Drunken Monkey, founded by Samrat Reddy, is one of the fast-growing
smoothie chains of India which delivers blended natural-fruit smoothies,
smoothie bowls and juices in over 200 special combinations. The brand has
definitely changed the mindset of Indian consumers by offering healthy
smoothies made with spinach, carrots, cucumber etc. Further, the health
awareness raised by the pandemic has created a promising future for the brand. Asmita Mukherjee spoke with Samrat
Reddy to understand the vision and plans of Drunken Monkey in the new
normal.
What was the concept behind Drunken Monkey?
The focus of the brand was purely to inculcate a healthy lifestyle amongst people. We wanted to create a smoothie revolution, where every individual adds smoothie to their daily routine, and this was the vision since the beginning to make India a healthier country. Well, we knew it would take some time in our country but the pandemic just made it easier for us to expand, because now the mantra of the country is to “stay healthy”, which is what we had been trying to convey since our beginning. What is the USP of Drunken Monkey as compared to its competitors? The biggest USP for us is something very basic and close to nature. Our brand is all about fruits & vegetables and we use these as commonly available ingredients in the most natural way. We blend them in very unique proportions to make our smoothies tasty and healthy. Also, we don’t have competitors as such in the smoothie segment, as we are the only pan India smoothie chain at the moment. However, our challenge is to get more and more people back to their roots by taking up smoothies and fruits as a lifestyle. It was the case until 2 decades ago when fresh fruits were a part of at least one of our meals, and we aspire to take all of us back to our healthiest and happiest best.
What challenges did you face during the pandemic?
Like everyone else, we are living in a world crisis and faced common challenges. We had issues in terms of revenue loss, salaries, team utilization & planning, and so on. The challenges were higher for us, as we are a young brand. But our team and partners completely supported us to overcome these challenges and made us better than ever before.
Considering that Drunken Monkey is known for its healthy smoothies, did the uptick in health awareness created by the pandemic help you to drive more business?
Of course, we did and are doing better than any other brand in the F&B market, which is purely, because of our strong products and the health awareness of people. The spreading of health awareness has made it easier for us to expand and function better. We have opened over 30 outlets with about 75% recovery of sales post-lockdown.
Have you changed your business model amidst the pandemic? We did make slight changes in the business model but only in terms of outlet operations, which is switching from large cafe models to smaller kiosk models, given that the sales are now usually more through online food delivery platforms, or at least it's going to be that way for a while.
What is your projected revenue target for FY 2020-2021? This FY we were targeting INR 60 crore revenue but the pandemic slowed it down. In the coming FY, we have a plan to achieve around INR 100 crore revenue and we are completely geared up for it.
asmita.mukherjee@saffronsynergies.in
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