Navnoor Kaur, a 27-year-old from Ludhiana, has transformed the jaggery market in India by introducing a brand that enables people to make the transition to healthier alternatives effortlessly. Jagger Cane, the brand she created, is made by collaborating with farmers of Punjab to ensure a sustainable supply chain and healthy jaggery. The venture is innovative in every sense of the word, and its roots can be traced back to the time when Navnoor shifted from refined sugar to jaggery.
The Beginning
Pursuing a Dream amidst a Busy Life
While pursuing an MBA in marketing from IIM Ghaziabad, Navnoor's family switched to jaggery as a healthier alternative to refined sugar. She then decided to create a brand out of jaggery that would enable people to make the transition effortlessly.
However, the idea had to be put on hold due to Navnoor’s busy life. She worked as a sales professional in the corporate sector while pursuing a side hustle in the F&B space. Nonetheless, the thought of creating a brand out of jaggery persisted, and she continued to work on it.
The Challenges
Navnoor realized that jaggery was sold loose in the market, and there were no proper innovations or brands in the space. To create a brand out of jaggery, she started experimenting with recipes in her home kitchen to shortlist products that could be positioned under her brand.
The next challenge was finding a hygienic facility to scale up production. She searched for a while until she met Kaushal Singh, an MBA in Agriculture, who had an established manufacturing space that was hygienic and fit for scaling up production.
Singh had once been passionate about building a jaggery brand himself but gave up due to low market demand and poor outcomes. They decided to team up and spearhead Jagger Cane.
Sampling the Market
Their first aim was to come up with good products and get the pulse of the market for their products. They set up sampling stalls in Ludhiana in 2020 to gauge customer opinions and views. They wanted to let people taste their products before deciding to buy them. They were thrilled when their products began getting a lot of love, with the coconut jaggery crumb being a popular hit.
Launching Jagger Cane
In 2021, Navnoor quit her job as a sales professional, and Jagger Cane was formally launched. The brand gained momentum in 2022, with an annual turnover of Rs 2 crore to date. Navnoor calls the journey innovative in every sense of the word.
Solving Problems
Root Cause Analysis
Through their research, Navnoor and Singh understood that the primary concern people had about jaggery was that it tends to go bad quickly due to its quality of soaking up moisture quickly. This was a problem they aimed to solve, especially as they looked to start exporting the product.
They started by working on the biochemistry of sugar and contacted the Punjab Agricultural University for help in determining pH levels and soil testing.
Solution
The pH must be around 5.7 to 6.2, and farmers were not well informed about the parameters when to harvest, and soil quality. Navnoor and Singh were able to fix the pH level problem, ensuring that the product remains fresh for a more extended period. Jagger Cane prides itself on being a brand that offers healthy jaggery with nuts and seeds, a product that captures customers' eyes and hearts.
With the aim to become a household name in India and beyond, Jagger Cane is planning to expand its product range and distribution channels. Navnoor says, “We are currently working on developing new products that incorporate jaggery, and we plan to introduce them soon. We are also exploring new distribution channels to reach more customers.”
The journey of Jagger Cane is a testament to the power of innovation and perseverance. Navnoor and Kaushal have successfully transformed a traditional product like jaggery into a modern and trendy one. With their commitment to quality and sustainability, Jagger Cane has the potential to become a leading brand in the jaggery market.
