NAPL Advisors plans to expand into Africa

Stay rooted, Stay fresh and organic!

Delhi based, Ritwik Bahuguna (31 years) along with A.P. Sinha and Ranjan Sinha, run multiple companies in partnership, working across the agribusiness value chain. An alumnus of Shri Ram College of Commerce, and University of Delhi, Bahuguna had earlier worked with renowned brands for close to six years. He was a part of the strategy team of Deloitte Consulting India and of Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services’ (IL&FS’s) agri-infrastructure team.

His entrepreneurial journey started in 2010 with ‘Roots Foundation’ working in agriculture, sports, rural development and craft. He took the full-fledged plunge in 2013-14.

The industrious and passionate entrepreneur narrated his passion, ambition and future goals in an elaborate chat with Baishali Mukherjee. Read on to know more:

The story begins

Professional career with reputed brands helped me gain understanding of policy formulation processes of India. I was part of the team assisting the Ministry of Food Processing Industries in drafting the 12th plan document. Extensive travel resulted in understanding of problems of farmers and comprehending the challenges in sourcing quality raw material. Eventually I formed a Group of Companies to address the gaps through sound business models.   

Ritwik Bahuguna

NAPL Advisors, a boutique advisory company focused on the agri-business sector, was set up in 2010. I joined as a partner in 2014. We are the only strategy consulting organization working with brands like Cremica, Haldiram’s, and ABT Industries. We have worked with the Indian government as well as with the World Bank group. 

NAPL began its journey by providing advisory services for turnkey implementation of projects like Mega Food Parks, cold chain infrastructure and large-scale integrated dairy projects. Today, NAPL is actively working with clients across numerous sectors like agriculture, food processing, warehousing (including cold chain warehousing), agro-logistics etc. in India and Africa. 

Back to Roots dham.c is one of NCR’s fastest growing milk, milk products and food products brand. It directly supplies pesticide-residue free produce to more than 1500 households. We operate through a direct home delivery model.

Agri Roots Ventures and Conifer Agro Connect are two other brands in the group umbrella. They are committed to work in the areas of pesticide-residue free farming of vegetables and spices. The company works across various Indian states in India (Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan etc.). We have completed more than 5000 acres of contract and lease farming till date.

Roots Foundation is a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. It is working in agriculture, sports, rural development and craft sectors. The foundation has presence in more than six Indian states. We are working with more than 10,000 farmers (training them on an ongoing basis on good agricultural practices), 500 school going students and multiple artisan households.

We started with an initial investment of Rs 20 lakh. All the group companies are promoted by Ranjan Sinha, A.P. Sinha and me. We have equal shareholding across all companies. We have not raised any funding for our businesses, till date. All our businesses are based on self-propelling and self-sustaining models.

Growth chart

We have grown more than 40 times over the last four years with the group’s turnover almost touching Rs 10 crore. Expecting to raise and receive funding for one-two of the group entities in the near future, We aim to grow at 30 percent per annum for the next two-three years.

Our success milestones have been feisty. We have emerged as a well-recognized Advisory Company in the advisory space. Today Back to Roots is the fastest growing milk brand in NCR. Besides, we have succeeded in becoming one of the fastest growing (in terms of quantum of work) NGOs in the agriculture space in India.

The operations

We have offices in Delhi NCR and Andhra Pradesh and have executed projects across Asia, Africa and Europe. Our team comprises more than 30 employees. We face numerous business challenges that come our way from time to time. Our strongly motivated team deftly deals with the challenges with their skills and intuitive facility.

Presently we work with more than 50 clients in advisory capacity. The company has more than 10 clients registered in farming division. Our customer base in the milk business is also robust with more than 1000 listed customers.

Future plans

We are planning to focus on our attention to detail. The target is to work on sound business principles to have an edge over competition.

We are working towards expanding all our businesses at 30 per cent per annum for the next two-three years and open offices in more locations in India. We also have plans to expand into Africa.

Do you think a ‘home-delivery’ model for milk-based business is a viable option? Do share your views.