Fast-paced lifestyles often result in compromised nutrition and consumption of preservative-filled food. Yu Food Labs, a homegrown consumer brand recently entered the FMCG industry with Instant Meal Bowls that are 100% natural and preservative-free.
Yu Foodlabs
In an interaction with Mid-Day, Bharat Bhalla and Varun Kapur, Co-founders & Executive Directors, Yu Foodlabs share the details of the launch of their Instant Dessert bowls and their objective of disrupting the instant food space -
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- What is the story behind the name of the brand? And what was the vision behind its conception?
Founders, Bharat Bhalla and Varun Kapur conceptualized the brand keeping “Yu” – the consumer at the epi-center. During the conceptualization phase, the founders met with over 500 consumers to gather their feedback on packaged foods currently available in the market. As part of this survey, they found that people felt guilty while consuming packaged foods owing to their artificial flavors, added preservatives or nutritional deficiency. This on-ground feedback led the founders on a journey to re-imagine packaged foods in order to eliminate the above adversities.
While exploring various food science technologies, they identified a significantly advanced biochemistry process used in the 2020 NASA Space X mission to the International Space Station that provided healthy meals to its astronauts in outer space! Using lyophilization (or freeze-drying), preservative and additive-free packaged foods were provided to astronauts for everyday consumption during the 3-month mission. It is at that point that a rather fundamental question started brewing in the minds of the Founders – that if indeed technology is available that provides 100% natural, preservative free packaged foods and tastes as good as fresh, why not adopt this technology for everyday consumers like Yu? It is this simple philosophy, keeping Yu – the consumer at its core that after 12 months of extensive research, testing, and product development, all day Instant Meal Bowls were introduced to the market by Yu.
- Several prominent FMCG brands have been ruling the Instant Food industry, why do you think Yu stands out amongst all?
Eating clean is becoming a lifestyle. Consumers today are more conscious about their health, dietary intake and nutrition in the foods they consume. Keeping in mind these evolving consumer preferences, Yu has re-imagined consumer packaged foods by bringing together a unique and pioneering combination of great culinary expertise and advanced food preservation technology to India. In essence, Yu intends to change the perception of packaged Ready to Eat foods – from presently available foods that taste synthetic and are meant for one-off consumption to Yu’s 100% natural and delicious foods that have become “Ready Meal Options”. This has really made the Instant Meal Bowls of Yu stand out in the market place. Simply put, customers have been delighted and to a great extent, pleasantly surprised!
- Why did you start with Oats and Pasta product categories? What has been the feedback for the same?
Yu’s current range of products include Instant Pasta Bowls in 3 variants (Creamy Chunky Tomato, Peri Peri and Three Cheese), Instant Fresh Fruit & Nut Oat Bowls in 3 variants (Berry Apple Cinnamon, Banana Caramel, Peanut Butter Berry) and Instant Halwa Bowls in 3 variants (Moong Dal Halwa, Gajar Halwa, Multigrain Halwa) thereby providing all day meal options. If you take a closer view of the market, there are a very limited set of truly “instant” products in all these product categories. Most products require cooking on the gas with customers needing a certain culinary skill to cook restaurant quality foods. Yu has created “first to market” 100% natural, preservative free, truly instant products (no cooking required) in the above categories making them stand-out thus creating a unique positioning in the market. Early customer feedback has been extremely positive with Yu receiving repeat orders from offline and online segments. The adoption rate has been very high with Yu now finding place on consumer kitchen shelves as day-to-day Ready Meal Option.
- Tell us about your entry in the instant dessert segment? Has anyone done Instant Halwa before? If yes, how is your product better than theirs?
The dessert segments rounds up Yu’s product range to become truly all-day! While there are select instant halwas available in the market, Yu’s Instant Halwa Bowls are handcrafted using traditional slow cooking techniques in order to rekindle a sense of nostalgia by bringing back authentic taste and flavours. Not only this, the Instant Halwa are curated by seasoned confectioners from Amritsar who have ensured that these signature Indian sweets stay true to their roots even when served in an instant format. One of our variants – the Instant Multigrain Halwa Bowl, a first of its kind “contemporary” halwa, is made using ragi, millets and whole wheat flour making it extremely nourishing. All halwa bowls are made with pure desi ghee and come with a topping sachet of cashews, almonds, raisins and pistachio.
- What is your target audience with each product category? (Oats, Pasta, Halwa)
Sales have been to a diversified target group including Gen Z and Millennial consumers looking for great tasting food that is highly quick and convenient. But what has been extremely heartening is the early adoption by consumers in the 45+ age group owing to the as-good-as-fresh taste and health aspects of the product i.e. 100% natural foods free of any preservatives. Yu’s clean label philosophy has been well received across a TG that is far wider than anticipated at the time of launch. With a range now encompassing oats, pastas and halwas, there is something in it for everyone!
- What are some other innovative products in the pipeline by Yu?
Yu has in place 15+ additional products already developed and tested. These will be launched during the course of 2022 in order to complement its existing range of products. The core tenets of all products will remain consistent i.e. preservative and chemical free, 100% natural, value for money products ready in 3-4 minutes! Yu will continue to work on its objective of becoming a staple “Ready Meal Option” at consumer homes across India.
- Where are you selling your products currently? And what are your target markets for the year 2022?
Yu follows an omni-channel approach. It has launched its products on offline channels in Delhi NCR – its home market. Products of Yu are already available across 500+ modern and general trade stores in Delhi NCR. The Company has already secured tie-up’s with all leading retailers like Reliance, Spencer’s, Natures Basket, 24x7, SPAR, Le Marche, Modern Bazaar, 37 Krishna Marche, etc. The offline distribution in Delhi NCR is estimated to increase to 1,500+ stores by March 2022.
Based on the highly positive feedback from customers, Yu has advanced its launch in West India and will be launching its products in 50 leading stores in Mumbai MMR by January 2022. Apart from Mumbai, Yu is also in the process of expanding its distribution in Uttar Pradesh across cities like Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra, Bareilly etc.
With online channels disrupting conventional distribution approaches, Yu’s proprietary website already services 28,000 pin codes pan-India. Additionally, Yu’s products are available across the country on all large e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Big Basket and Flipkart. These online channels allow a young brand like Yu to reach customers in Tier-II, Tier-III towns. From its online segment, Yu has now serviced orders from 25+ states / UTs with a substantial component being from small towns in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, North East. Yu will be adding 2-3 additional large online market places in January 2022 thereby growing its overall presence in e-commerce channels.
Given the attractive price point (INR 75-125 per bowl), we believe that Yu’s instant meal bowls cater to a large geographical target market in India.
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