In recent years, the health & wellness trend in consuming soft drinks has increased the demand for low-calorie soft drinks. This is due to the awareness among people who until now consumed sugary drinks in the name of brands and urban lifestyle. However, these sugary drinks increase the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic conditions like gout. Correspondingly, high levels of sugar in soda places a lot of stress on pancreas, potentially decreasing its ability to keep up with the body’s need for insulin.
These types of sugary drinks also came with a military force of caffeine. Such highly concentrated caffeine has its own disadvantages. Drinking more than 350mg of caffeine can cause lapses in concentration and increases stress. Therefore, regular consumptions of high sugar, high caffeine, can lead to serious health issues including Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, and Cardiac diseases.
A Healthy Solution on High Calorie, High Sugar Drinks
There is a great need for healthier soft drinks which do not have sugar or synthetic, sugar-free chemicals. Coming to the rescue is Bangalore, India-based Kiji Foods & Beverages Pvt. Ltd. which has a solution over these downfalls of traditional soft drinks. Its Fit-O-Slim soft drink contains 90% less calorie count than other regular carbonated drinks.
Fit-O-Slim is a stevia (natural leaf extract) based drink which has no added sugar, containing less than 2 calories per 100mL. For years, sugar has been individuals’ number 1 enemy. However, it’s not the sugar that occurs naturally in fruits, vegetables, and dairy products but rather the sugar added during processing for artificial flavor, texture, or color which is harmful. A lifetime of consuming such added sugar can make the skin dull and wrinkled. It’s the result of the process called glycation, where sugar in the bloodstream attaches to proteins to form AGEs, which damage collagen and elastin. This leads to skin wrinkles and sagging of the skin. Fit-O-Slim drink consists of natural stevia leaf extracts which are relatively harmless as compared to other soft drinks. In addition, it is rich in vitamin C which is the best remedy for improving skin texture and immunity of the body.
The Person behind the Idea of Fit-O-Slim
The Founder and CEO of Kiji Foods & Beverages, Divesh Bhadani is the man-of-action behind the idea of introducing Fit-O-Slim in the high-calorie and sugar dominated beverage industry. Divesh has more than 15 years of experience in driving commercial activities in the food & agribusiness sector. He has also collaborated with some key organizations such as PwC, IL&FS, and companies backed by impact funds such as Khosla Ventures in driving their growth.
Divesh’s journey of founding Kiji Foods started way back in his college days. Back in the days when his school friends decided to fly to USA for joining the IT Bandwagon, Divesh decided to pursue a career in agriculture. He was selected through ICAR’s All-India Entrance Examination for Admission to Bachelor’s 4-year Degree Programme in Agriculture at College of Agriculture, VC Farm, Mandya in Karnataka state. Mandya is known for sugarcane with one of India’s largest sugar factory. At that time, Divesh realized that sugarcane and sugar were not the best things for the sustainability of any farm soil, environment, or our own body. This prior knowledge and experience in the actual field study helped him to come up with the idea of launching Fit-O-Slim. Presently, Divesh is successfully leading this product towards becoming India’s first few low-calorie, herb sweetened, non-carbonated healthy soft drink brands, suitable for an entire family including seniors and children.
Next Steps in Raising Funds & Developing Product Awareness
Having an MBA in Agriculture Business Management from MANAGE, Hyderabad and Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture from UAS, Bangalore , Divesh has an extensive expertise in product designing and managing large scale supply chain and distribution businesses. His expertise has greatly contributed to the team of Kiji Foods & Beverages Pvt. Ltd. in branding and marketing the product across the country. Currently, Fit-O-Slim comes with 4 variants including Litchi, Mango, Guava, and Sweet Orange in 2 pack sizes of 500mL and 200mL available across GT, MT (GNB, Metro C&C, Namdhari’s, Wellness Forever, Nilgiris, Foodworld), E-commerce, and booming sports and wellbeing channels in Metros & A-class cities in India.
To further develop Kiji Foods, Divesh and his team are looking to raise Series A funding of $2.5 Million to $3 million in the span of next 3 to 5 years of operation. This funding will be used for the development of POC and Production, Salaries, Marketing Activities, Operational Cost and Listing with MT players in Bangalore, Mumbai, and Delhi. Additionally, since its inception, the dedicated team of Kiji Foods has been trying to build a great portfolio for establishing a good reputation across the country. It will further help the company to get listed on MT like Future Group, Reliance Group, ABRL, DMart, etc.
Sampling Activities for Expansion in New Regions
Kiji Foods is currently utilizing sampling activities to mark its presence in metro cities through Modern Trade listing because it will boost the confidence of General Trade (GT) distributors. It is also appointing Super Stockiest in Metros for supply in various distribution channels. Similarly, it is hiring sales teams on company or on the distributor’s payroll. The team of Kiji is also planning to collaborate with 3rd party manufacturers in different regions for cost efficient logistics and timely supply. Consequently, these initiatives will enable the company to export its product to the foreign markets soon.
