Organic Harvest To Raise Around $15-18 Million By June

Personal care brand Organic Harvest plans to raise around $15-18 million by the end of June 2017 to fund its expansion.

Organic Harvest has completed four years in business and seen an average annual revenue growth of 100-150 per cent per year. The group posted a revenue of 25 crores in 2016.

Rahul Agarwal, founder of Organic Harvest, said, "Any FMCG business growth happens through distribution. We have reached a situation where we are available across India in major cities and now expanding to tier II and II cities."

Organic Harvest launched its products in the UAE recently and getting a good response despite the market being highly competitive. It is set to enter the Saudi Arabia market followed by Malaysia and Singapore.

Around December 2016 the company was about to raise $8-10 million, but the deal got postponed due to demonetisation. Now it plans to raise around $15-18 million by the end of June 2017.

Organic Harvest is coming up an advertising campaign with a focus on non-metro cities and eastern states. The company has earmarked Rs 5 crores for the three-month campaign.

Agarwal said the company will give priority to digital media and popular entertainment TV channels in its advertising campaign.

"We will not go for print as it's a declining medium. I feel digital will give us a better return on investment," he said.

Agarwal feels that beauty care brands like Kama and Bodyshop are only their perceived competitors and not real business rivals.

"It is challenging to make the customer understand how Organic Harvest is different from other products. Customers consider natural, herbal and organic product in the same category," he said.

In order to overcome this challenge, the group has employed trained staff to help customers understand the difference between organic, herbal, natural and synthetic products.

The group has 11 exclusive brand outlets and plans to expand it to 18 this year.
Agarwal said less than 1% of the company's sales come from e-commerce. The company's current share in the organic personal care market is 12-15% and the aim is to grow it to 22% by next year, he said.

Organic Harvest exports 20 per cent of its products while 80 per cent of output is sold in the domestic market.