How The Health Factory Aims to Revolutionize the Bread Industry

Health Factory is a brand that curated India’s first High-Protein Bread, with carefully selected ingredients making it nutritional. With its motto as ‘Bread Badlo Aadat Nahi’, the brand aims to redesign nutrition, allowing individuals to consume bread without having to change their lifestyle.

Working with a global pharma company, the founder Vinay Maheshwari was exposed to the terms of operations, product innovation, and strategies that aided the foundation of Health Factory. Being a bread lover himself, Maheshwari wanted to introduce a bread category in the Indian market that will not just be empty calories but on the contrary, would fulfill the nutritional requirement of its consumers.

The Beginning

“Surveying across a wide base of audience and speaking to numerous nutritionists, doctors, professionals, and mothers, we understood the existing problem and the market gap, and we incorporated this feedback into our dream product,” said Vinay Maheshwari, Founder, The Health Factory.

Partnering with international food technologists allowed the brand to formulate the country’s first protein bread. The bread is a healthier alternative that provides 48 grams of protein while being low in carbohydrates with no trans-fat, no cholesterol, and low sodium.

With consumers moving towards healthier alternatives, significant growth in the healthy foods market can also be witnessed.

Options Galore

From the product portfolio standpoint, The Health Factory is laser-focused on the bread category. “The bread category has a lot of potential, the market size is humongous owing to the consumption rate across the country,” Maheshwari stated.

Sourcing all its ingredients internationally, The Health Factory has a total of 5 bread variants, with 3 protein variants. The brand offers a multi-protein variant with 48 grams of protein which is 2.5 times the thrice of protein available in regular bread, which is approximately the same amount of protein that 1.6 egg whites provide.

100 percent vegetarian, the brand also offers vegan options made with vegan-friendly protein which is a bread that offers 36 grams of protein.  

The brand aims to expand in the said category, however, with the ongoing R&D it plans to introduce innovative products in the next few quarters.

Formulation of The Perfect Recipe

“We take around 8 to 9 months to formulate one product owing to the in-depth science that goes behind every one of them. We dive deep into the subject understanding the exact ratio of the ingredients that will perform well and be beneficiary for our customers,” added Vinay Maheshwari.

Since the quality, taste, and texture of its bread are a top-of-the-line priority for the brand, it assures each product has a superior taste and is an advanced version of bread available in the market.

To strike the correct balance, the brand looks closely into the sourcing of ingredients along with rigorous R&D.

“There exists a pre-conceived notion revolving around the taste that comes with the word ‘Protein Bread’, however, post the first bite that notion ceases to exist,” commented Maheshwari.

Target Audience and Response

The Health Factory caters to a wide variety of consumers ranging from kids to adults to grandparents, in terms of adoption and consumption.

“We are targeting mothers who are looking to replace the regular bread with healthier options, the gym-goers, athletes, and everyone who wants to add nutrition to their daily meals without changing their food choices,” Maheshwari asserted

Moreover, the brand is a part of the Roots Venue Football League having its own team ‘The Health Factory Warriors', encouraging sports and a new vision.

With a phenomenal response, the brand has a retention rate of more than 80 percent with the D2C model, at the same time running a pre-paid subscription model for regular consumers. “We even have consumers who have signed up for a 3-year subscription,” added Vinay.

Bread and Innovation

From the formulation standpoint, the brand has incorporated innovation in all its products, carefully designing each one using the accurate ratio of ingredients. The performance of each of the products is closely monitored as well, in terms of its impact on the human body especially gut health thus acing the art and science of bread-baking.

Therefore, the brand provides nutrition without compromising on taste or quality. Moreover, the brand is working towards bringing in technological advancements in terms of its packaging, making its plant more automated.

Growth and Funding

Having recently raised a seed funding of Rs 2 crore, in two and a half years of its journey, the brand has witnessed an 82 percent growth in a quarter.

As per the founder, the raised funds will be deployed largely towards team building keeping its aim to become India’s Biggest Bread Walas intact. The funds will further be deployed towards marketing, geographical expansion, and R&D.

Retail and Marketing Strategy

With the aim to become India’s biggest Bread Walas, the brand aims to enable new user behavior in the competitive D2C space from various fronts, one being product proposition which allows the consumers to get high nutrition without changing their lifestyle.

“With our tagline-Bread Badlo Aadat Nahi, our idea is not to make people move away from an entire food category but instead make a wiser decision opting for a healthier variant,” said the founder.

The second front is building convenience for the consumer, the brand is therefore available and accessible across numerous places, while also having its own D2C to deliver freshly baked bread to houses from 6 to 9 in the morning.

Currently available via 3 outlets- retail, quick commerce, and D2C, the brand has covered over 150 posts within Mumbai and Pune. With e-commerce the brand is available with Swiggy Instamart, Big Basket, BB Daily, BB Now, and Amazon.

Future Plans

With its aim to expand its footprint, the brand is looking forward to onboard 200 to 250 outlets in Bengaluru. “Currently we have more than 150 retail touch-points which should be more than 500 or 600 in a quarter, moreover, we have our POs aligned for the next city and the cities to come as well,” said Vinay Maheshwari.

On the HoReCa front, The Health Factory has partnered with the renowned Hotel Chain Suba. “Our company will be supplying bread to Suba Hotel in Mumbai region, this is our entry into the HoReCa sector, moreover, we are currently in discussions with a few more hotel chains across India,” added Maheshwari.

Not deviating from its larger vision, the brand assures to be working aggressively to penetrate deeper into the Indian cities.