Freedom healthy cooking oil is a flagship brand of Gemini Edibles and Fats India Pvt Ltd. which was established in 2010 and is headquartered in Hyderabad. The brand is a leading manufacturer and supplier of different varieties of refined cooking oils.
Mr. P Chandrashekhara Reddy, VP Sales and Marketing, Freedom Healthy Cooking Oil talked about the 10-year journey of the company in the “ TALK THE WALK” Program hosted by Dr. Vinith Kumar Nair, Chief Curator –MaxEd.
Talking about the selection of the brand name Freedom Cooking Oil, Mr.Reddy said that considering the target consumers, the brand name should make sense to all and should be easy to spell. When asked about how they selected the brand name Freedom, he said they had done a market research at the time of launch and around 500 names were shortlisted, from which they chose the brand name Freedom and got the registration.
He further shared his fantastic and exciting journey and said “in 10 years time frame, Freedom cooking oil has 61+% share in India”. Mr. Reddy said After 3 years of our company’s establishment, we were Number 1 at AP and Telangana by market share around 40-42%. After 10 years the company had a growth of 50%.
He talked about the journey with the consumers, company, and channel partners. After continuous public research, the brand promoted GUILT FREE EATING and Kam tel main zyada khana Khao. Every year the company produced refreshing TVC for the consumers.
The company started from 200 tonnes of refined sunflower oil in 2010 and now it increased to 1300 tonnes per day. ”We increased the capacity as the sale started hitting 100% of capacity”. The company’s decades of experience in the field gained faith from distributors and investors. He further said that less human intervention is the key point in the company growth. Mr.Reddy also talked about the 1L pouches and PET bottles with its reasonable prices and unique design.
The revenue verticals of the company were mainly from its consumers and industrial segments. Revenue from the consumer segment itself was Rs.3800Cr out of Rs.6500Cr of company revenue on 31 March 2020.
“We offer a genuine oil of highest quality edible oil and brand architecture, and thus we are unique,” said Mr.Reddy.For distribution strategies, the company is heavily dependent on retailers, e-commerce, and wholesale channels in town, and villages. The company is focusing on state by state expansion. Along with Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, the brand is focusing on Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. In the future, the company may focus on expanding the brand to Maharashtra and Kerala.
Talking about promotion strategy of Freedom Healthy Cooking Oil “We have to be there, where the consumer is. We began with our promotion from YouTube, then Facebook, and now through Google banner ads and other extending platforms. We are always promoting through mass media platform and would like to promote more on the digital platform”.
Since there is no replacement for oil, the challenges the brand may face in the future may be in the area of understanding the changing consumers, in understanding distribution as large players comes to the market and the trends in distributors and consumer products. He also added that in the future the company may also expand to other products which has its own challenges.
