 Hello and welcome to e4n's D2C revolution. Today we are in conversation with Bharat Dhala, the co-founder of YouFood Labs. Hi Bharat, how are you doing? Good, good. Thank you for having me. How do you how do you feel being here? Very nice. I feel very good to actually be a part of this series that you are doing. So excited. Thank you. Thank you so much. I would love to dive right in. How did the idea of this business come up? What is the gap in the market that you noticed? Sure. So I'll tell you a little bit about what we are doing here. You will essentially re-match the concept of package food. When I say that, what I mean by that is you are using absolutely simple real ingredients in the package food format, which is something which is completely unheard of. So you are making package food as close as possible to freshly prepared food. All of this while still retaining the convenience of package food. This is essentially the overall concept of which we, our vision and how we conceptualize. So if you actually look at globally what's happening in the package food space, there's a lot of chatter now about package food actually being dead. So dead food is nothing but chemically processed food that doesn't have any nutritional value. So if you look globally, there's a lot of chatter around the fact that package food is actually dead food and it's not really good to consume. What we are doing at youth food is essentially starting a fresh food movement to make package foods alive again. So this is the simple principle of which we, with which Varun and I have co-founded youth foods. So to make package food as close as possible to freshly prepared food using no artificial ingredients, using only natural substances. We do that largely through two things. One is making the food chef crafted. So the entire food is not really prepared in the lab. It's actually prepared by chefs who only worked in restaurants or home kitchens throughout their careers. And we couple that to the very advanced food science technology, which is called lyophilization. So essentially what we do is we freeze the food that we prepare freshly and then we dry it out. So this is something which is very unique. So an entire principle is based off of this. So what happens is you're able to preserve the nutritional value of the food because you're not giving direct heat. And more importantly, the taste aroma and texture of the food in the lab. So what you're essentially doing is why we say reimagining package food is we're kind of giving a consumer food that is as close as possible to freshly prepared food, yet in a package food format that has a shelf life of 12 months at room temperature. So this is what we conceptualized over the last, say, three years, one year in research and two years in operation. Great. And I believe Hardik Fanya invested and is also the brand ambassador of the brand. That is correct. Yes. What does he bring to the table for the brand? So Hardik came on board in April of this year. Me and my co-founder were doing a lot of thinking around, does it merit to actually get a brand ambassador so early on in a journey of a brand because as you know, one thing is to sign a brand ambassador and the second thing is to spend the marketing dollars around it. But from a top of the funnel perspective, if you actually look at it, Hardik is somebody, you know, your food essentially is a challenger brand. What we're doing at you is challenging the standards for trying to see how we can do things completely different in a market that has always been dominated by the larger package food, larger formats. So we're essentially a challenger brand and that is exactly what Hardik is as well. So he's come from, he's somebody who came from very limited resources when he was coming up to ranks and today he's the vice captain of the Indian Community. He's somebody who is a youth icon, somebody that people look up to to and what better than a sports person actually endorsing the fact that package foods can now be healthier for people that can be better for you. So from an overall awareness perspective, the fact that he's a youth icon, I think he brings a lot of value to the table and he, you know, when we connected with him, we were initially talking about just a brand endorsement. But when he tasted our products, he realized that there is so much more that can be done to promote this for the youth of this country and in general, that he said that he wanted to be a part of this. So he's in fact, common board is not just a brand ambassador but in fact an equity investor. So very invested in the brand and very keenly follows the marketing activities that we do. Great. And recently I was invited to one of your Delhi Airport campaigns which happened, a huge branding that happened on the plane. What was that campaign all about? I would love for you to be Gail and speak about it. Sure. So, you know, we, when we signed out in April, like I said, we did our first meeting campaign during the course of the IPL. That was our first campaign which revolved around purely product. It was about Harvick, you know, being a part of you and really talking about youth foods not being a food where you're not compromised with regards to your health, quality, convenience, all of those aspects. To take the campaign further, you know, we've come back with our new campaign which is Rise and Conqueror. It is, it is a team built around the World Cup, you know, where we are wishing Harvick all the best for the World Cup, India all the best for the World Cup. So as a part of this, you know, and there are so many campaigns out there, there's so many brands that are actually launching campaigns during ICC and for a young brand like ours to stand out as often as possible. So we've always believed in keeping outside the box as far as our marketing activities are concerned. So we, we are an Omi channel brand. We're available in stores, we're available online, we're also available in two airlines. So we thought that what better to do, you know, to break our campaign than to actually brand a plane. So the team at Spicejet was very kind and we work with them to really put together this entire aircraft wrap. So the entire plane of Spicejet is actually branded new foods with the team of the campaign which is Rise and Conqueror. So, so you were part of that particular unveil as well. So this is, this is actually monumental for us for a two year old brand to actually do something that we have put on a plane. And that too at such an opportune time where we're wishing even India all the best. You probably saw the aircraft wrap and it's painted in Indian colors with hard brick right there, wishing them all the best. So the entire kind of campaign is built around this. So this was pretty much how we opened the campaign. So this team now goes across Spicejet planes as well as offline stores, all our online apps as well. So, you know, we have this team running across the full 45 days of the work. So interesting. Sounds good. We've done a lot about the brand. I would love to speak from the consumer perspective now. Today if I have to, I'll be very honest, today if I have to try a new noodle which I find on either Zepto, Pinky, or any of the quick commerce, e-commerce standards, I will be a little hesitant because my caseboards are very accustomed to the ones which are age-old brands that I've been having since Spicejet. So, and that is all around. So Indians are not very open to trying new things. They're very adaptive to the taste that they have been habitual of. Yes. How difficult was it for you to launch a noodle brand and then get the Indian taste bud to get adopted to it? We're not just a noodle brand. So what we've done, I think we've been smart about this. We've always invented a round cat. It's an innovative round cat. So, I'll give you an example. When we, before entering the cup noodle space, it was pretty much the first brand that did pasta in a cup format. The reason for that, we know that the market for pasta is smaller than that at noodle store. We were the only one, there were still the only ones that have pasta in a cup format. So, that really differentiated us in the mind of an instance because we are not able to move the product. When we then launched our noodles for nine months after we did our cup pastas, we were already an established brand, I would say to a large extent, at least in the minds of consumers, we're consuming our pasta. So, at least we had the mind space for people in the ready to eat or the instant food category at that point. And I think that helped us. That helped us. And if you look at us, we are probably the only D2C brand when we started out that has managed to really disrupt the cup noodle category. Because before us, they were really just two really legacy brands that have dominated this market forever. And a lot of people have tried, interestingly, a lot of people have tried, but they've not been able to penetrate that particular market for a new brand like ours to do that. We've actually been very fortunate and consumers have liked the concept. So, whenever we do something, we always believe in differentiating our product. So, our differentiation was that it's all let's say a noodle is soup and it comes to a cup format, ours would be sauce because that's how Indians enjoy it. So, that in itself is a differentiation in terms of the taste and the texture of the food. Having said that, the goodness of the product is already there. So, I think that obviously followed through from the past as the other products that we did. So, I think at some level, it's about how you're bringing products to the market and kind of innovating around categories to sort of get into the mind, get the right mindset. Correct. Okay. Quite makes sense. Also, if you see there are a lot of new players in the market, small, big, medium. I personally have seen a lot of rise in the Korean noodle market growing because of the K-dramas and everything. Everybody wants to go towards the ramen and the tukpa side of the market. So, what different do you bring to the table when the market is getting so cluttered with this kind of an option? So, if you look at us and you look at the way we are building this food, food is essentially trying to build a brand that is authentically transparent and brings kind of a trust in the mind of a consumer. So, this is essentially what we want to build. So, whether we're building let's say a noodle category or a pasta category, even beverages for that matter. It's all about you being a trustworthy brand in the minds of a consumer. In a category, if you look at packaged food, there's a category it's infamous. And the reason why I say that it's infamous is because the quality of ingredients that go into packaged foods in general. So, this goes across categories, across players and there is a sort of trust deficit that exists in this particular category amongst consumers because for very many years, a lot of people call out something and it's actually not that. I'll give you, I can give you examples. For example, if you say whole wheat noodles. So, everybody talks about whole wheat noodles or whole wheat bread. If you look at the back of the bag, it's actually something like a percent whole wheat and the rest is metha. With us, you don't get it. We are authentic. We use simple ingredients and we believe that and we're open to any kind of stuff. As you could, we believe the consumer cannot be fooled. And there is merit in us giving what we're seeing. I just feel like at some level, there is still a lack of trust and we are trying to bridge that gap. At UFOOT, UFOOT is not about a noodle company or a pasta company. I feel it's a vision much stronger. So, we started off the noodles and pasta. UFOOT has got beverages now. But it's the idea is very simple. How can you make a packaged food with simple ingredients such that there is a lot of goodness in the aspects of better for you that come for an end consumer. I just feel like India and the world is coming to a point where they bridge this trust deficit. And I think we're right there. We're waiting for this new India to really kind of push this pushing power. Great. One tough question now that you may or may not like. Before coming for this interview, I had put up a story, a poll on my Instagram saying that how many of you have tasted UFOOT and if yes, what is the price and the taste? So, you'll be surprised to know that there was a 75 to 25 sort of divide of people saying that 25 of them have tasted it and 75% have not tasted it yet. So, these are all Gen Z and Millennial kids mostly situated in Delhi, so what do you think about the reach and the availability of your product and why do you think that after two years, 75% of people, I'm just taking an example. So, I have around 1500 to 2000 followers. So, you can guess about how many responses I have. So, 25% have tasted it and 75% have not. So, what is your take on that? I look at it as a huge opportunity. To be honest, you're talking about Delhi and Seattle, some numbers, right? So, if you look at, and you mentioned apps like Indigate or one step forward, you know today, a short span of say, well-bought ones applications were already of 20 or 30%, maybe even of 30% in some cases, off of the kind of some of the categories that operate. So, if you're saying that we're only known to about 25% of the people and this is the kind of response that we're getting, I think it's quite hard. I think distribution takes time. Grants are not built for the time. I'd like to know how the 25% of people have actually... So, yeah, I did get comments. So, most of them said that it's very Indian taste friendly, it's very different and it's nice. So, I did get positive comments. So, yeah. So, yeah, so that I take that as good. See, food can never be 100%, right? Everybody says about the different way we look at it in your piece. So, 80% of the people, I think are doing good job. So, I think that at some level, this is a huge problem. Right? Delhi NCR being our home is just 25% of the folks know about it. That itself, say, is actually a good number. The way I see it, we have to build from it. I think this is not something that we're going to do overnight and say, okay, 100% of the folks know about it. I think it's a huge offer. In terms of distribution, I think it's just a matter of time. We're an only channel brand with available across online offline. We can get it to export now. So, I think from an awareness, it's a matter of time. What's important is you're getting general customer acceptance of the whole brand. Yeah. In a category that has not really seen anybody for the last, I don't know how many years. Correct. So, I think that is where, that is a big takeaway for us as I look at it. I like how you find the silver lining in every situation. Yeah, it is. It is. I think if I were at your place, I would have also seen that way that if the 25% of them are happy, then of course it makes sense for the business to go further and make more people happy in the business. Yes. I do not know you have to do that. Yeah. Makes sense. Okay. And how do you think are you marketing the brand in order to kind of challenge the age old brands which have a great marketing presence in India? So, I think if you look at, like I said, youth is a better way. Everything that we do is about creating a sort of awareness as far as the end of the business. So, all our marketing activities revolve around that. So, to make the consumer more aware, to make people more conscious about what they are putting inside their bodies. I think this is where our marketing efforts is actually something that is benefiting them. There is more education in that sense. So, now I think that is the principle factor. Now, how we do that can be two or three different things. The first aspect being working with say college students with the younger population of this country, younger professionals through various programs that we are now running, I do to make people more aware about the brand. I think that is one very big aspect. We are very passionate about getting the younger consumers more aware, inculcating that sense into them, that there now exists an option where they can choose better and choose wisely. I think that is very important. From a top of the funnel perspective, we obviously have hard way to drive awareness amongst people. I think that is the other aspect which helps us. And the third aspect which I touched upon is that we are not necessarily competing with age-old brands directly. The way I see it is product innovation is a huge role in the way we are going about it. Again, a simple example, if you are looking at the hakaan, today one of our best seller products in this particular category is our whole wheat, which is 100% whole wheat by the way. There is nobody who really does that. It is actually 100% whole wheat? It is 100% whole wheat. How does the taste then match with that of me? Because I think people don't accept health, so there is a thing that healthy, tasty is not there. So, is it that way? Well, what kind of feedback have you received on what? So, you know, very interesting. I am glad you say that because I am not a fan of whole wheat. Same. Because of the bite. So, if you look at whole wheat and taste it, it's a hard bite. We understand that. So, one of the things, we could call it dawn, to really see how we can get this right and make it as close as possible to foods that people put that you and I enjoy. And I think that was good. So, it took us six months to get the texture of the whole wheat to be right. And like I said, I am not a consumer of whole wheat. So, the biggest problem as a consumer of whole wheat, I am assuming it is a hard bite. That is what most people have. So, we kind of tailor with the texture of the whole wheat and the thickness of the whole wheat to ensure that we are eating it. It is as soft as NRO is in content. So, working around categories, working around product innovation to build a larger gap. I think this is where we come in. I think we have learned that to do something which is exactly similar to a new product is harder. So, I think that there is merit in moving around categories and delivering them. So, this is what we follow from the company and everything that you see around us revolves around makes sense. And what is your media mix like? How much percent of it goes into print or edge digital kind of advertising TV? For us, we are a young brand who is still evolving. This is really our second campaign because something like this comes into play when you are actually doing your campaigns. So, on a regular basis, a lot of us spend is actually directed more on this because I think between e-commerce, e-commerce, offline retail, I think a lot of the spend goes there because we believe that to drive awareness, that is to drive product awareness and differentiation online with it. So, from that perspective on an ongoing basis, you see a lot of us spend that particular about how much in person can be in this time. So, see if you actually look at our current campaign, our current campaign will be far more diversified. So, with the onset of rise and conquer as a campaign, we've made a conscious choice of splitting it between, say, OOH and I classify the every brand amongst OOH. So, between that, between offline and then a lot being on Hotstar because this is now going to be visible on Hotstar during the post-world cup as well. So, it's a, I would say it's almost like an equal split between OOH, digital and offline. Offline is probably almost there, say about 20 or percent and the rest split between OOH and OOH and I'm including Hotstar and OOH. Makes sense. I think it's pretty good in terms of share about if in case you're a two three-year-old brand, it's pretty nice because most of the D2C brands which are out there for about 10 to 12 years also don't have that good divide among all the channels. The problem with D2C brands today is that they focus too much on digital because they feel that's the only place that they need to excel. So, for us, we've been very clear from the only channel brand. So, we're available today in 6,500. So, a lot of us spend also goes towards offline and I think at some level that D2C brands, which is the first strategy is great for people and it's worked great for some people but I think the real challenge really comes when you're building offline in this country. I think that's where the real thing and we've also learned the hardware in the last few years but the great thing is that we actually have acceptance today across value-rated, modern trade, general trade and to be in 6,500 stores is in itself a test. So, that's why the spend and what you see today is this kind of good mix between digital and offline. Also, at the top of your mind, if you're supposed to list top three consumer trends that you've noticed change because you're a brand that launched post the pandemic, I'm sure you must have seen a lot of consumer wearable changes happen. Yes. What are the top three in your category? If you look at the package overall, I think there are two or three very interesting that I mentioned. The first aspect is humanization of products. Consumers today want to try new products. Consumers today are at some level bored of trying the same thing again and again. So, there's a lot of awareness that is out there. So, people are open to experimenting. So, I think that has given the ability for a lot of brands to come in, especially with a younger population. I think that's definitely something that is important. There is a certain kind of humanization. While people are willing to pay more, we feel that brands at least in the food category to price it more than say 25-25% is hard because then you're just catering to a very different and a very short one. You're only catering to India, which is a huge market by itself in India, but I think it's just for us, the way we look at it is we want to cater to a wide variety and I feel that if you want to build something better, we will have to do something that is a bit more horizontal. So, I think definitely humanization is one aspect. One thing that is emerging, but I'd like to see a lot more of it and I think India will kind of adopt this is quality of ingredients and the quality of the labels. So, we've spoken enough about this, but people being more conscious about what they're going to do, whether it's in terms of the quality of ingredients, whether it's in terms of feeding the labels that are there behind the back of the bag and really understanding what it means. I think that's where awareness will really be given. I can bet that if a consumer today looks at the back of a bag of anything, they'll be shocked to really see what all those inside some of these particular products. So, I think I'd like to see a lot more awareness that kind of exists over the next two years. I really hope that happens. And then third aspect that I feel that is going to happen is in a lot of ways, I feel like the trend for Indian brands to grow global is really going to be in the next two years. I think we've seen that with IT and IT services over the last 20 or years, they were the first ones out of the cage. But I really feel that Indian brands today will manufacture in problems with all the incentives that are coming out of PLI. I just feel like there is going to be a very big opportunity for brands to expand globally. So, for them to actually quality brands and gain acceptance across markets outside India. I just feel like that trend is waiting to come out. So, I think consumer companies will be the next ones out of the cage to really kind of push the envelope as far as exports is concerned. It's great for our theme because our team has always been making India for the world. We believed in that from day one. So, we catered to about five different export markets outside of India already. So, we're in South Africa, we're in 2000 stores across South Africa already. So, a lot of it and the great thing is the product has been accepted not just in India and abroad, but a wide variety of ethnic diversities across that particular market. So, that has been very hard. So, they love our butter chicken noodles over there. Oh really? Yes. It's a butter chicken noodles is something that we've been surprised. In fact, we made the product for South Africa first and then introduced to India. We're well in India also. But imagine that something like this is so popular. Yeah, I'm surprised that Africans are liking the butter chicken. They love it. Not just Africans, people the world over. In fact, if you actually look at it, our theme really revolves around taking a lot of the Indian goodness in spices and flavors, packaging is a format that is very convenient for consumers and people to work with. That is what you refer to with Korean. So, why can't Indian companies do that globally? So, that's what we do then. So, we are in South Africa, we're in Singapore already. Australia as a marketer is something that we just entered. And in the US and UK, we do some work with Amazon. So, there we are available mainly online with Walmart and Amazon. And we're just starting our entry into the GCC region. Good Dubai. Again, really positioning ourselves not just as an Indian brand or catering to only Indians abroad. We are an Indian brand of course. But catering to a more global population abroad, I think that's where the real brand will be created. So, I think that's very impressive. Nice. One small question and I want to one-liner off the top answer to this very quick. What one tip would you have given yourself as a younger or that you wish you had? I think to start earlier, I think me and my co-founder, we've been investment bankers for about 15 years before we really took the entrepreneur's plunge, they did not have these. But it's very satisfying. I think at some level, it is very satisfying. So, I think India should produce a lot more entrepreneurs going forward. This is the wave of entrepreneurship over the next decade in India. India is going to see a lot more brands, a lot more entrepreneurs to drive this going forward. So, definitely start early. I've been much more fortunate when I started out 10 years ago. Never do it. Yes. Never do it. Yes. Okay. Last question. Your growth and future plans for 2024? I think there's a lot that we wanted to I think a lot of this is based on the kind of innovation that goes across products that we're launching. We started off with largely instant food that we can see. So, these pastas when we're ready to go to the Hanqan which has seen a great amount of acceptance in a very short span of time. We now have recently launched beverages without open water. Again, something that has got a lot of acceptance from consumers. So, really pushing this in terms of categories, in terms of the kind of products that we bring to the market across these particular categories. This is what we see in terms of product innovation and distribution. Obviously, we grow as we end up becoming forward exports. Like I said, it's a big market for us. So, I think between domestic and international, we'd like to sort of see more products coming to the and really innovating. Great. I think we've bothered you enough with a lot of questions, no more to do. I'll try to try some of the open water. I think it's something that we've just launched. So, I give very honest opinions. You should. You should really help us. I'm not sure of the openness. I don't want to spoil it. Let me open it. No, no. There you go. I don't want to, but so far, it's too pretty to spoil. There you go. See, I made it difficult for you. I even, you know, I do this for a living. Oh yeah. How much sugar does it have? It does not have a lot of sugar, I guess. There's no added sugar. There's no added sugar. There's no added sugar. I want you to just actually read the ingredients. Yeah, that's why I was reading it. It just says coconut water, a legit one word. It's really very natural and nice. So, it's, if you see, no preservatives. Actually, the smell is also very natural. It is. So, we've tried to ensure and this is pretty much the only water in the market, that is. Yeah, I had one or two others. I would not like to take the name, but then they are so sweet that they do taste like coconut water. So, both I think from a sweetness perspective and the second aspect is, you know, the preservatives aspect of this. So, it gives us that metallic taste. Yeah. With us, I think we can kind of, going back to the same philosophy, how do you make this? Like, if I were to give this to you in just a glass, you should not be able to tell that, oh, this is a bottle or a, I think that's, whether it's onions or whether it's coconut water. So, this is the principle kind of factor driving. Okay. Yes. Wow, make sense. Okay, people, I think it's good time to wrap up the conversation as we enjoy our coconut water. Please stay tuned to D2C Revolution as we bring more co-founders on our stage. That's Bhalla signing off and that's Srinith Bhalla signing off. Thank you so much.