Epigamia launches digital-first products
Drums Food International, which owns the Epigamia brand of yogurts and smoothies, said it has switched to selling more products online as the pandemic pushed more shoppers to e-commerce platforms and fuelled growth of at-home consumption of food.
The company said it has introduced a range of new products such as ghee-based chocolate spreads, cream cheese, and cottage cheese apart from reintroducing its ice-cream brand to shoppers online.
“When the lockdown happened it forced us to roll out a direct-to-consumer (D2C) business. Had covid not happened, we would have never considered this," said Rohan Mirchandani, co-founder and CEO, Drums Food International.
“We do our own distribution especially to general trade stores. And as long as that same minimum delivery criteria were being met, we were fine with it. But we actually acquired consumers through the online platform. And when things opened up those new consumers started consuming us through our traditional channels."
Online sales contribute 30% to its business now, up from 4-4.5% in pre-covid times, largely led by yogurts and smoothies, said Mirchandani. He added digital has become the first market-entry strategy for the company’s new products.
Epigamia is currently available in 30 cities with a larger presence in the top 15 cities and retailed at 14,000 outlets. That’s minuscule compared to the reach and distribution of some of the country’s top FMCG firms. Over the next few years Drums plans to expand to 70 cities covering 40,000 retailers.
Mirchandani said the company is set to report growth this current fiscal despite the odds faced by manufacturing firms last year.
Launched in June 2015, Epigamia is currently available in 38 stock keeping units across Greek yogurt, flavoured curd, smoothies, spreads made from ghee, and a plant-based line containing coconut milk-based yogurt and almond-based drinks.
The company is backed by French dairy major Danone’s venture arm Danone Manifesto Ventures. In 2019, Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone, through her investment venture KA Enterprises, picked up a stake in the company. Padukone endorses the brand and is also involved in new product development. In association with her, the company has rolled out ghee-based spreads.
Mirchandani said covid disrupted trade last year and consumers discovered more goods online. “Up until a few months ago, people were sitting at home, becoming master chefs and replacing spends on restaurants or travel with at-home consumption," he said, echoing what several fast-moving consumer goods companies especially those that have a portfolio of ready-to-eat or ready-to-cook products and condiments reported.
iD Fresh Foods that sells idli-dosa batter and filter coffee concoction is scaling manufacturing capabilities and Marico Ltd launched more packaged foods last year.
Meanwhile, Epigamia has also rolled out plant based-drinks – coconut milk yogurt with jaggery, for instance; it is also testing cream cheese for shoppers online, apart from experimenting with its ice-cream brand Hokey Pokey that it has earlier discontinued.
What covid has changed is, it has accelerated our product launches. In the past, we would have to launch the product through trade, put it in the stores, do sampling, and that takes a lot of time. Now with online launch we get feedback within weeks and then decided where we want to take it in trade," he said.
Livemint