One of the world’s largest spice producers, Synthite, has set sights on becoming a global nutraceutical consumer brand, with its market expansion plans gathering pace.
The Kerala-headquartered conglomerate also owns a chocolate business known as Paul and Mike and a real estate business known as Synthite Realty.
Its nutraceutical brand, known as NatXtra – which means “natural extract”, introduced four new products last month, including Ginger for Digestive Wellness, Green Tea for Slim and Detox, Brahmi for Memory Enhancing, and CoQ10 for Fertility Enhancing.
This has increased the company’s existing nutra product offerings to eight. At the moment, the company sells its nutraceutical products in the domestic Indian market as well as overseas in Dubai. Of which, its blood sugar level control product, Gymne Mag D and Ashwagandha DSTR for strength, stamina, stress relief, and mental wellbeing are its bestsellers in both India and Dubai. Gymne Mag D contains Gymnema Sylvestre extract, magnesium, and vitamin D3.
As with other products from the brand, the capsule product is vegan and manufactured in a USFDA-registered facility. Speaking to media, Mathew K. Samuel, global business head at NatXtra – Synthite Industries, said that sales have been growing by 25 to 30 per cent each month since the brand was launched about two years ago in India.
Enjoying a strong partnership with retail distributor, most of its sales came from its presence in over 15,000 offline supermarket chains and pharmacies.
The range is also available online in Amazon, Flipkart, 1mg, Netmeds, and PharmEasy, etc. Most of the consumers are 35 years old and above.
In Dubai, the company has partnered supermarket chain Lulu Group in introducing NatXtra into the market. Dubai is viewed as the gateway to other major markets. Samuel said that the ultimate goal was to grow NatXtra into a global brand.
The company wants to develop NatXtra into a global supplement brand. So, our step number one is to get the brand into India and distribute it across India.
It is present across all online platforms in India and we also have a very strong retail distribution in India. We are present in the big supermarkets across the country. As part of the expansion plans, the company has already signed distribution agreements for Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, the US, and Canada.
The Middle East is a very strong developing market, and the consumption of these products is very high in countries like Saudi Arabia or UAE and consumer awareness of these kinds of products is strong.
The company is searching for distribution partners in Asia-Pacific, especially south East Asia, the Oceania, and East Asia. Similarly, the strategy is to enter both offline and online in these overseas markets.
The brand is intending to increase its product SKUs to 15 by June. One of the new launches will be a product known as “cap and cap”. It is a capsule-in-a-capsule product containing both black cumin and curcumin. Such a design will help increase the effectiveness of the product by protecting the ingredients against stomach acid, Samuel explained. Other upcoming new products will contain giloy, liquorice, and garcina.