Veeba Accelerating in Consumer Retail Market

VEEBA FOOD Services Pvt. Ltd, recently raised $6 million (Rs40 crore) in a series C round led by its existing investor Verlinvest. The company was started by Viraj Bahl, a former head of packaged foods firm Fun Foods, which was sold to German food maker Dr Oetker in 2008. “Our business is going well and we are at the back of product innovation. We will use this new investment towards our new plant that is coming up in Rajasthan,” Bahl said in a conversation with BW Hotelier.

Bahl informed that as of now, North India is the largest market for Veeba and they are looking forward to penetrate more into Jharkhand, Bihar and Orrisa region. “Since we already have an existing plant in Rajasthan, there are chances that our third plant will come up in South or West India,” he further added.

Having started tapping into consumer retail market in the year 2016, the money raised will also be used for the retail distribution push across the country. “When I started I was very clear that Veeba is going to be a B2C company, but it takes time to form as a brand nationally. In time span of six months, our B2C revenue has grown to 40 per cent from 5 per cent. Right now our B2B revenue share is 60 per cent and B2C revenue share is about 40 per cent. We are growing in multiples rather than growing in percentages,” Bahl told us.

Bahl also mentioned that out of his total revenue more than 70 per cent comes from general trade and only 30 per cent comes from the modern trade. “Though we are present on all the big bazaars and modern bazaars, bulk of our businesses comes from the normal pop stores. We have been able to set up the national distribution business and more revenue comes from the general trade and less comes from the modern trade,” he says.

Since inception Veeba has increased its pricing once and Bahl believes that the uniqueness of its taste is what keeping the consumers loyal to the brand. “We talk about taste and convenience, keeping health into consideration,” he added.

Commenting upon the recent GST reform, Bahl said, “Government has reduced taxes in food which is a good thing because admin wise it has been made easy. What I feel is India needs a very good cold chain as lot of the produces are wasted. There needs to be canning and tinning facility in every village.”