Direct seller Modicare enters F&B sector with own tea

Direct selling company Modicare Ltd has entered the food & beverage market with the launch of a tea brand called ‘Fruit of the Earth. The Rs 100 crore company plans to promote the tea — a blend of cut, tear, curl (CTC), as well as Assam leaves — as its core line product.

Modicare, which registered an annual growth of over 30 per cent this financial year, believes tea in particular is a very lucrative business for a direct selling company, despite the competition from players like Hindustan Unilever and Tata Tea.

K K Modi, Chairman, said: “The bigger players in the over-the-counter market are definitely our biggest competition, but since we are a direct marketing company, this phase will soon fade out, as our tea will be only in a limited supply and only available to the members of our network. So, there is just competition in the initial phase.”

The company says, given India’s high consumption of tea, it aims at having 10 per cent of its revenues coming from this segment once all its varieties are launched. These include Jasmine tea, organic tea and flavoured tea like mango, orange and peach, among others. The pricing, Modicare said will be a little higher than the market rate; it plans to price at Rs 99 for a 225 g pack, on an average.

Another product in its fod and beverage segment is the ‘ginseng’ root powder tablet, which will come in 20-30 varieties and will be marketed as an energy booster, which can be added to beverages. Apart from this, the company plans to launch a line of fruit concentrates this year, which will be promoted in the premium segment with a protein-based children’s supplement.

Modicare has 34 centres across the country that supply products to 2,600 cities.