B Swaminathan (cbedit@imaws.org)
MediNaturals, based out of India’s Pune is one of the hottest brands in the market that looks forward to building a well-established, most preferred, and trendsetting brand that provides natural, healthy, and tasty foods. The prime business operations at the manufacturing of innovative, premium quality health food products fortified with the goodness of Sea Buckthorn. This includes Preserves, Conserves, Spreads, Probiotics, Delicious Pickles, immunity booster shots, and many more. Mrs. Sheetal Nikam and Mrs. Sheila Phadtare, Directors of the company speak on their spreads and how they are planning to expand globally.
How are you different from other spreads?
Medinatural started this project with the vision of crafting a fun product into an essential product without losing the nutrition it. A number of diseases are on the rise due to the use of preservatives and chemical additives in packaged food, MediNATURAL has vowed against the use of such malpractices we started with a very basic product ie. Jams. We observed that traditionally jam making was a concept to preserve fruits for longer durations which has been ruined by the market today by adding excessive preservatives and flavoring agents to it instead of fruits. Therefore, we crafted spreads and preserves with the love and goodness of sea buckthorn- a superfood that is garnered from the womb of the Himalayas and is well known for its nutritional and medicinal values. The whole plant is a medicine from roots to leaves and berries containing more than 190 bioactive nutrients which help us in gaining immunity against a number of ailments. MediNATURALspreads and preserves are all-natural and contain no added preservatives and harmful additives such as color and essences. According to the definition of jams by govt. they should have a brix of 68°, which needs a lot of sugar to be added to them, and through our technology, we are far away from that practice where we use a major percentage of fruit content and a less amount of unsulfated cane sugar, therefore calling them spreads & preserves. So, basically, they are just the fruit preserved in their natural state which accompanies perfectly to your delicious breakfast, cheese boards, and desserts.
What are the key rationales for your products?
The market is flooded with sea buckthorn oil capsules and concentrates, but none of them is in accordance with kids who would love to eat, therefore, a fun product like our spreads and preserves can become their best friends.
Does your cost seem to be very high? how would you justify your cost?
When the public look for something very natural they tend to look for the best quality which is free from harmful substances, to provide that quality it is necessary for us also to look at each and every aspect while creating the product, whether it is the quality of the fruit or the quantity. We are not compromising on anything. As far as price is related, we have placed ourselves very well in fair competition with the brands available in the market with a similar vision to us.
Explain in detail your production process
MediNATURALs is committed to creating awareness about the foods we consume. Today’s time demands us to eat healthy and natural food. At MediNaturals all the products manufactured are farm fresh making them 100% natural. We believe in customer satisfaction, safety, and trust and thrive to maintain them. Thus, all the products are rich in vitamins and nutrients and are completely free from harmful preservatives and chemicals. We thrive to work towards our dream, vision of being a leading company in the food processing industry through innovation & tradition linked together, adopting a scientific approach & latest technology. We look forward to delivering quality products without compromising the taste and medicinal advantages.
What are the variants you have?
Sea buckthorn preserve; mulberry ginger preserve; mango jalapeno preserve, spiced fig preserve, strawberry mint preserve, mango saffron preserve, and Jamun spread.
How good is your supply chain?
We are in the phase of launching ourselves, in a very short time our product will be visible in all A+ stores and supermarkets in Maharashtra. We trying are our best to reach pan India through our online portal ie. medinatural.in. we are very much open to distributors from various states who are interested in working with us.
Please tell us more about your expansion plans
Once we have settled ourselves in Maharashtra then we look onto placing ourselves in other states as well in exports. Also, in the upcoming year, we will be coming with new products also such as probiotic drinks which will have a great number of health benefits.
Where your products can be used?
As creative as our spreads and preserves are, they can be used in a number of creative ways instead of the traditional way such as salad or salsa dressing, crushes for brewing cocktails, and mocktails; can be used as fillers in wraps, croissants, cookies, doughnuts, cakes, and pastries. My personal way to use is as ice cream toppings and in creating creative milkshakes.