Thirty-one-year-old Juhi Pahwa confesses she has run away from three totally different jobs even earlier than getting her wage. For the MBA graduate from Narsee Monjee Institute of Administration Research (NMIMS) in Mumbai, a desk job by no means actually minimize it.
Juhi had at all times imagined opening a restaurant, but it surely remained only a dream due to the sheer capital that launching a restaurant concerned.
However, as they are saying, the place there’s a will, there’s a approach – and Juhi discovered a novel option to channel her internal entrepreneurial zest by way of The Higher Binge – a house baking enterprise providing gluten-free and vegan muffins and desserts.
Based in 2018 in Mumbai with health-conscious of us as its target market, it has an elite clientele, together with Bollywood celebrities like Kiara Advani, Katrina Kaif, Jacqueline Fernandes, and Rajkumar Rao, amongst others.
Juhi Pahwa, Founding father of The Higher Binge
A serendipitous starting
A 12 months after her marriage, Juhi baked her first cake ever in 2017. Her husband’s late grandfather had a candy tooth however was not allowed to eat refined carbs and sugar. Juhi determined to experiment with wholesome elements to whip up desserts for him, and until day, she credit him because the mind behind her enterprise.
Scouring YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest for wholesome recipe concepts, Juhi shortly grew to become adept at substituting elements with wholesome options — jaggery for sugar and jowar flour rather than refined all-purpose flour.
“I used to be studying new issues daily on the job, and I nonetheless do. Initially, it was once disastrous however over time, I began tweaking right here and there, learn many worldwide blogs, and learnt substituting, as each sugar has a special type of texture and each flour has a special absorption stage,” she tells HerStory.
After getting the model trademarked in November 2017, the following 4 months noticed Juhi embarking on backend work like branding, designing the emblem, and packaging, and at last kickstarted the operation commercially on Worldwide Girls’s Day in March 2018.
At a time when the Keto food plan was a raging development, The Higher Binge occurred to be amongst a handful of manufacturers providing ketogenic desserts. Juhi rode the wave by getting a number of the best suited elements, together with sugar-free sweeteners and candies, imported from the US.
Fortuitously, her muffins reached Bollywood actor Swara Bhaskar throughout the first month of operation as a present from shoe designer Aprajita Toor. And the remaining, as they are saying, is historical past, as phrase about The Higher Binge shortly unfold by way of the Bollywood community.
Juhi additionally tapped the influencer advertising area by sending muffins to mommy influencers and bloggers for promotions and arrange exhibitions in Bandra to extend her clientele in her personal neighbourhood. The self-taught baker now has a powerful Instagram presence, the place she provides a variety of muffins.
“My premium muffins are priced at Rs 3,500 per kg, whereas regular muffins can be found at Rs 2,000 per kg. It’s because I goal people who find themselves prepared to put money into their well being, and don’t thoughts shelling out the additional cash,” she says, including that whereas the target market has not modified, she is now growing merchandise to cater to all revenue teams.
Though her elite Bollywood clientele supplies a variety of mileage and visibility, Juhi makes certain the eye to element is similar throughout her vary of merchandise.
(From L to R) Kiara Advani, Katrina Kaif, and Janhvi Kapoor with The Higher Binge muffins
Market alternatives
In accordance with Juhi, many huge and small manufacturers have diversified into providing more healthy options, and gluten-free recipes are only a click on away. She says it is because persons are more and more adopting veganism as a lifestyle, giving additional impetus to companies like hers. In accordance with the Worldwide Market Evaluation Analysis and Consulting Group, the Indian bakery market itself reached a price of $ 9,626 million in 2020 and is anticipated to develop at a CAGR of 10.8 p.c from 2021 to 2026.
Nonetheless, Juhi believes she is but to see the last word milestone, and advises these trying to begin up within the bakery and home-based companies to maintain up with that preliminary spark.
Whereas declining to share any financials, she says the model has grown at an exceptional fee whereas she continues to bake from her house kitchen. “I earn in a month what I initially made within the first 12 months,” she quips.
Whereas The Higher Binge presently operates on a pre-order foundation solely in Mumbai, Juhi has plans to enter the retail phase throughout India within the subsequent few years.
