Business plan for health salad: GRAB-@-BYTE

Abstract

The purpose of this Business plan to is to critically analyze the demand for a health salad product among the niche IT population and propose a business plan to exploit the same. Grab@Byte is dedicated to developing a Nutrition rich, tasty and clinically approved Health Snack for the Information Technology Sector. The fundamental premise that this idea is based on is the fact that Preventive Health care is gaining ground and IT employee s lay greater emphasis on their health. Grab@byte s strategy to succeed primarily rests on the combination of personalized dietary recommendation of wholesome and nutritious food and the ease with which it is made available to the consumers at their work place. The online channel is adopted since the target segment are employees of the Information Technology sector who are highly net savvy and are not averse to financial transactions online. This lean distribution channel coupled with strong supply chain management techniques helps drive down costs considerably and these savings are extended to the consumers. The Grab@Byte team is the brainchild of two IIM management professionals. They have spent around 14 years amongst themselves in the Information Technology industry and truly understand the pressing need for healthy food alternatives. Adding credence to their ideation is Mr. K. Sridhar who has over 20 years experience in the supply chain management area in the catering industry. In addition to this they are tied up with a panel of health experts and dieticians from major fitness centers such as Talwakars and Fitness One, who bring in the domain knowledge of wellness and disease management. The snack market in India was worth Rs 1500 crore as of 2005 and has grown annually at a very healthy rate1. This industry is estimated to be worth over Rs 2000 crore by the end of year 2010. The Indian health snack market is in its nascent stage as 75% of the health snack is imported and these have a high turnover. With this burgeoning market scenario and increased awareness on lifestyle diseases amongst consumers; introduction of a localized high quality health snack would yield a tremendous response with the consumers. The Grab@Byte offering which is a low cost high quality health snack through a channel that its target segment is most comfortable with makes the proposition unique in the market. Grab@Byte is a premium health snack targeted for consumption as an evening bite for the employees of the Information Technology sector. This is a completely vegetarian, predominantly non-processed and tailored for each consumer depending on factors such as current physical condition and medical history. The product customization is done by leading nutritionist and dieticians from reputed fitness centers and will be sold through the online medium and delivered to the consumer s workplace at a pre-defined time slot. The consumers profile on the Grab@Byte website is not limited to a transaction vehicle and would give them free access to a host of fitness programs and diet tools for healthy weight loss. Some of the salient features that the website offers include:? Ability to set weight loss goals over a period of time and monitor the progress on a regular basis? Maintain a food diary that automatically records the calorie intake on every meal and integrate it with the weight loss program? Keeping an online exercise diary and plan that is automatically configured and indicates the workout requirements depending on goals set and calories consumed? In addition to these, the website will serve as a social network connecting Information Technology employees who share the common passion of healthy living and wellbeing across organizations. The initial investment to start the business would be provided by Mr. K Sridhar to the tune of Rs 5 Lakhs. This investment comprises of both equity and debt components. The business is expected to make profits by the end of first year, as forecasted in the attached financial exhibits.