Zoff Masala’s founders thoroughly entertained the sharks with their confidence and witty answers. The pitch was full of laughter, entertainment, and the famous SHARK FIGHT.
The founders pointed out that the Indian spice market is ₹80,000 crores and 70% is unorganized. That is why a lot of mixing happens and these unorganized players mix dust, chemicals, straw, and even cow dung (as per the zee news report).
Zoff Masala has 7 stage cleaning system, that sells high-quality and clean masala.
During the pitch, Namita pointed out that the spice market was so cluttered, then why did they enter it? The founders answered that by challenging Namita to name the 4 Masala brands that she uses. She was not able to answer and failed the challenge.
Let us check out their amazing revenues that made judges speechless and the reason behind it.
Zoff Masala Owner
Akash Kumar and Ashish Agarwal from Raipur, Chhattisgarh are the founders of Zoff Masala.
Once when Ashish was checking out the profit and loss of MDH masala in 2018, he was surprised to see that they had ₹900 crores turnover and earn ₹400 crores of net profit. This piqued his interest and he started his research.
In his research he found that the spice market is big, the gross margin is high and most of the players are regional.
This motivated him to start a business in this sector in 2018. Akash Kumar looks after online sales and finance. Ashish looks after offline sales, plant operations, and logistics. Both of them together look after marketing.
When they revealed that their one-month revenue is ₹7 crores, the sharks were SPEECHLESS!
Let us check out their smart moves and tactics that bring about ₹7 crores of monthly revenue.
- They entered a market that was huge (₹80,000 crores)
- They chose the category that had a high Gross margin
- They Analysed their competition and found out that:
- Most players are regional, so they had decided that they will make their masala available across India.
- Also, their competition was not focusing on online business. So they develop the vision to be the number 1, online spice player.
- They have kept their price compatible with the average market price.
ZOFF Review
The lack of innovation and stagnancy in the spice market led ZOFF to revolutionalize the Indian spice industry in the following ways:
- Cool Grinding technology
Spices begin to lose their pungency and flavor at around 60 degrees. Most Spice companies use old grinding machines like hammer mills, that reach a temperature of up to 120 degrees.
ZOFF is India’s first company to use Air Classifying Mills (ACMs) to grind all their spices. They work at 30 to 40 degrees. Thus the spices retain their full flavor and aroma.
- No Hand Touch
Once the whole spiced enters the machines they come out as fully packed.
- 7-stage Cleaning System
Most of the unorganized players grind the whole spices without cleaning them. Those spices consist of dust, straw, and stones which get ground along with the whole spice. ZOFF Masala has a 7-stage cleaning system to get rid of impurities.
- Roasting Facility
They also have an in-house roasting facility for the masalas that need to be roasted to give aroma.
- Cold Storage
They have cold storage facilities to preserve the raw materials.
- Unique Zip Lock Packaging
This maintains the aroma and flavor of the spices
Where To Find Them
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Instagram
ZOFF Masala Shark Tank Episode
ZOFF masala asked for ₹1 crore from the sharks for 0.5% equity at ₹200 crores valuation.
Namita Thapar had issues with the fact that their company did not have a clearly defined CEO and that is why she backed out.
Anupam Mittal accused them of using this platform only for marketing purposes. He explained that they have a ₹50 crore loan, and only when they will pay off this loan (which as per his calculations was 10 years) post that the investor gets returns for their investment in the company.
He pointed out that their debt-to-equity ratio (the ratio of the debt taken by the company and the equity of the founders) is not right.
He gave an offer of ₹1 crore for 2% under the condition that the ₹18 crore loan from the father will be converted into equity.
Aman gave an offer of ₹1 crore for 2% equity.
Vineeta gave the offer of ₹50 lacks for 0.75% equity and ₹50 lakhs in debt
Amit loved the passion and chemistry of the founders and gave the offer of ₹1 crore for 1.5% equity.
The counter-offer by the founders was ₹1crores for 0.75% equity.
Aman gave the last offer of ₹1crores for 1.25% equity, which the founders accepted and the deal was sealed.
Concluding Remarks
The passion and business acumen of these two founders gave us some important business lessons that we all can learn from.
They have shown us that in order to run a successful business you don’t need to do a lot of things, just focusing on 2 or 3 aspects is enough. For them, these aspects are finding loopholes in your competition and using them to your advantage, providing the best quality products to the consumers, and choosing the right sector and a massy product.
We would love to know what you have got to say about their smart moves and tactics.
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