Mumbai Woman Makes Fresh, Moong Dal, Millet, Hazelnut Laddus At Home; Sells Across India & 15+ Countries - Delivers 500+ Orders Monthly

Richa Sharma would quietly make homemade laddus and mathris for her kids in her house in Powai, Mumbai.

The aroma reached her neighbours.

And eventually, the whole of her building.

Before she knew it, she had numerous messages pouring in from her neighbourhood, from different parts of Mumbai, and eventually from across India.

“I started this food business as a very small venture. To date, I haven't marketed it using any regular digital marketing strategies. Every order that comes in is either from a repeat customer or from someone who heard about us through a recommendation,”Richa Sharma, founder of Humble Flavours, tells Startup Pedia in an exclusive interview.

Founded in 2020 and based in Powai in Mumbai, Humble Flavours is a homemade D2C brand that offers delicious and high-quality Indian sweets and snacks.

THE BACKGROUND

Native to the town of Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, Richa Sharma was born and brought up in Ajmer, Rajasthan.

In 2006, she pursued her MBA degree from the IIRM College in Jaipur.

From 2008 to 2012, she worked at SKS Microfinance (now BFIL) and handled a large team of 70+ people in Gujarat.

“My job required a lot of travel, so I eventually decided to switch paths. I joined the Parul University in Vadodara as an assistant professor. I was here from 2012 to 2016, before I shifted to Mumbai and got married,”Richa Sharma tells Startup Pedia.

It was after the birth of her second child in 2018 that something struck her: What would she do after the kids grow up and go out to live their own life?

“As a woman, you're conditioned to believe motherhood is everything. And maybe it is. I love my kids very much. But a sense of purpose is also something important. And I was looking for just that,”she says.

As a modern mother who wanted her children to have homemade goodness over artificial, processed foods from the market, Richa would spend hours cooking up healthy Indian sweets and snacks.

“From savouries like dhoklas to sweets like laddus, I was making everything. Not just my kids, my family and friends also loved the delicacies,” the small business founder shares.

In 2019, her friends suggested that she should convert her passion for cooking into a business.

Initially, Richa was unsure if people would be interested in buying traditional food items from her.

“The world is changing. You have so many new types of snacks and dishes. So I was in a self-doubt mode. But even then, I took the plunge and started Richa’s Platter in 2019,” entrepreneur Richa says.

To her pleasant surprise, people in her neighbourhood not only liked the savouries she made, but also asked her to prepare traditional sweets like laddus.

“From a weekend kitchen to preparing multiple batches of healthy atta, besan, and gluten-free laddus, my small business started flourishing. People would place orders on the society WhatsApp group and I would start preparing them from my own kitchen,”Richa smiles.

But….

The COVID-19 pandemic put everything on a pause.

Towards the end of 2020, Richa decided to revamp Richa’s Platter into a D2C healthy food brand. This was the official start of Humble Flavours.

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JOURNEY AND CHALLENGES

Richa Sharma started Humble Flavours at a time when people's immunity was on the decline and they were equally worried about it.

As a home chef, she wanted to expand her menu into more healthy Indian snacks and sweets.

“Whatever people suggested, I would add to my menu. I am very proud to say that everything sold at Humble Flavours today is a customer suggestion,” the entrepreneur adds.

Even though Richa did not engage in any kind of promotion, word-of-mouth recommendations became the backbone of her small business.

“Initially, I was only selling within my vicinity. People started sharing the food items with their relatives, who would then call me up to place their separate orders. They would request deliveries to areas such as Khar, Borivali, and Andheri. Then, eventually, people from Coimbatore, Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab reached out. That's how Humble Flavours expanded – one order at a time,” the entrepreneur notes.

In 2021, Richa's husband built the Humble Flavours website and took it live. Now, customers from all over the world could directly place an order for freshly-prepared food items in Richa's kitchen.

But the journey was not one without its fair share of challenges.

Packaging, for instance, was a whole different ballgame.

“Delivering in my vicinity was easy, the laddus never lost their shape. But when I delivered them to faraway areas like Panvel and Goregaon, they would split and lose their shape,” Richa explains.

Eventually, she shifted to an egg-like tray that has cavities for each laddu. This would be tightly covered by the box. “This idea worked out for us beautifully. The package weight had to be reduced from 500 grams to 400 grams, but at least they retained their shape even during long journeys,” small business founder Richa says.

Then, delivery delays during festivities and major occasions came up.

“They are honestly an ongoing issue and I can't do much about it. Everything I send out of Humble Flavours is freshly prepared, so I can't really cut down on the order dispatch time. DTDC has been amazing, but it comes with its own delays during festivals,”Richa explains to Startup Pedia.

HUMBLE FLAVOURS: FRESH, INDIAN, AND HEALTHY

Today, Humble Flavours operates as a D2C homemade Indian sweets and snacks brand that is made-to-order.

Operating out of the kitchen in her Mumbai house, founder and chef Richa Sharma does not keep any inventory.

“Our orders are on a day-to-day basis. We receive your order, prepare it, and dispatch it. Keeping it ready in stock is not what we do. That's how we maintain 100% homemade freshness and hygiene,”she says.

Most of the laddus are prepared in desi ghee, have a shelf life of minimum 30 days, and have zero preservatives.

The product variety at the D2C homemade Indian sweets and snacks brand is large. From whole green moong dal laddus, yellow dal laddus, and millet laddus (jowar, bajra, and ragi) laddus to vegan and sugar-free laddus, dry fruit laddus, atta gond laddus, flaxseed laddus, and hazelnut cocoa laddus, Richa prepares a large variety of healthy and delicious laddus along with her team of four women.

“We also offer a special kind of laddu for new mothers. It's the postpartum methi, sonth, and gond laddu. Very, very healthy,” she says. 

On an offline basis, Humble Flavours caters to party orders as well as small orders for savoury items like chutneys, pickles, hummus, dhokla, and gluten-free snacks.

To date, Richa's Humble Flavours has only operated from reinvesting monthly revenues into the business.

“Since all the orders, by God's grace, come in from recommendations and repeat customers, I haven't had to spend a single penny on marketing either,” the small business founder shares.

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THE UNIT ECONOMICS

Even though each type of sweet that Richa makes has a different unit economics breakup, the founder elaborated on the average:

• 50% of the amount goes into procuring ingredients and raw material 

• Another 15-20% is the labour cost

• 10% is the packaging (although online orders sent across India and the world have a slightly costlier packaging than the offline ones sent in the founder's vicinity)

• 5% of the total revenue is donated to charity Goonj

• An approximate 15-20% is the profit 

GROWTH

As a D2C homemade Indian sweets and snacks brand, Humble Flavours sends out close to 10-15 boxes of laddus every single day.

Since 2019, Richa has fulfilled more than 15,000 orders across India and 15+ countries, including the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Dubai, Germany, and Canada.

“We have at least 350 repeat customers who are very close to us and love the brand. I learnt this in business school: retaining a customer is cheaper than acquiring a new one,”the small business founder smiles.

In the initial years (2021 and 2022), Richa clocked an annual revenue varying between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1 lakh.

“At the time, I was making only atta and besan laddus. Now that the menu has expanded, so have the orders and figures,” she says.

Currently, Humble Flavours records a monthly revenue of roughly Rs 2,00,000. This figure, however, varies according to festivities, regular days, and wedding seasons.

With one child in the second grade and another in the sixth grade, Richa leads a busy life.

She wakes up at 5:30 AM, prepares breakfast and lunch boxes for her husband and kids by 7:30 AM, sees them off, works out till 8:30 AM, and then starts preparing the recent orders received at Humble Flavours.

“It is a busy life, but an extremely fulfilling one. Being able to make something fresh and healthy for people who are health-conscious is something I call a privilege. One thing I can say with absolute clarity: India's traditional food and recipes will never die. They're here to stay,” Richa Sharma signs off. 

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