In an interview with BW Retail World, Vipen Jain, founder of Fitspire shared insights on the company’s growth projections, tapping the international markets and emerging trends in the vegan, plant-based market
Emphasising that with consumers now looking for a healthier, customised lifestyle and are aware of what the right nutrition for them is, Vipen Jain, Founder of Fitspire, a family health nutrition and protein supplements brand, highlights that the company is looking towards Rs 100 crore in revenue in the current fiscal year (FY26). Fitspire is eyeing to expand from metro to tier one and tier two as well.
Jain shared that the company is expanding to quick commerce, quick service restaurant (QSR) chains and remains aggressive on ecommerce. In addition, Fitspire is also planning to move into international markets, with the United States (US) being the biggest market that it is trying to tap.
In an interview with BW Retail World, the founder of Fitspire shared insights on the company’s growth projections, distribution strategies, tapping the international markets as well as the emerging trends in the vegan, plant-based market in the country. Edited Excerpts:
How do you see the evolution of the vegan market in the country and the plant-based diet? How has it evolved over the years?
As far as the vegan market is concerned, now, the trend here in India is that the rural community follows the urban, urban follows the metro city and metro city follows the western part of the globe, which is largely the United States (US). In US, out of whatever population they have right now, about 3.8 per cent people have migrated from a non-vegetarian to a vegan diet now.
Apart from that, the top celebrities like John Abraham or Virat Kohli have migrated from non-vegetarian to vegetarian to vegan diet now. Now, this market is already a USD 1.62 billion market right now which is growing at a pace of 10 per cent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) and this will lead to almost, you know, USD 3.8 or 4 billion market in the next two to three years.
What is the estimated growth rate across all segments for this fiscal year, and what revenue target are you aiming for?
This year, we are looking at about 100 crore. Next year, 250 crore and then next to next year, 500 crore each. This is what we are projecting, and we are already working on that. We are expanding to quick commerce. We are expanding to quick service restaurant (QSR) chains. We have our own website, which is building up revenue for us, and we are also aggressive on ecommerce.
Apart from this, we are also planning to move into international markets. The United States (US) is the biggest market that we are trying to tap. We are also looking at the United Kingdom (UK) and European market, followed by Singapore and Australia. It is part of a three-year journey.
How do you cater to diverse market demands across sectors and geographies, and how are you addressing gaps in health and nutrition across the country?
Consumers are health-conscious right now. People know what they have to eat, what can be digested, and what is the right nutrition for them. In earlier days, especially when I was a child, we were largely dependent upon a bowl of dal, which our mother was giving or a banana. Now, the philosophy has completely changed.
Now, people eat as per their body style and lifestyle. So, there is an awareness on social media, on Google, people are self-educated in terms of understanding that what suits them and what will not suit them. People are choosing their own diet. There are a lot of brands which are promoting health and veganism including us.
How are you tapping the rural areas or the urban areas, specifically from your company’s perspective? How are you looking at these things?
In terms of rural or urban, we do a lot of influencer marketing. So, that is helping us. Now, in influencer marketing, whichever zone or area or input you have to target, you can target that. The Internet is so powerful.
Second, with dynamic channels like Zepto, Swiggy, and Blinkit, now expanding to tier two and tier three cities, the availability of products is there. One that you are marketing a product, second the availability of your product is actually helping us to reach multiple pin codes. Out of 17,912 pin codes, we are already supplying at about 14,666 pin codes in India.
Everyone has their own specific needs according to their body type. There has been a growing trend for personalised nutrition, or customised nutrition. How do you see that?
I think it is a good shift. Earlier, we were only having nutritional things which were given by our parents, whether you eat food or dal or egg or anything for that matter.
But now, with science coming into everything, people are aware of what to eat and how to eat. When we do a lot of social media things, especially doing the podcast around health, influencer marketing around health, promoting our ads around health, we specify that this would suit you, and this will not suit you. And, not only us, but I think there are major brands that are doing a similar way of marketing.
Which market has been the primary driver of growth and which particular geographical market are you looking to tap in this particular year?
This year we are moving from metro to tier one and tier two. Next year we plan to do tier 3 and then we will go to tier 4. The trend is moving towards the more developed state or capital or town. So, rural following urban brings a lot of influence.
Second, social media is all across. Social media itself is helping a lot in all that sense in terms of protein promoting or building up things. So, what I see for this year is in terms of getting deeper into rural, the quick commerce will help us in terms of penetration.
The company aims to acquire two per cent of India’s nutrition market. What is the status on that and how would you like to scale up in the future?
The plant-based market is a 6,000 crore rupees market in India. We are looking at two per cent penetration into that in the next five years. The journey has already started. We are at a milestone of doing about 100 crore and next to next year would be about 500 crore.
How we are doing it? There are multiple distribution channels and there are multiple products to do that. We have vegan bars. One category which we do is completely sports nutrition. In sports nutrition, we offer products which are vegan. We do vegan plant protein, multiple vegan powder supplements which could be BCAA or EAA.
Second, We have been able to build up products which are vegan in nature. So, we are doing a vegan omega which probably nobody has done in India till now. We are doing vitamins which are vegan. The benefit of having vegan is that scientifically there is no side effect. Anybody can consume it.
The third category which we have is healthy snacking. People who cannot consume or do not have time to take protein shakes or any tablets. We are doing vegan bars which is made of dry fruits. There are many products in the pipeline which we are doing.
