According toa report by Allied Market Research, the plant based protein supplement market size was valued at US$ 4.2 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach US$ 7.0 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 6.7% from 2019 to 2026. And much of this demand is fuelled by the sports nutrition segment. Seeing the potential, Varun Khanna, a young entrepreneur and Co-Founder Fast&Up has developed the Fast&Up Terra Plant Protein (the first Made in India brand to get the Informed Sport certification). In an exclusive interview with The Organic Magazine, Varun talks about the sports nutrition segment in India, the challenges and his vision for the brand.
What is the vision behind Fast&Up? What inspired you?
The vision behind Fast& Up has always been to bring quality ingredients, efficient delivery formats along with best-in-class products to complete the nutrition needs of citizens in a manner that is easy to add to their everyday life and support them in their fitness, health & wellness journey.
Your thoughts on the Organic (plant based) sports nutrition segment in India vis a vis the global counterpart?
I think the Indian space is just evolving right now; there is a lot of awareness and keen sense of understanding from the customer. I feel the global counterpart has paved the way for the movement. Unfortunately, a problem that we see in our country is that under the guise of natural & organic, a lot brands sell sub-standard products. This is a challenge that could be detrimental for the industry in the future.
Internationally there are a lot more rules & regulations that help this category grow in an organised manner and higher levels of customer awareness helps ensure quality nutrition. We hope for the latter to increase among our Indian audience so the brands taking undue advantage of this ignorance are weeded out.
The challenges in marketing an organic nutrition product in India? Supply chain logistics?
As I said, a true and honest brand will not have a problem in convincing the Indian customer to choose natural nutrition because Indians have grown up on a rich history of Ayurveda and themselves prefer natural products. I think on the supply chain and logistics, the challenges are more on the aspects of harvesting, processing and standardisation.
As a brand, we personally faced challenges to ensure that batch after batch – the ingredients sourced are consistent in their specifications and quality. I feel this industry is still at a nascent stage where these things are not taken seriously by every vendor. That being said, we have been lucky to work with amazing partners who believe in ensuring quality markers are met in every batch – harvest after harvest. The challenge I feel with plant based nutrition is to ensure consistency even when your products are literally at the mercy of nature.
How important is it to certify your product?
Here, allow me a moment of pride because Fast&Up has always been a brand that takes the onus of quality and has been at the forefront to get voluntary certification done, whether it be the Informed Sport or Informed Choice certification for our flagship products including our Fast&Up Terra Plant Protein (a first for an Indian brand) or ensuring we source only the best ingredients that have the quality certifications such as Fast&Up Terra Organic Spirulina Plus which is made from USDA certified ingredients.
We sincerely believe in certification and understand it levies a premium, but that is something we believe is required so that our consumers only get the best quality nutrition. But in order to sustain, we need help from magazines like yours and the customers to create awareness and urge others to look for these certificates to help build this industry & product category with quality products.
Tell us about your Terra range? Is it organic? What ingredients are used and where do you source it from?
Fast&Up Terra range is a line of plant based nutrition. Most of the ingredients we use are organic. We work with vendors who are industry leaders in extracts and powders. They provide us with farm traceability and other quality checks we request them to give us. We do this to ensure that the final product has the best quality ingredients for consumption for daily health, fitness & immunity. Fast&Up Terra is inspired from nature. We work with some of the best manufacturers in the world such as the Spirulina is sourced from the only USDA certified farm in India. Our mission for Terra range of products from Fast&Up is to provide nutrition that is packed with plant power.
What is the product range under Fast&Up Terra and what are your distribution channels?
We have four products in the range of Fast&Up Terra:
Fast&Up Terra Plant Protein – Combination of brown rice & pea protein, we have the highest protein serving per scoop along with coconut MCT and beetroot extract. It is India’s first Made in India plant protein to be Informed sport certified.
Fast&Up Terra Active Greens – It has 11 superfoods in a single scoop with the best supergreens from land & sea. It includes supergrasses and algae that help to ease the digestive system, reduce acidity and help body detox naturally which in turn helps to build immunity.
Fast&Up Terra Spirulina – It is considered as the world’s healthiest superfood that helps to build iron in the body
Fast&Up Terra Curcumin – It is a combination of high potency curcumin, ginger, black pepper and zinc. It is India’s first effervescent format for curcumin that ensures easier absorption and reduced stomach distress. We have ensured to use clinically tested extracts to make a quality product to help boost immunity of people.
The products are available on all leading e-commerce platforms and our own website – www.fastandup.in and apart from that Fast&Up Terra range of products are available in select stores across India in the offline segment.
Your branding strategy?
As a brand, we have always been very honest to our customers and give facts to our customers. We focus on quality driven nutrition to our customers and we can with pride that our customers trust us because of the products we have launched. We are one the few brands in the country who strive to be original and launch only quality based products rather than copycats. Our branding strategy is focused on honest, clean and quality nutrition that is our strength.
Future vision for Fast&Up Terra?
That is a very interesting question. Fast&Up Terra for me is a very important line personally. A little background on me, I am a bio-technologist and I believe that nature has the power to heal and nurture and it is my conviction that nature can heal you in the most organic way that is long lasting. Science has made huge strides in learning how nature can heal us. It is my aim for Fast&Up Terra to grow just like its namesake – into an organic, natural nutrition brand that offer products to everyone for their daily health, fitness & wellness and giving wholesome nutrition that is packed with plant power. It is my aim to ensure Fast&Up Terra range of products be the quality standard in this blooming industry of wellness & plant based nutrition.
