lose out on the flexibility of the business. We have recently acquired an existing facility to make our own supplements and scale up our operations. Once done we may approach for Funding or we might go the IPO route.
Popular e-commerce sites are said to be bleeding profusely, what is your view on the future of e-commerce space in India?
We believe India will take at least 3-4 years to mature as an e-commerce market. We are basing our growth on strong fundamentals and are confident that for all players who’re doing the same, there is plenty of room to grow. We have a strong base in exports markets and we are looking to tap that market as al other countries have realised the importance of Ayurveda science and products.