Troo Good, a leading millet-based snack company, has set its sights on generating INR 100 crore in revenue this fiscal year. The company’s top executive has emphasized their strategy of expanding production capacity, introducing new product offerings, and establishing a pan-India presence as the driving forces behind this ambitious target.
Raju Bhupati, CEO of Troo Good, said, “Troo Good, which was established in 2018 to offer wholesome and high-quality snacks at affordable price, clocked INR 53 crore revenue in 2022-23. We aim to establish Troo Good as a pan-India nutritional food brand over the next few years.”
Troo Good’s daily sales reach an impressive range of 1.5 to 2 million chikki bars, with the primary focus on their flagship product, millet chikkis, available at the affordable price points of INR 5 and INR 10.
According to Bhupati, the company currently distributes its products in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh. However, they have ambitious plans to expand their presence throughout the entire country and aim to achieve pan-India coverage within this fiscal year.
“We are planning to set up two more manufacturing units – one in Chhattisgarh and one either in Haryana or Karnataka. To maintain the affordable pricing of our snacks, we source most raw materials locally and employ local people.
“Around 90 percent of the total employees working in the manufacturing units are local women and each factory employs over 50 people taking the total headcount to around 300,” he said.
The company presently operates four manufacturing units situated in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana. These units employ a dedicated workforce of 300 individuals and have a collective production capacity of 25,000 kilograms of chikkis per day.
“We are present in about 30,000 outlets, like kirana stores to your modern formats, across the country and in about 20,000-25,000 schools, providing a nutritious alternative for the children in their canteen.
“We recently signed with police canteens. We also signed up with Jan Aushadi, to be present in all the Jan Aushadi stores, medical stores, and the largest pharma, which is also there across India,” he said.
In November 2021, the Hyderabad-based startup managed to secure funding of USD 8.4 million. The majority of the funding, USD 7.4 million, was raised from OAKS Asset Management, while the remaining USD 1 million came from venture capitalist and philanthropist Sashi Reddi and his family.
“We will be utilising the funds raised for setting up new manufacturing units and adding new products like millet-based noodles and cookies,” he said.
Besides the domestic market, the company will commence exporting to the United Arab Emirates from this financial year.
“We are planning to export to the UAE markets. We have already launched our products in Dubai on a pilot basis. We expect to export to the UAE market from August onwards,” he added.
This year has been internationally recognized as the International Year of Millet, highlighting the significance of this humble grain on a global scale. Furthermore, the Indian government has also identified millets as a viable long-term solution to tackle the pressing issues of food and water resource management within the country.
“We are also closely working with the government and the Niti Aayog on many initiatives to create more awareness on the benefits of millets.
“We will roll out our first advertisement in September-October. We are connected with Self Help Groups (SHGs) and Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) for recruitment as well as for procurement of raw materials, respectively. We also give revenue share to the SHG women,” Bhupati added.