RAW Pressery was launched in January 2014 with an aim to provide good health, nutrition and a great taste.

Started with an initial investment of Rs 1.5 crore, the company has raised Rs 150 crore till date. Today, RAW has presence in 14 cities in India, the Middle East and plans to foray in South East Asia soon, says Anuj Rakyan, founder and managing director, RAW Pressery.

RAW Pressery’s journey began as a 100 percent subscription-only home delivery company. Rakyan worked with the Mumbai dabbawalas who went door-to-door delivering juice, just like milk vendors. Soon, Rakyan was approached by retailers giving the company an opportunity to scale-up.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

Nithya: How did you think of this business idea?

Anuj: Consumers in India are becoming very conscious about the things they buy. In our generation, we want to have the convenience, but we want to make sure what we buy is next to home-made. For example, people who were making dahi(curd) at home would also buy packaged curd. We buy nariyal paani (coconut water) on the streets or ganne ka ras(sugarcane juice), but we are concerned about the convenience of carrying it or hygiene. We are trying to make products that checks all these boxes.

Nithya: Do you think there is enough audience for organic drinks? What has been your experience in the last couple of years?

Anuj: It has been fantastic. Our consumer is anybody who is making juice at home and who wants to drink a beverage they can trust which is clean, healthy and tasty and we are setting out to ensure it is available in organised retail.

Nithya: What was your initial product portfolio like? What was the first product that you wanted to launch?

Anuj: We started with a green juice. If anybody told me that I would be making a juice with kale, spinach, doodhi (bottle gourd), celery, apple and amla, and the company would still be alive after a few years, I’d think it was crazy. But that’s where the market really is. So, we have nutritionists, sensory evaluation teams, food technologists, microbiologists—all coming in to make a green juice. Today, of course, our product portfolio has expanded. We started with things that were eclectic, which were highly functional. We introduced chia seeds in a large way in India. We got kale among other superfoods and super-greens and started concocting them on a nutritional functional level into our beverages.

Watch the complete episode here to find out more about RAW Pressery’s successful journey as CNBC-TV18’s Disruptors.

First Published:Nov 16, 2018 12:46 PM IST