Surabhi Talwar, a growing entrepreneur who is currently running Happy Jars, has gained experience in the fields of Marketing and Advertising Companies. That was also one of the critical components for her to start her own company that works only towards a selected type of audience.

Inspired by the healthy and rich recipe of peanut butter made by her husband, Surabhi was able to start this company. The product, rich in protein, is nutritious and has no added sugar or oil. Surabhi says this is the perfect recipe for health conscious people and those looking for a healthy living. Excerpts from a chat:

Of all the products, how did you lay your hands on peanut butter to start a company? 

The idea came up about a year ago when my husband tried the recipe for peanut butter. He loves peanut butter and is a fitness enthusiast so he was looking for a healthier version of peanut butter and couldn’t find any version that was without oil and sugar. And so he decided to make his own recipe which became an instant hit in the house, and a lot of family and friends gave good reviews, so we decided to get into this business and so far we have been set for about a year now.

What response did you get from the customers? Was it gaining momentum right from the beginning or did it take some months to do that?

It took some months to gain momentum, in the start we couldn’t do it as it was taste testing and trial recipes. We were not manufacturing in the initial months because we were still trying to make a perfect recipe and the response was good but it was coming from the people we knew.  In the beginning, we conducted a small event in Bangalore, a flee market event, from where we got an excellent response from the people we didn’t know. It started off after this event, and we decided to give it a commitment to build our own business.

What were the things you did not anticipate in this shift from home to now manufacturing it as a product?

There were quite a few challenges initially. In food businesses, there are a few regulations which are extremely strict. The rules and the licensing process requires you to have a space, so right from the very beginning even though we didn’t have a scale and were selling less than 100 jars a month we had to have a factory unit, to get the license and have the hygiene also in place. The challenges from the beginning were quite high considering it is a food product, the efficacy of the product and its flavor is a challenge.

When we talk about food, there are a lot of different websites that provide a variety of food products, so is it challenging to have just peanut butter? 

We have come out of a particular point of view and are not trying to compete on a large food market. We’re not worried about other brands as peanut butter is a popular category and is consumed a lot in India. We are looking for a set of people who are looking at the fact that the product is 100 percent natural. And we have a small group of premium people who are willing to pay for this kind of product, so this is the audience we are going after. We are not worried about the demographics because we have found a set of people who purchase the product and keep coming back.

In health food, there are many brands in the market. How should one pick out the right kind of product? 

There are a lot of things one can try if they want to be healthy, one of them is checking out the unwanted ingredients. That is the philosophy we follow for peanut butter. It is not necessary to add oil and sugar to it, some companies do this to add viscosity to the product. I believe that healthy people should stay alert to the use of the ingredients in the product. Try and pick up products which do not have high sugar especially carbonated drinks.

There is a notion that healthy organic food is expensive, so how can a person who purchases budgeted grocery still manage to be healthy?

So I think that is to do with the developing industry which deals with organic and natural food. It is based on the costing of the organic food which is much costlier than other ingredients which are cheaper. But I still think if you’re looking for something budgeted then you can try different recipes by purchasing the ingredients yourself. There are also a lot of brands trying to provide you with healthy food at a reasonable price. These brands won’t be as cheap as the unhealthy product, but you can say reasonable enough that will provide you an organic or natural product which is worth the impact it has on your overall health.

How has having a marketing and advertising background helped you in your own business development?

Being consumer-focused and consumer-oriented is my aim. The fact that I understand media and the avenue of digital marketing has helped us. We are designing a product made for a particular type of consumer, and this is my area of concern and focus. Mostly I accompany my husband, personally going out to meet the people and providing samples to the consumer. Currently, we are focusing on expanding our marketing and sales, as we are trying to push the scale of our product. In spite of my experience, there are still so many things to learn as we are new to the food manufacturing process and lots of challenges to come ahead.

What are the few marketing strategies you adopted when you started with the product?

Firstly, you have to put the product in front of the consumer because marketing is about fulfilling a need that is existing. Secondly, we had to set the factory and had to put our product out there and ask people what they thought about it which gave us a good response and bringing the product to a new place where it is accepted and has boomed.

When you talk about scaling what are the ideas in your mind and how are you planning to expand?

We are following the geographical settings and are planning to start from Delhi NCR as right now we are only available in Bangalore. Then spreading to the other markets, which are the top five metros, mostly by next year.

Have your husband’s ideas of fitness rubbed off on you and what are the few food products that you had to replace on your fitness journey?

Yes! It had an impact on my life as we are interacting with different fitness enthusiasts all day based on our product.  Firstly I have stopped having white rice and replaced it with brown rice. This plays an important role to reduce carbohydrates before getting to bed. Thus for morning breakfasts, we consume eggs along with peanut butter and a milkshake. I have minimized the consumption of bread or parathas that I used to consume every day.

What are 3 things that you would like to see in every refrigerator?

Three things would include Eggs, Leafy Vegetables, as well as whole grains and peanut butter. These three things are nutritious and healthy containing high protein levels and add on to a proper diet as well as are essential for balanced and healthy living.