In this interview, Gayathri Swahar, the Brand Custodian of YCook takes us through an interesting journey with his company.
Q. Kindly brief us about your professional journey and what kind of ethics, principles and manner of working you observe while managing the business operations?
I strongly believe if your intentions are ‘good’, the world will conspire to make it happen. That is exactly what happened to us at YCook. YCook started with a vision of “Good food for all” and along the journey got obsessed with good and this led us to create a new category in the food space, the category of steamed snacks and ingredients without any preservatives or additives and which has a shelf-life of one year without need for refrigeration. Now choosing healthy is very easy, whether it is a snack to munch on-the go or a any dish you would like to toss out in minutes without compromise on health whatsoever. Our obsession with “good” led us also to create a strong backward integration with the farmers and all the fresh produce that we pack for our consumers are grown exclusively in partnership with our farmers. Our farmers have been trained and comply to Global GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) ensuring that our produce is pesticide residue free.
It is a universal mantra that “one can never grow alone”, and this is something we strongly hold when we partner with our stakeholders – be it farmers, distributors, other vendors, our team members, our consumers etc. We work with each one of them, so the relationship is symbiotic we all grow together.
Q. Could you please share your noted milestones, accomplishments throughout your journey so far along with company highlights and achievements under your leadership.
We started our journey with the Technopreneur grant from the Government of India and this allowed us to understand in detail the process of thermal sterilisation and also all the latest advancements in Packaging. We started retailing our products in the market in 2012. We also realised when working with natural products such as ours, consistency is of paramount importance. Since we have not altering the natural product in anyway, say for example not making flaking it, pounding it, the quality of input = quality of output. This led us to focus on creating a strong backward integration with the supply chain. All what we pack for our consumers are exclusively grown in partnership with farmers. All our farmers are trained and comply to Global GAP (good agricultural practices) ensuring that our produce is free from any pesticide residues. We are now a BRC, HACCP, FSSC22000 certified along with Halal, Organic and Kosher certifications, we are also USFDA registered.
We are currently available in 26 cities in India and 9 countries across the globe. We have the same quality standards maintained for both domestic and international market.
YCook’s ‘Tadaa’ range of steamed products is now addressing the needs acoss the chain of consumption.
For the consumer on the go – YCook offers a snack range that is not fried, not baked, just naturally steamed without any preservatives or additives. A snack that is convenient to carry on the go, because it is storable under ambient conditions and does not require any refrigeration. Our range of steamed snacks is also naturally gluten free, low GI, high fibre, and in many cases rich in protein. The current range includes Steamed Sweet corn on cob, Sweet corn kernels which come with 4 optional flavourings, steamed chickpeas, steamed peanuts with flavouring options.
For the consumers in the kitchen – Tadaa range of steamed ingredients offers consumers the ultimate cooking convenience without any compromise of health, taste or pride (of cooking).
For the retailers – The ambient storage with a one-year shelf life becomes easy to store and retail
For the farmers – Everything that is packed for consumers is grown exclusively for us in partnership with our farmers and hence we offer traceability to consumers as well. Our farmers are also trained and comply to the Global GAP ensuring the produce is pesticide residue free. The farmers have a full marketplace for their produce along with assured buy back at pre-fixed prices.
Some awards along the way
- President of India Award for the Top 3 Food startups in India, during the World Food India 2017
- Listed among the Top 20 most innovative food companies in the world by Agfunder, only one from Asia.
- Sankalp Award for Impact in Agricuture space – Sankalp Global Summit 2018
- “Most Inspiring Agri Startup” 2018 – FICCI
- Best 10 Food and Confectionary Companies 2018 – CEO Insights
- Business Leader of the Year 2018 – Best Agro food Brand of the Year
- Health Brand of the Year – Food – India Health and Wellness Summit and Awards 2017
- Star award – MSME award for Innovation Excellence – FKCCI – 2017
- Finalist – Best Innovation Food – Gulfood2016
Q. Please tell us about the business model you follow and the services you provide that makes the brand unique in the mid of cut throat competition.
You would have heard of fried snacks, baked snacks, puffed or extruded snacks, flakes, etc. For the first time you would be hearing of “Steamed Snacks”– the wholesome, whole grain, naturally steamed snack without any no preservatives or additives without need for refrigeration. Again in terms of innovation in the kitchen, you can now just open a packet of ‘steamed and ready’ kabuli chana and toss out any dish of your choice.
These are creating new categories in the food space and that is what is making us unique. We would now have the first mover advantage.
Q. Please share the most memorable and remarkable moment of your life.
In the year 2018-19 there was the fall army worm infestation across and many of our farmers were affected. That is one moment they really looked up to us to guide them and safe guard their yields. This was a challenging time for us as well, but we stood with our farmers. Our teams worked with partners across the globe and we were able to create protocols for avoiding damage from FAW and our farmers quickly were able to come out of the situation. One elderly farmer told me that it was the first time in his life he has seen a company who treated the farmer like a farmer and a worm like a worm. He added that his blessings would be with us always, and this I would say was one of the memorable and remarkable moments.
Another moment was a message from a septuagenarian whose grandson is a state level football player. Apparently she had bought one packet of Steamed kabuli chana and had kept it aside for that rainy day. Her grandson’s coach had told him to have high protein snack and she immediately tossed out a chana chat for him. She was very proud that her grandson had labeled her the “Ussain Bolt of the Kitchen”. The message was very heartening.
Q. Where do you see yourself and the company in future? Or, what is your goal to mark the uniqueness in future?
The life-style related diseases are on the rise and you are seeing more and more obesity and under nutrition even among the wealthier segments of India. There is an imminent need to have a deeper look on what we eat and more so what we feed out children. With our unique offering, we would be continuing our journey on making it easy for people to choose healthy. With all legumes being naturally protein rich, I think we are on the right track of nourishing India. Interesting innovations happen at YCook every day, in the coming years you would see more of our products. We would continue on giving ‘good’ food and also making it a main stream snack going forward.
Q. Advise for the budding women in tech who are trying to embark in the same field.
I would say, just take the plunge and ‘you’ would surprise you with your amazing potential. It is worth it.
Q. What is the one thing that is acting as your motivational tool? Or, who is your role model and how the person inspires and motivates you?
Find activities that would energize you, you would need that energy in your journey. Inspiration is there in everything around you, the bird that chirps at 4 am no matter how cold it is, the ants that keep ferrying food with immense dedication, all the amazing women who made it big despite challenges, the women who choose to stay at home and dedicate their entire energy on managing home and kids, every one, everything around you have the potential to inspire and motivate you, you just have to be open to it.
