While doing online research, they discovered there are 1,500 protein brands on sale on Amazon. Customers were confused which to buy because dozens of flavors, sugar options, protein powder varieties, and additives were found in the proteins sold. They wanted to offer something that is simple yet powerful and doesn’t contain any additives, flavors, preservatives etc; that’s when AS-IT-IS was born. AS-IT-IS Nutrition was conceived to formulate pure & high-quality supplements for health conscious people who value fitness and a healthy lifestyle.
The company is co-founded by the entrepreneur duo Arvind Jain and Himmath Jain. Arvind,
a gold medalist in B. Pharm. from Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, started his
entrepreneurial journey at a very young age and worked extensively in pharmaceutical space.
Himmath, an MBA from Goa Institute of Management joined his family’s pharmaceutical
business after working with some of the leading firms like IndiaBulls and Morgan Stanley. In March 2018, their interest in nutrition supplements led them to introduce ‘AS-IT-IS Nutrition’ to the Indian market.
Uniqueness of As-It-Is Nutrition
AS-IT-IS Nutrition is a digital first nutrition supplement brand. None of the products have added flavors, taste enhancers, artificial coloring, or preservatives. The products are unadulterated and labels on packaging list precisely the ingredients inside. All products have only one ingredient.
About 70% of supplements sold in India are counterfeit. Indians are afraid to buy supplements. To ensure that each customer has complete confidence in our products, AS-IT-IS Nutrition’s packaging has a unique hologram allowing customers to verify a products authenticity using unique QR and Scratch codes.
Furthermore the company sources supplements from countries that have the greatest expertise in making them. Protein is sourced from USA, creatine from Germany, and other products from where they’re best manufactured.
AS-IT-IS nutrition is bootstrapped and self funded. Most of their revenues are earned selling supplements online and a small share of their revenue is earned from offline sales.
Future plans
AS-IT-IS Nutrition has emerged as a leader in the online supplement space in India. They have already tied up with 70+ distributors across India through a Distributor Development Program. They plan to make their products available in 5,000 stores across India within a year. There team is working to build a strong in-house IT & creative team to facilitate rapid expansion. They are also appointing distributors in neighboring countries because there is demand on social media from customers living in Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Middle East and Sri Lanka.
AS-IT-IS Marketing Plans and Challenges
They use social media effectively to influence their target market. A team of 5 people studies, analyses, and executes campaigns for various prospects on social media.
In a short time span, AS-IT-IS has become the number one online bodybuilding & health supplement brand in India. They faced stock outs within 3 months of launching their brand. To meet burgeoning demand, their production capacity was increased to 5 times the initial capacity.
A key challenge was creating effective customer engagement. After its inception in March 2018, AS-IT-IS received close to 200 customer call every day for 3 months. These were handled efficiently by their team of customer care executives who are trained to handle customer requests and queries. The company also created a team to receive feedback from customers regularly. They spoke to about 1,000 customers during the initial phases of product launches to ensure there was no missing piece in their value offering
Market size & Opportunities in India
Fitness is considered important by many. Social Media is also fueling the desire to look good. The Indian Nutraceuticals market was estimated to be around $ 4 Bn in 2017 and is expected to grow at 21% CAGR to reach $10 Bn by 2022 according to report by ASSOCHAM (2017).
