Health supplements startup Fitday to launch 50 stores by 2023

Hyderabad-based health supplements startup Fitday on Sunday announced plans to launch 50 brick-and-mortar stores by 2023 across India with an investment of Rs 60 crore, riding on a surge in health consciousness among the population as the coronavirus pandemic rages on.

The omni-channel startup sells vitamins, minerals, immunity boosters, sports nutrition products and Ayurvedic herbs through its three physical stores in Hyderabad and its website. Its parent firm Genomelabs manufactures the supplements, while Fitday also sells other brands like Isopure, Nestle and Optimum Nutrition.

"The food systems in many countries do not offer adequate nutrient outputs to fulfill health and nutritional needs. Nearly half of the world's population is malnourished. Micronutrient malnutrition also referred to as 'hidden hunger' now afflicts more than 40% of the world's population," said founder Suresh Raju.

He said Fitday's focus is to make nutrition an equitable right with both products and services. Raju said every store has a nutritionist and Body Mass Index (BMI) machines.

The expansion plan comes at a time when the pandemic has wrecked offline businesses across sectors due to high operational costs amid falling footfalls, with the convenience and safety of ordering online taking over.  

 "We have done exceedingly well in the market since our inception and have had good traction on both online and offline platforms. Hence, we have made this conscious decision to expand our stores. We expect to double our revenue from our e-commerce platform. We have decided to run both avenues parallelly to reach more people," Raju told BusinessToday.In.

The startup launched in April 2020 is funded by its parent Genomelabs. Fitday claims it made Rs 3 crore in the last financial year from the sales of Genomelabs products alone.

The health supplement business space is growing in India with a study by Assocham and RNCOS estimating that it could reach $8.5 billion by 2022 from $2.8 billion in 2015.  

Several brands like TrueBasics, HealthKart, Wow Life Science, HealthVit, Himalaya, Inlife, and Biotrex have forayed into this space, both online and offline. Food delivering app Zomato has also announced its own functional food products line which will be available on its app.  

Last month, plant-based nutrition brand Oziva roped in Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone as its ambassador. Last year, Melbourne's Swisse launched its wellness products in India.

Also read: Nutrition brand OZiva raises $12 million in Series B funding

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