Amit Saraogi, Co-founder and Managing Director, Anmol Feeds Private Limited, is a civil engineer by qualification, who decided to take the unconventional path to start a livestock feed manufacturing business in the year 2000. Today, it is a Rs 600 crore company, with Pankaj Tripathi as brand ambassador, and ‘Nouriture’ as its evolved brand imagery. Saraogi now aims to firm up on the Aatmanirbhar Bharat sentiment and grow his enterprise to Rs 1,000 crore by 2025.
Please take us through your growing up years and early signs of entrepreneurship. How did you think of starting a livestock feed manufacturing business after getting a civil engineering degree?
It is always difficult to tread into unchartered territories, moving away from traditional paths. It is even more difficult to do so coming from a humble background. There was always a ‘culture’ of business in our family. We learnt the value of money, of not being extravagant and most of all, of being honest in our dealings with others. The spirit of risk-taking and trying out new things was ingrained in us. It was always my aim to have a venture of my own. My father has been the biggest influence in my business, and he always taught us to look at the big picture. The idea of starting a livestock feed manufacturing business struck me while working with my uncle during summer vacations at a small shop we used to own. I noticed a demand-supply gap and dearth of producers and suppliers in the industry. Most importantly, it is an area where millions of youths in India can make a living. After getting my civil engineering degree, I knew I wanted to pursue a different career path in life. With an investment of Rs 5 lakh from my father, I bought a manufacturing unit that had been shut down, in my hometown of Muzaffarpur in Bihar. With the help of my family, I started a small venture from there – Anmol Feeds. A lot of hard work, both physical and mental, went into taking the business ahead.
What is the kind of investment in R&D at Anmol Feeds and how do you benchmark yourself in terms of quality, pricing and distribution?
We have strived to change the narrative of the feed industry by bringing in modern cutting-edge technologies, innovative practices and policies for improved breeding, feeding, livestock health care, management and trade. Nouriture is our evolved brand imagery and extension of our legacy of two decades. Nouriture has helped propel the vision of Anmol Feeds as a company into future businesses of aqua and shrimp feed, cattle feed and consolidate our poultry business. We have three R&D centres for poultry and aqua feeds, that are being guided by well-known animal nutritionists. They are equipped with full-fledged disease diagnosis and surveillance laboratory equipment for feed testing. The centres evaluate the performance of various feed ingredients, test the nutritional value of the ingredients and come up with innovative feed formulas and farming techniques. We are thus able to reduce production cost and train farmers in best practices. On an average, we spent Rs 5 lakh to set up the R&D centres.
How do you plan to associate with brand ambassador Pankaj Tripathi, and how does he fit in with the brand ethos?
We wanted to create a high recall for our entire cattle feed brand, Nouriture Godhenu Gold, and our superlative product deserved a brand ambassador like Pankaj Tripathi who has a unique appeal across the country. He is our first brand ambassador for our cattle feed brand. He is an energetic and versatile actor with a rich legacy of work. Being a farmer’s son himself, Pankaj understands the gap that our brand is trying to bridge. His common man personality resonates with our brand values, and we believe the association will go a long way in not only achieving the desired top-of-the-mind brand recall but also in bringing about a paradigm shift in farmer behaviour towards the right feed. Our campaign with him aims to educate and inform the farmers about why they need the right cattle feed for better yield. We hope the words ‘Sirf chusti nahi, pushti bhi’ are embedded in the minds of every farmer and stay for a long time.
What has been the response to the e-commerce portal through which farmers can directly buy livestock feed – how has it fared so far and how do you plan to further step up the digital side of the business?
Our e-commerce portal is the one of the first such portals through which farmers can buy quality livestock feed for poultry, cattle, shrimp and fish directly from the company, avoiding dependence on dealers. Our primary objective is to empower small farmers with this portal and further our Government’s vision of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat. Moreover, by digitalizing agriculture, which is one of our core strengths, this is a step towards Digital India. In the first two months of operation, the portal has been able to help more than 2,000 farmers who have purchased 300 tonnes of products. We aim to serve more than 10,000 livestock farmers in the next three months. Presently, we are operating in the States where we have manufacturing/stock units - West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand, the North-east, Jammu, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. We plan to take it pan-India so that farmers across the country have access to quality products. We have received phenomenal response so far and farmers have acknowledged the convenience and benefits of the portal.
What are some challenges before the company today, and before the livestock feed manufacturing space overall? What interventions are required?
The livestock and animal husbandry sector contributes 4.11% of the GDP and 25.6% of total agriculture GDP. Yet, there was inadequate attention to the sector in the Union Budget of 2022. The Indian livestock feed industry that is presently growing at a CAGR of 8% was also left in the lurch. The livestock husbandry sector needs a viable solution to control the ever-fluctuating raw material prices. Moreover, import of genetically modified soya and maize must be allowed to bridge the demand-supply gap that exists. Minimum Support Charges for contract growing needs to be fixed for the poultry sector. The Government should look at bringing in policies to maintain a certain standard in feed production. The Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojna needs a 400% increase in budget allotment to reap the benefits of this sector properly. The fisheries sector has a huge potential for employment generation and giving back livelihood to reverse migrants.
What next? What are your plans for the company in terms of revenue growth, new initiatives, expansion, diversification into other categories, or any other target that you have set…
Over the years, upskilling farmers has been one of our core objectives. Training them to use modern technology for maximum output can benefit both the farmers and the country at large. With reverse migration of labourers, it will be important to create livelihood and employment for our fellow countrymen. We aim to take our revenue growth from Rs 600 crore to Rs 1000 crore by the end of 2025.We have revamped our packaging with QR code, so that usage instructions and other information about the product can easily be looked up with a scan of the QR code. We are also coming up with aqua health products to add to our product range. Digitalization of our brand is one of our priorities right now. We plan to diversify into the pet food category as well. Besides, we aim to popularize animal husbandry, especially poultry and aquaculture, in a way that even the learned youth can see the potential of the sector and join the business. We aim to create more ‘agripreneurs’ which the industry needs.
