Get Bendy and Healthy with these Yoga Bars from the Kumar sisters!

No they aren’t going to help you try out complicated asanas but they will definitely give you enough energy for it! That’s the idea these sisters had back in 2014 after a particularly gruelling hike.

How it all started:

In August 2014, Suhasini and Anindita were working in New York – Anindita at Ernst & Young and Suhasini was in the middle of an exchange programme at Wharton Business School. Suhasini would regularly travel between Philadelphia, where she studied, and New York, where she lived. “My sister would give me these energy bars, which were very filling for the journey,” says Suhasini. They gained experience in New York, where the market for on-the-go energy bars are wide and diverse and decided to put this knowledge for a business in India where the market was way smaller.

The Seed for Yoga Bars:

They came back to India and received funding from their eldest sister, Aarti. After this there was no stopping the dynamic duo. They reached out to various people for insights and feedback.

 “Everyone was really helpful; the first recipe we received was a person we wrote to on LinkedIn,” says Suhasini.

She goes on to say,

“In India, there is a lot of encouragement and support to carry out a great business idea, whether it was getting the products right or setting up the initial team. We got our grants for setting up the manufacturing facility by the government very easily. Vijaya Bank approved our loan on the basis of the grant taken in from the government. So the government basically acted as our guarantor.”

The guidelines:

The sisters then got around to thinking what makes their bar different from the rest. What do we provide in our snack bar?

After much discussion, they settled on:

It would be an all-natural product with no artificial flavours or ingredients in it.

It will always be affordable.

It will always be as tasty as possible, using natural Indian ingredients.

All the ingredients for the Yoga Bars are sourced from different parts of the country. For example, if a state is famous for cardamom or any special ingredient, they’re only procured from that region.

Suhasini adds that, unlike other players in the market like RiteBite and Nature’s Value, they do not add corn starch, additives or added vitamins. However, this means the shelf life of the bars is only three months. It brings in a lot of retail returns, and the sisters are willing to take the chance to avoid compromising on natural product ingredients.

Who is a Yoga Bar for:

Yoga bar aims to reach a market age of 25 to 35 year olds. Basically, those who lead a reasonably active life and busy lifestyle and are a little concerned about their healthy. Well that would be us! Sign us on for these magic bars!

Where do you get Yoga Bars:

Currently, Yoga Bars are available at a few retail outlets in Bengaluru like HealthKart, BigBasket, Godrej and Namdhari’s. They are also available at big corporate offices like Google, LinkedIn and InMobi.

“When we started in August, we were selling 2,000 bars. Now, we clock on an average of 20,000 to 30,000 bars in the Bengaluru market. Of this, 30 to 40 per cent is online, through our website, and 60 per cent is through offline retail markets.”, explains Suhasini

Yoga Bars team plans to make a change to the current design. They do love it but would like to add an extra touch to embody everything that Yoga Bar stands for: energy, calm, taste, love and good health! “We want to add all these when the actual store rolls out later in July this year. We want a complete branding solution. By then, we also plan to be available across all stores,” says Suhasini.