Enterprise: Roligt Foods Pvt Ltd (Cocoworks)
Founder: Dr Narasimha Reddy Basani
Industry: Agriculture & Agri Products
Year it was founded: 2019
Location: Hyderabad, Telangana

The pandemic has made people more health-conscious and aware about the environment; and in times of strife, food becomes a great source of joy. Founder of Roligt Foods, Narasimha Reddy has taken these three ingredients —healthy, sustainable and fun and created a unique brand ‘Cocoworks’.

Cocoworks specialises in coconut water-based drinks. Featuring fresh ingredients, these drinks are high on the nutrition quotient, are made with on-ground sustainable practices, and they come in a variety of flavours that elevate the humble coconut water to exciting new levels of taste.

For their innovative and environment-friendly processes, Cocoworks has garnered wide recognition and they have recently won the prestigious Telangana State Industry Award in the category of ‘Best Sustainability Practices’.

We caught up with Narasimha Reddy to know more about Cocoworks and his business journey.

Tell us about your business.

We are a sustainable nutrition startup crafting high nutrition food and beverage products from all things coconut, while factoring in the creation of a circular economy and working in-line with the Sustainable Development Goals. The coconut industry is highly disorganised due to which there are multi-fold lacunae of consumer awareness of its benefits and also the ecosystem is not supportive to the farming community. We work towards creating a change in this zone.

The main challenge is consumer awareness of coconut benefits at a nascent stage, where it is considered as a summer drink or drink during sickness, whereas we want to incorporate it as wellness and lifestyle nutrition. 

How does your business differentiate itself in the industry?

We are an exclusive coconut expertise omnipresent brand working towards creating clean, honest and high nutrition products using novel food processing techniques.

What are the challenges for your business to grow bigger, better and faster from here?

The main challenge is consumer awareness of coconut benefits at a nascent stage where it is considered as a summer drink or drink during sickness vs incorporating it as wellness and lifestyle nutrition. Excess predatory food choices availability which is not supportive of visibility for clean consumer products is another challenge. As a brand we are committed to advocacy of smart consumerism, and this is the way we would handle hindrances of growth.

How has GlobalLinker helped your business?

GlobalLinker has helped in the visibility of the brand through industry outreach. We were extremely happy to win the Telangana State Industry Awards and these awards were hosted on the GlobalLinker platform.

What is your success mantra?

We aren't successful as yet with regards to the impact achievement we expect but it is work in progress!

What is the next big thing on your business agenda?

Being remembered as the most trusted honest and ethical clean nutrition as well as awareness provider in the country.

What advice would you give to a new entrepreneur?

Be adamant of the vision and to not fall for shortcuts/cornered situations. Good things and great visions take time but persistence and honesty is the key.

We would love to know the person behind the entrepreneur.

• Every day you wake up at - My day starts at 6.30am
• The first thing you do when you wake up - Have a 15-20 minute read of scientific research, documentary search.
• Three things you do to unwind - Watch enriching documentaries, meet and know about great people, spend time with my kid.
• When you face a big challenge, you - Analyse and respond
• The best piece of advice you've ever been given - Madness to do goodness demands a lot more than expected.
• The one book everyone should read - Working Backwards: Insights, Stories and Secrets from Inside Amazon.

Network with Narasimha Reddy by clicking on the 'Connect' button on his GlobalLinker profile.

Also read: Meet the ‘Home Solutionists’

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