Q1. Tell us about your company.
Established in the year 2000, Netsurf, is one of the leading direct selling companies in India with a consumer base of more than 2 million and a turnover of USD 23 million. Every year Netsurf adds more than 100,000 new direct sellers. Most of these direct sellers choose “Netsurf” as full time career. Netsurf offers around 49 Natural & Herbal products across 4 distinct categories i.e. Health Care, Personal Care, Home Care and Agriculture. These products are also associated with a unique business opportunity that has transformed the lives of many people in India.
Netsurf is redefining Indian direct selling business through its distinct business opportunity, exclusive products, systems and processes.
Q2. Which products of yours are currently in the market?
We have 49 products in the market currently that are exclusively sold only by our direct sellers. These products are divided into 4 different ranges. The details are as mentioned below-
Total No of products: 49
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Health Care:
11 products
Contribution to Turnover 40%
Right nutrition is the key to maintain good health. Hence, after an extensive R&D, we created Naturamore Nutritional Food Supplements (4 products), Naturamore Dietary Supplements (5 products) and Naturamore Proprietary Ayurvedic Medicines (2 products). Today, Naturamore is the choice of more than 3.5 lac families.
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Personal Care:
30 Products (including Professional range)
Contribution to Turnover 17%
Herbs & More products are divided into three ranges bases on their purpose for consumption for you- Vitamin Therapy (18 products) contains exclusive herbs and fruit extracts for radiantly beautiful skin and strong, healthy hair; Vitamin Therapy PROFESSIONAL (7 products) that assist the beauty professionals to fetch good results for their customers; and Ayurveda (5 products) for those skin concerns that need an ancient way of cure. So far 6.5 million units of personal care products have been sold to 250,000 families.
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Agriculture:
7 products
Contribution to Turnover 42%
Biofit is a truly holistic range of products that consists of 2 plant growth promoters, 2 cattle care products, 2 adjuvants and 1 bio pesticide. These organic products help to increase the productivity of the soil, improve the crops quality and resultantly, increase the quality as well as quantity of yield leading to greater profitability from the yields. Today, more than 20 lac farmers across India trust Biofit’s organic farming.
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Home Care:
1 Product
Contribution to Turnover 1%
Our home care brand- Clean & More introduces in a new concept of ‘natural cleaning’ in India. Clean & More Easy Fabric Wash, the only product in this range, is an organic, bio-catalyst based, free from synthetic chemicals, free from residuals and skin friendly laundry product. So it is completely safe for your entire family- even for the kids! And of course, it is best at its basics i.e. cleaning clothes. Let your clothes feel soft & young and let your skin smile underneath them! It is a newly launched range and is gradually picking up the market.
Q3. What are the challenges that you have faced for setting up this company?
2001 was the year of inception and we started with a base of 80 direct sellers to sell organic farming products. Initial months were little tough but our company’s strength lies in the team so the determination of Netsurf Team and our direct seller resulted into something amazing and within 3 years we had 15,000 direct sellers & consumers.
Then we came up with a new range of health care products so that our direct sellers could cater to a wider audience.
From 2005 to 2010 our major focus was on empowering our direct sellers on professional as well as personal fronts. Hence we came up with a well-designed training program and reward & recognition system.
To strengthen the network and induce loyalty we also introduced a Family protection plan that includes mediclaim insurance, personal accidental insurance, life insurance and loyalty bonus for our direct sellers.
So I would say that initial years were the formative years that challenged us positively and made us what we are. From there onwards, we are just putting efforts to make ourselves better every day in all fronts let it be product development, supply chain, technology or customer service.
Q4. What are your future plans for the company?
We have certain plans in mind for next few years. I think these initiatives will boost our business further from all perspectives-
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Sikkim plant: Looking at the increasing potential of our personal care products we are already in the process of coming up with a manufacturing plant in Sikkim. To have a plant in Sikkim was a well thought decision as we wanted the natural ingredients in their best form available.
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IPO in 5 years: Netsurf plans to launch its IPO in next 5 years.
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Netsurf targets US farm Sector in FY ‘2017-2018’: We also have the plans to enter in US market by roping in Launch Smart, a US-based consultant in multi-level marketing.
Q5. What is the market of dietary supplements in India?
India is reforming itself in multiple ways. With the greater amount urbanization across regions is coming a more explicitly busy lifestyle. And such lifestyle demands more dietary supplements that enable the people to cope up and perform to their potential in the given life scenario.
According to a report by Euromonitor International, ‘Consumption of vitamins and dietary supplements registered value growth of 13% in 2016. The growth was driven by the increased acceptance of vitamins amongst urban consumers and doctors’ focus on improving immunity and disease resistance. Furthermore, hectic lifestyles combined with rising disposable incomes, further drove sales of vitamin and dietary supplements in 2016.’
The market size of vitamins and dietary supplements growth will be purely driven by urban-based consumers, who are aware of their nutritional deficits brought about by their fast-paced lifestyles. In order to improve this, these consumers are expected to self-medicate with vitamins and dietary supplements.
Q6. Tell us about any new product that you have launched.
We have recently launched 2 new products under our Health & Wellness brand Naturamore. Their need and details are as mentioned below-
Naturamore Easy Detox: A Proprietary Ayurvedic Medicine, that gently detoxifies human digestive system and helps to cure related issues like hyper acidity, constipation, intestinal gases and eating disorder, etc. It contains essential herbs & generic Ayurvedic preparations that are best at this process. It also improves the absorption of nutrients in the food consumed.
Naturamore Pro-Grams: Naturamore Pro- Grams, an Ayurvedic Proprietary Medicine, contains exclusive Ayurvedic herbs that help in effective weight management by naturally controlling hunger while fulfilling the nutritional requirements of body.