The Ledger
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Suhasini Sampath: Food brands need 60%+ gross margins to sustain D2C
“A 30 to 40% gross margin product cannot sustain through a website. You need a 70% gross margin product. So just because everybody does D to C, Personal care can do D to C. Food cannot, because your gross margins has to be north of 60%, because you have the log…”
Sampath: The beauty industry has destroyed human intellect
“I find I find, like, I actually think the beauty industry has destroyed our intellect.”
Sampath: Biscuits consist solely of maida, hydrogenated fat, sugar, and zero nutrition
“Completely avoid biscuits because biscuits are just maida, hydrogenated fat and sugar. There's no nutrition there.”
Sampath: Building sensible offline distribution requires at least 300 crore rupees
“No, it's a very expensive process. You need 300 crores at the very minimum to kind of like build sensible distribution.”
Sampath: Besides YogaBar, Startups Haven't Built Serious Indian Food Companies
“I would say in food, food is, is difficult. I think it's owned by the FMCG companies, and I think I might be biased, but I think except us, I don't think, I mean, I think we built a serious company in food.”
Suhasini Sampath: Valuing food brands on ARR is nonsense due to seasonality
“Aur ye ARR sab kuch is just bakwaas, like, people don't value you on your annual run rate. There is a buying cycle for the consumer for food, like for juices, it's April, May, June, when it's summer. You have to take annual, I mean, the full years, last year's…”
Sampath: Functioning individuals should only optimize for health, not appearance
“Like people, as long as you're a functioning individual, the only thing you should optimize for is health.”
Sampath: Health food will not sell without at least 20% taste
“But abhi bhi, health taste ke bina nahi bikega. Like that is the truth of it. You have to do 80% health and 20% taste.”
Sampath: Indian women do not prioritize workouts like people abroad
“I also feel like Indian women don't find the need to work out the way people abroad do.”
Sampath: ITC bought Yoga Bar for category market share, not raw revenue
“The reason ITC eventually bought Yogabad is not because the revenue was X or Y. They bought it because we had serious market share in bars, and we had serious market share in Muesli, and most of our product extensions, they could see it as taking market share.”
Sampath: FMCG brands cannot influence retail trade without serious category market share
“I feel like it's difficult to manage offline when you have, when you don't have depth in a category. You can't influence margins, you can't influence price, you can't influence you know, trade to get really attracted unless You have serious market share.”
Suhasini Sampath: Rivals with half Yoga Bar's revenue received higher valuations
“I remember that when we were raising, There were a couple of companies at half our revenue and two XR losses getting valued higher than us. Now it causes problems for both parties. No strategic is going to give you that kind of value.”
Suhasini Sampath: A good deal requires leaving money on the table
“You have to leave money on the table to make money. And I think that's the important thing to remember. There is no such thing as a good deal. The deal happens when everyone gets an exit and all parties on the table have won.”
Sampath: Yoga Bar never conducted an employee layoff
“My employees, we've never had a single layoff in Yoga Bar.”
Sampath: Kept same basic car 15 years and never bought gold
“I have the same car for the last 15 years. I don't know how to drive, so I need a car. So I have a very basic car. I have it for 15 years. I don't buy a house. I don't have a fancy house. I have, like, basic things until my clothes really wear and tear. I don'…”
Sampath: Yoga Bar's zero-sugar muesli is its top seller in Reliance and DMart
“We have a no sugar muesli, so zero sugar, no, no raisins, no dates, no nothing, zero total sugar. It says zero total sugar, right? And that's the fastest selling product in Reliance and DMart.”