In India fruits and vegetables were preserved using five type of ingredients like spices, oil, vinegar, sugar and salt both in the east as well as in the west generations of mothers and grandmothers worked to preserve food of various types and in various forms to provide nourishment to their families during these hard times and thus the ART OF PICKLING WAS BORN. Today there are many companies producing pickles which are preserved using ingredients of modern technologies like Food Preservatives and additives, food stabilizers, permitted colours etc. Here even the process of Sun drenching the raw product to produce the end product is not required. Though this process produces Pickles with very long shelf life it reduces the nutritive content of the product and also reduces the natural taste of the fruit or vegetable used in the process. Entrepreneurs Today in conversation with Niharika Bhargava, Founder & CEO, The Little Farm Co. shared how a pickle can be made naturally and healthy without using any preservatives.
Give a brief introduction of yourself and the company.
I am the founder and CEO of The Little Farm Co. and come from a digital marketing background. I am a Ted-x speaker and have done Msc in Marketing strategy and Innovation from Cass Business School London and further worked in the corporate industry. The Little Farm Co. has received the 3rd women Astitva Award 2018 by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry a recognition to promote women empowerment. The Little farm Co. is amongst the 50 most upcoming brands in F&B by the Little Black book. The little farm co was started by me as a personal need when my grandmom passed away who used to make pickles at home and I realised that most of the pickles available in the market and filled with preservatives and do not have the same taste or appeal as homemade pickles do. Now this brand supports many tribal farmer women and their families. We make pickles that are 100 % preservative free using homemade recipes.
What inspired you to start your business, and how did you get started?
We are a family that loves food, and after my grand mom passed away, we really used to miss the pickles she made at home. When I looked outside in the market for what kind of pickles are available in the market, they somehow did not have the same taste or appeal as homemade pickles do. That’s when I realised that there is a gap in the market. I started collecting all the family recipes with the help of my dad and family members. I did a small farmers market to test the product and we sold out. There was no looking back since then. Post which the scaling journey started and we started growing our ingredients and stabilised the recipes and standardised processes. The key insights for us were most of the working professionals in India don’t have the time to make pickles at home, do not have easy access to homemade pickles and what they find in the market is filled with preservatives.
What makes your business unique, and how do you differentiate yourself from competitors?
As most of the pickle brands in the market use preservatives we are happy to say we don’t use any preservatives, in fact we even go a step further and grow most of our raw material in-house at our farm , sun dry our pickles and make pickles using quality ingredients such as pick salt and cold pressed oil. We use old forgotten recipes which are mostly not available in the market, like our winter special gajjar gobhi shalgum pickle is a big hit and not many competitors are doing it. We even make a lemon jaggery pickle in which we use 0 white sugar. I am happy to say we have received immense love from our customers so far.
What challenges have you faced while building your business, and how did you overcome them?
One major challenge for me was that I did not belong to this background, I come from a marketing background and had no experience in the food space. But I am happy to say that I learned on the job and built the right team, got the right mentors to scale this. Apart from this FMCG space is a very competitive space so scaling operations and distribution wise was a challenge. But post our fund raise we have started to build the right team and distribution networks.
How do you measure the success of your business, and what are some of your major achievements till now?
One major thing that always motivates me to keep going is to see how far I have come and the efforts we have put in so far. The others being customers feedback and approval on the product, the sales and repeat customers. And lastly, the farmer women we are supporting while building this.
What are your future plans and goals for your business.
Our vision is to focus on our strength of distribution and accessibility and build a solid FMCG brand in the condiments space with a 360-degree approach via multiple sales channels such as MT, GT, Quick come and website, as well as internationally and further scale the business
How do you manage risk in your business, and what steps do you take to mitigate it?
The business I have chosen is a very competitive business. But we mitigate risk by keeping our distribution network strong and being consistent with our recipes so our customer repeat rate keeps growing
How do you stay up-to-date with industry trends and advancements, and how do you apply them to your business?
I am strong believer of being up to date with latest trends and incorporating them in your business so it doesn’t become redundant, I read a-lot, attend trade shows and network which always helps in keeping up with the latest trends. For example, now with the growing use of AI, we are looking to incorporate that on the tech side of our business.
Message for budding entrepreneurs?
One message I give to all founders is to is that if you have a great idea do try it, you wouldn’t know if it works till you explore it further. Deep dive into testing your product and market research. If you get the right fit, there is no stopping.
