Stress Hurting Love Life? Kalories Nutra’S Chocolates Promise To Rekindle Romance

Lifestyle issues, and stress are affecting the intimacy between couples. That is the reason that Hyderabad-based Kalories Nutra Solutions has introduced intimacy chocolates that will facilitate intimacy between couples. The company has also launched a sports nutrition product ‘Spark’. Both these products are plant-based and don’t have any side-effects. In a conversation with the Bizz Buzz, Rakesh Gandla, CEO and Co-founder; Ravikanth Palapati, COO and Co-founder of Kalories Nutra Solutions said that the company is witnessing encouraging adoption among consumers for its products. Currently, its products are distributed through both online and offline channels. The company has appointed a super stockist for pan India distribution apart from strengthening its distribution network in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, & Karnataka. The company is also going to introduce two vitamin C&D products in chocolate forms in the near future, for which it is currently undertaking the testing. It has raised around Rs 40 lakh from an angel investor. Both co-founders said it may not raise capital in the near future as all purchase orders are coming against 100 per cent advance money, which will take care of its working capital needs

Can you provide a brief overview about the operations of Kalories Nutra Solutions? What is the motivation behind starting Kalories?

Rakesh Gandla (RG): We started the company in 2023. Predominantly, the motivation behind setting up the company is to create healthy lifestyle product in the market, which can fill the gap for couples. What we have understood in the post Covid period, is that when the couples, who are both working professionals, they don’t find time for each other. Factors like issues of work pressure, heavy travel for work on day to day basis, and other lifestyle issues are affecting the intimacy between couples. Moreover, changing food patterns is also affecting health. That is the reason that couples are not able to get satisfaction in their intimacy.

That is the reason that we launched our chocolate that facilitates intimacy. Apart from our intimacy product, we also have another product called ‘Spark, which is a sports nutrition. We have done the research with regard to this space and found that there is a gap in form of a chocolate in India. Though there are products, which are capsules, those are pharmacy-based and chemical compositions are used, which have side-effects. In comparison, our products don’t have any side-effects.

We have also extensively tested our products. Initially, when we tested our product, we didn’t get desire level of hormone activation within couples after consuming our product. Then, we went back to the R&D team again and improved our product. When the new version was tested in couples, we got desired results. The best part of our product is that there are no different chocolates for men and women. The same intimacy chocolate is meant for both male and female. But, we got the feedback that couples participated in the test didn’t like the taste profile of the chocolate. Also, we got feedback from diabetic people about the sweet level of the product. Again, we went back to the R&D team and replaced sugar with jaggery. After this replacement, the taste profile has improved and the adoption became higher. As you can see, we have tested our products in more than 50 couples in various stages of product development.

How is the adoption level of your product since its launch? What are the sales channels? Can you throw some light in this aspect?

RG: The product has been in the market for around four months now. We have seen increasing adoption among users. As far as distribution is concerned, we are on a hybrid mode now. Our products are available both online and also in offline stores. We also have D2C brand website in which we sell our product. We also sell in Amazon. Apart from that, our product is available in local medicine and pharma stores in Hyderabad. We have onboarded a super stockist from New Delhi for pan India distribution. Our product will be soon available in retail stores across the country from September and October this year.

Can you give some view on your manufacturing strategy? Are you doing contract manufacturing now?

Ravikanth Palapati (RP): Yes, we are tied up with a contract manufacturer in Hyderabad. It has extensive experience in manufacturing bars. We are procuring beans and directly making the chocolates here. As mentioned earlier, we are not using any sugar in this product. Instead, we are using jaggery. The best part is the shelf life of the product is 12 months in ambient temperature. All are plant-based extract that are used in the chocolate. There are no chemicals used in the chocolate. We have all the test reports by the authorised regulatory agencies. It’s also a melt-free chocolate. We also have food technologist team of six people, who support us in the quality control aspects.

Have you filed for patent for your product?

RP: Yes, we have filed for patent of our product in India. We have filed the patent in terms of composition of our product. We have also taken industrial design patent for our design in the product. We have also taken the trademark. So, no one can take our formulation, or chocolate shape or packaging design.

You have recently raised around Rs 40 lakh from investors. Was it from a clutch of investors? Was it an angel funding round?

RG: It’s one investor, who has infused the capital. We have raised funds from friends and family to start operations. We have got the capital from the angel investor before our product launch. Based on our R&D and documentation, the angel investor has infused capital, which shows the confidence in our product.

RP: As we have already appointed a super stockist for pan India distribution along with super stockists in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana & Karnataka, that will care of our working capital. Because all the production happens with 100 per cent advance amount. Every purchase order comes with 100 per cent advance after which production happens. In that way, we take care of the working capital portion. As far as team size is concerned, we are a team of eight people now. We have tied up with various agencies for different services.

Are you working on introducing any new product in the near future?

RG: Yes, we are working on introducing new products. We have already ventured into sports nutrition. We are also working on introducing two new chocolates, which have vitamin- C and Vitamin D composition. We see Vitamin D deficiency as the most prevalent in the country. We have already completed the first phase of testing. We want to change the taste profile of these vitamin C&D products. Apart from these, we are doing R&D on four new products. These vitamin C&D products will be introduced in the chocolate formats, which can be consumed by all age groups.