Ask any mom what she would change about her little one’s consuming habits, and the reply is more likely to be, ‘I want they ate much less sugar!’
Mumbai-based model Snack-A-Doodle makes an attempt to deal with this drawback by providing a number of wholesome snacking choices for youngsters. It was co-founded by two younger moms — Radhieka Pandeya and Simer Dhall — in April 2021.
“The present premium children snack market has restricted choices for allergen pleasant and really wholesome snacks. There are caveats and hidden elements throughout many manufacturers that had us involved as moms ourselves. Our imaginative and prescient is to simplify the alternatives for mothers trying to give their children the liberty to self-snack with a healthful, reliable vary of wholesome snacks,” share the founders in a chat with YS Weekender.
The thought
Radhieka has an extended affiliation with the well being meals trade. She began her health bakery to serve her personal candy tooth by way of grain-free, gluten-free, and sugar-free desserts that may maintain the kilos off. Now, with eight years of expertise serving wholesome and guilt-free decisions to health-conscious of us together with B-town celebs like Malaika Arora Khan and Hrithik Roshan, she has launched into this new enterprise.
Radhieka believes it’s the enterprise acumen she gathered whereas pursuing her MBA at ISB, mixed together with her instincts as a mom to 2 boys that make her the driving pressure behind Snack-A-Doodle.
Simer Dhall is described because the “in-house knowledgeable on all issues motherhood!” She grew to become conscious of this obvious hole available in the market by way of her sturdy private community of moms, which led her to ascertain this model of wholesome and scrumptious snacks. A graduate of CAS Enterprise Faculty in London, she beforehand labored within the provide chain and transport trade. Referring to herself as an knowledgeable negotiator, she runs a good ship at Snack-A-Doodle. She can also be a hands-on mother and loves spending time together with her son.
“We really feel the introduction can be incomplete with out mentioning our three beloved, and really happy-to-oblige guinea pigs – our youngsters. They’ve tried, examined, and beloved every of those merchandise earlier than they had been put in the marketplace. As moms, we’re absolutely conscious that wholesome consuming doesn’t matter to children, solely the style of the meals does. Therefore, getting the style of our merchandise proper was our greatest precedence,” exclaims Radhieka.
Snack-A-Doodle was first envisioned round two years in the past, but it surely took in-depth analysis and a few trial and error earlier than it was formally launched in April this yr.
Explaining the selection of title, Simer says, “Children typically take to whimsical characters and names and our mascot ‘Dood’ was created from a toddler’s creativeness. Snack-A-Doodle is our tribute to the playful journey that children undergo as they uncover meals, snacking, and what they like to eat.”
Snack-A-Doodle merchandise
The expansion story
In response to information collected by Bizongo, an Indian tech-enabled B2B ecommerce and provide chain platform for packaging, apparels, and different customised items, income within the Indian snack meals section at the moment quantities to $5,839 million. The platform additional estimates the wholesome snacks element accounts for roughly two p.c of this income, which comes out to a whopping $116 million, boosting the imaginative and prescient of the group at Snack-A-Doodle.
The bootstrapped startup started with preliminary funding from family and friends, your complete quantity of which went in the direction of product analysis and improvement. Their core group consists of 5 members, they usually have a bakery employees of ten to scale manufacturing. The group relies in Mumbai however the merchandise are delivered pan-India. They rely closely on social media to unfold the phrase and regularly promote on-line.
“Our greatest problem stays our dedication to staying 100% healthful and 100% wholesome. This implies we’re very specific about our elements, suppliers, and manufacturing processes. It’s not troublesome to make a daily cookie, but when the flour used is a more healthy possibility, the method of producing turns into advanced. We’ve got actively steered clear of constructing any selection that’s unhealthy, though it makes the method harder. We’re completely happy to check our vary versus every other available in the market and we’re positive that we’ll show to be the more healthy possibility as compared!” says Radhieka.
The snacking section is a big one, which suggests Snack-A-Doodle competes with each basic snacking merchandise available in the market – from popcorn to common chocolate cookies. What units the startup aside is its tag of pure well being, whose recipes have been designed by Radhieka to be wholesome.
Simer explains, “We all the time inform our purchasers that it’s not about making binary decisions. Children ought to get pleasure from all types of snacks so long as they’re launched to the idea of wholesome snacking at an early age. If their palate will get used to non-processed sugar or different flours early, they may reap long-term advantages.”
Their confidence of their product is mirrored of their numbers. Since starting operations eight months in the past, they’ve constantly grown month-on-month, with gross sales at the moment numbering 5X from once they started.
The merchandise
The Snack-A-Doodle vary at the moment contains eight merchandise. These are their standard Bites, that are miniature bars in a number of flavours like Banana Choco-Chip, Strawberry Apple, and Mango Pineapple. In addition they have cookies in flavours of Vanilla Milkshake, Strawberry Milkshake, Crunchy Date, and Crunchy Chocolate Millet, in addition to a do-it-yourself baking equipment.
Snack-A-Doodle merchandise
“Our bestsellers are the Vanilla Milkshake Cookies, which replicate the style of a milkshake in a cookie. They’ve gotten rave opinions from children and mothers alike. Our bites are significantly appreciated by youthful children. General, our repeat buy charges are at 44 p.c, with 2,000 recurring clients each month. This determine mirrors profitable launches within the FMCG trade, encouraging us that our product combine is working properly,” says Radhieka.
Merchandise vary in value from Rs 250 for a pack of cookies and go as much as Rs 900 for his or her combined hampers. Presently, Snack-A-Doodle gadgets retail on their web site snackadoodle.in in addition to by way of just a few premium shops in Mumbai. Over the following six months they plan to broaden their retail presence to extra offline and on-line marketplaces.
Describing the core power of their enterprise as their distinctive product, they hope to broaden their vary into new classes in coming months. In addition they hope to extend their vary of producing and distribution as they develop.
Simer indicators off saying, “Snack-A-Doodle was born within the second wave of the pandemic, so we’ve got lived by way of each the exhausting time of getting our product into client palms and in addition the boon of moms keen to attempt new issues on-line since they had been locked indoors. It has been an attention-grabbing journey up to now.”
