24 Mantra: From organic niche market to acquisition by ITC
Raj Seelam, Founder and Managing Director, Sresta Natural Bio Products Pvt Ltd
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RAMAKRISHNA G
For Raj Seelam, Founder and Managing Director of Sresta Natural Bioproducts, known for its 24 Mantra-branded organic food products, it is not easy to let go of his baby that he nurtured and guided through several challenges over the last two decades.
He once recounted how keenly he counted the number of customers entering his maiden 24 Mantra-branded outlet at Banjara Hills. Aside from the one or two curious onlookers, who would step in to check what the store was about, the store hardly attracted footfalls in the initial days.
For him, the key challenge was to create a new market segment, organic food, that was not there. Moreover, there was no culture of organised retail networks at that time, making it much more difficult to attract footfalls.
The other challenge was to convince customers to buy something pricier, while cheaper regular alternatives were available.
The boom in organised retail segment that began in the mid-2000s was a godsend for Sresta. Spencer’s, which was expanding its footprint across the country, agreed to house its range of products, giving it a fillip.
Besides building a sustainable backend for uninterrupted supply of agricultural commodities, Seelam left no opportunity to educate the ecosystem and consumers on why it was not too costly to go the organic way.
He used to argue that opting for organic food didn’t cost a lot as most people perceived. It won’t cost more than ₹2,500 to buy organic groceries for a family for a month, he would say. “I don’t think it is such a big ask. The prices of organic food – which are higher (than the regular alternatives) in the range of 20-70 per cent across product categories. This used to be very high in the initial days,” he told businessline recently.
Sresta recently expanded its bouquet of offerings by launching baby and children food, snacks, and frozen foods.
As he established Sresta’s network across the country covering 30,000 farmers to support its pipeline, he also groomed the diaspora market in the US by personally touring several towns and cities, and convincing the stores there to place their products.
For ITC, the acquisition of Sresta Natural Bioproducts for ₹472 crore is a perfect fit for its basket. The FMCG major, which developed a 360-degree supplychain to build a good and varied and pipeline of products, sees the Hyderabad-based organise food products firm the right fit.
Published on April 18, 2025
