Nascens Enterprise has entered the partnership to “deepen our reach to potential business customers as Metro allows us to market to small-time retailers with their vast customer base,” said Neeraj Thakur, its vice-president.
The move, the company’s first major partnership with an international retail brand in the local market, is part of Nascens’s urban markets expansion strategy. It hopes to deepen the partnership in the future by widening the range of products available, which also includes personal care goods.
A start-up targeting middle-class Indians, Nascens operates in the specialty tea and wellness segment, which has been witnessing growth at an annualised rate of more than 20% over the past three years—two-and-a-half times India’s nominal GDP growth, compared to the overall FMCG market, which has been growing roughly in tandem with the wider economy.
“We work hard to ensure that a new generation of tea snobs will realise there’s plenty of variety when it comes to world’s favourite tipple – and start drinking our teas more regularly,” Pankaj Sharma, Nascens’s director.