If you’re a new mom or even have been a mom for a while, you’ll agree when I say that the biggest concern you face is how to feed your kids food that is not only nutritious but also yummy. Given all the cheap and fast options available, it’s all too easy for the kids to forget about eating healthy and just going to town on pizzas, burgers and all that soda.
So when we came across Slurrp Farm, a company by two amazing mommies Meghana Narayan and Shauravi Malik, that wanted to provide tasty, healthy and organic food for children, we thought all our prayers had been answered. They have a wide variety of food items ranging from cookies to dosa to pancakes – all made out of healthy nutrients like Ragi, Jowar, Foxtail Millet, and real fruits and vegetables.
To know more about the company, we sat down with these two amazing co-founders and some of the answers we got were truly inspiring! Read on to find out what these two SuperMoms had to say!
Interview with Slurrpfarm Founders
1. What you’re doing is not just a run-off-the-mill organic food, so what prompted you to start Slurrp Farm?
Shauravi: “It started very innocently. Meghana and I met. We got along like a house on fire from the first time we met. We had some fun business ideas, which we joked about, but we always went back to our jobs the next day. At this point we were really living in the bubble – we both had that dream job and entrepreneurship seemed too risky.
At some point when we had children ourselves, it all changed. We felt that as parents we were really short of options to feed our children, and at the same time, it also felt like we really should do something about it. It was not a case of taking a business model from another country; it was literally a giant-sized gap which we felt the lack of in our own life. And we also wanted to start a business which could be a force for good.
So, we went about and figured out how to make an absolutely yummy organic fruit and vegetable purée product for children; we did all the recipes, branding, packaging and legwork and it was all ready to hit the shelves in literally record time. Except as we did more market research and tried samples – we realized there was very little demand for it. It would be something we could not scale beyond the affluent Indian parent soon.
We went back to the drawing board and did a ton of market research, a lot of product R&D, a lot of thinking and decided to follow our hearts. We realized the answers lay in our own grandmothers’ kitchens. We made cookies with a childhood friend who is the most incredible baker, we dug into ingredients from our childhood but tried to make them tasty and not stodgy. And every year along the way, we want to be better than we were the year before, and always innovating to have the best product possible.
More than Oxford, Cambridge or Harvard, we have really learned by visiting umpteen number of organic food farmers and companies, raw materials co-operatives and vendors, food technologists, scientists, normal farmers, machinery and equipment manufacturers, small and large food companies, packaging vendors, food retailers, nutritionists, food labs, etc. Not to mention moms and babies and yummy food all along the way! The list is endless. And THIS journey crisscrossing so many parts of India – villages, towns and large cities – and the food industry has been what has truly shaped our vision for Slurrp Farm.”
2. What is Slurp Farm’s USP that sets it apart from the others in the industry?
The core ingredient used in our products – the tremendous force of traditional ingredients like Millets, used by our grandmothers – to the rest of the world.
We aim to provide an easy and hassle-free solution to parents who are worried about their little fussy eaters. All our products are millet-based, made from the choicest of natural ingredients, and are free of preservatives, additives, artificial flavors or colors. The aim is for “Kids to go Yum” without having to compromise on nutrition.
3. India is slowly starting to accept organic food. What are the challenges you are facing currently?
Our biggest challenge has been to find a way to make what tastes delicious in a home kitchen, taste the same on a shelf when it reaches your hands, without adding anything to it. We didn’t know that this would be such a challenge. But we also didn’t know we would have so much fun on the journey and meet so many cool people along the way who would help us figure it out…
4. What are your plans for expansion in the near future? Will we be seeing Slurrp Fam products in stores soon?
We feel this last decade has seen several iconic INDIAN brands coming to life in various segments – juice, yogurt, healthy snacking, etc. and we aspire to do the same in our space. When a customer holds a Slurrp Farm product in their hand – we want them to feel tremendous pride at holding a beautiful Made in India and Made for Indians product in their hands.
We are available at 800 stores across 8 cities in India, serving close to 5 lakh customers and have a 40% repeat rate on Amazon. We also sell across several other leading online platforms including BigBasket, FirstCry, and BabyChakra. The brand was also launched in 7 emirates of the UAE and hope to be in the UK next year.
And in 10 years we hope to have driven an inflection, or a REAL change in the healthy (and yummy!) food market. We want people on the journey with us who will back this for the long term. We’re dreaming of being available on every retail shelf and in millions of kitchens, homes, and hearts! With lots of storybooks, cookbooks, and yummy food that bring the Slurrp Farm family characters to life, and tickle people’s palate at the same time…
5. We’d love to know more about your office environment – where is it located, how many employees do you have, what is the work culture like at Slurrp Farm
We are headquartered in Gurgaon- Haryana and with operations in Bangalore and Mumbai. We are close to 50 employees (including Area Sales Managers, Promoters).
Slurrp Farm is committed to female retention within the labor force. We have a proactive policy of hiring top talent mothers in full time and part-time employment, and an equal wage as all other employees. Half of the nearly 50 employees are women, and 60% of the top tier management in key leadership roles are women who have at least one child. It is not merely lip-service; it is a priority in the way we work.
Also Read
Join Our Mummas Community Now ! !
Being a Mom is not at all easy as everyone thinks. There are lot of expectations, decisions to take, work, challenges and what not. Mothers usually forget themselves while raising their kids.
But wait, you should not do this. You are a Mother and hence deserves everything whatever you wish. Join this Millennial Indians Moms group to connect with like-minded moms where moms help and support each other in every way.
