WOW Laddus plans more production units

City-based food start-up firm WOW Laddus Pvt. Ltd., which makes and sells nutritious laddus, is in talks with venture capitalists to raise $2 million to meet its expansion goals, said a top executive.

“Currently, we have production centres in four cities to make 10,000 laddus per day,” said co-founder and MD Murali Cherat. “Our aim is to set up operations across the global and ramp up our production to 84,000 laddus per day over the next four years.”

The start-up is a year-old and earned revenue of ₹1 crore, of which 60% came from exports.

120 variants in pipeline

The promoters have pumped in ₹10 crore so far and are seeking an infusion of $2 million to fund expenditure for the next 20 months. In that time, production capacity would have increased to 42,000 laddus a day for 25 days in a month and annual revenue to ₹50 crore, he said. “The next step is to double the revenue in four years’ time.”“Our laddus are being sold online (through Amazon) and speciality stores. Next in line will be the roll out of vending machines to be installed at airports, corporate offices and in important places...” he said.

The firm produces four variants of dry-fruit laddus. It is planning to make more variants to appeal to people across countries and age groups.

“We have an R&D centre in North Carolina to produce different variants. We have short-listed about 120 varieties,” he said.

Asked if the firm would find it difficult to sell laddus among calorie-conscious consumers, he said the laddus had no preservatives and were made of natural ingredients.

In India, the firm sells the sweets through 500 outlets in seven States and this would be increased to 2,500 outlets across the country.

“The machines are made by us. Capacity is not a constraint. We will set up production centres across the globe, and our aim is to hit $1 billion mark in revenue,” he said.