Founded in 2009 by Sanjeev Kapoor and Ravi Saxena, Wonderchef is a popular cookware, kitchen appliances and bakeware brand that features over 600 products in its portfolio and serves a huge customer base.
Ravi Saxena, MD and Co-founder, Wonderchef tells YourStory that while the pandemic and the lockdown has been disastrous for several industries, Wonderchef has benefited from it. Their target market is premium as they make premium products, thus, during the lockdown, many of their customers entered the kitchen for the first time with a wish to upgrade their entire kitchen.
He adds that cookware and prep-tools categories came into the spotlight. Apart from that, a lot of people, especially the millennials, started taking interest in baking which gave a push to the bakeware category.
“In many ways, the pandemic didn’t turn out to be much of a challenge for us thankfully, and we actually grew,” says Ravi.
The cookware brand has recently raised Rs 150 crore from Sixth Sense Ventures. The funds would be utilised by the brand to take it to the next level in terms of the D2C journey, he shares. Wonderchef as a brand is very young as compared to other players in the market – which is a challenge as well as an opportunity as they can work quickly and are more flexible.
The brand has also started its journey in the digital realm, and about 45 percent of its sales today come through the digital medium.
“The digital journey is allowing us to reach out to the nooks and corners of India. Today, we distribute our products across 25,000 pin codes in India, reaching thousands of cities and towns,” says Ravi.
The brand is also planning to leverage its credibility and come out of the kitchen and expand into newer categories and products.
He shares that this year, the festive season has been quite good for the brand, but last year was better because of the pent-up demand after the lockdown. “The challenge now is to keep that momentum going for the rest of the financial year,” says Ravi.
Wonderchef is now launching new categories to drive more traction. Additionally, the brand is also expanding on its offline distribution front. Apart from that, modern trade is coming back quite strongly and Wonderchef wants to be on the top for the revival.
“Currently we operate out of 10,000 odd retail outlets and we want to take that number to 20,000 outlets in the next one year,” says Ravi.
Lastly, Ravi concludes by saying that the brand is expecting a 50 percent increase in revenue this year and is hoping to touch Rs 425 crore in revenue. Going forward, the brand’s dream is to become a thousand crore company in the next four years.
