How A Well Known Brand Of Cafe Chain Entered Coveted FMCG Vertical

Vanik.com — India’s largest online platform for distribution trade has helped many Indian small businesses build Pan-India sales and distribution network at affordable cost and in record time using online resources. This is a novel way in India where most businesses still follow traditional path of engaging army of sales teams for visiting target markets to identify and appoint distributors. Given the highly unorganized and fragmented nature of Indian distribution market — building pan-India distribution channel the traditional way has remained expensive and time consuming, so much so that only handful of national brands have nationwide distribution network.

As with any new business model — it takes time to establish root and most Indian brands still use traditional way. However, during pandemic, field visit became hazardous and restrictive, forcing even larger companies to look for alternatives. This gave Vanik an opportunity to establish itself in corporate world. Here’s one such success story of an established Indian brand.

Barista, a well-known brand in India and the sub-continent, runs a chain of espresso bar cafes across India. Globally known and recognized for its finest quality coffee, Barista operates through a franchisee network. Few years back, Barista entered FMCG manufacturing business, offering House Blend Coffee Powder, Cookie, Chocolate Slab, Choco Milk Slab etc. Instead of the franchisee route, Barista wanted a much larger retail presence. Mr. Manoj Kumar, Category head of FMCG vertical was looking for hard-working and resourceful FMCG distributors capable of creating required reach and penetration across the country. He tried established online giants and B2B portals — but failed to get any success.

Then one day, Manoj heard about Vanik.com from one of his friends. He contacted Vanik team and explained his objective, i.e. to create a separate vertical and grow revenue fast. Though they have a sales team, Manoj saw the advantage of having an online platform for identifying reliable distribution partners across the Indian market in a much faster and efficient way. It was sort of risky as Vanik was not as well known as online giants he consulted earlier — but the gamble paid off spectacularly. With the help of precise leads of prospective distributors and timely guidance by experienced distribution trade professionals from Vanik — Manoj and his team quickly finalized a distributor for key Mumbai market and got through to Kerala , Karnataka, Telangana and the rest of Maharashtra markets.

According to team Barista — qualified leads from Vanik helped them to contact channel partners much faster than the traditional way of sales team’s field visits. Besides, the lead response was very positive. They are very happy to have contacted Vanik as otherwise the outcome of going traditional way could have been doubtful, given prevailing pandemic struck markets.

There are many more success stories — from start-ups to national brads — we shall publish them in future