Kanchan Achpal, Chief Marketing Officer of Smoor Chocolates elaborates on the brand’s ambitions, expansion strategies, and more
Bengaluru: The perception of chocolate in India has undergone a major transformation over the years. Earlier, when it came to premium chocolates foreign brands dominated people’s minds. Today, Indian brands are stepping up with authentic product ranges, sharing shelf space with the likes of Ferrero Rocher and Toblerone.
Smoor Chocolates was established to deliver genuine chocolate experiences to consumers. Initially launched as Bliss Chocolates by Vimal Sharma, the luxury chocolate brand underwent a rebranding in 2015 to become Smoor Chocolates.
Currently, the Bengaluru-based company operates 80 stores across Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, and Chennai. Out of these, 40 are physical formats, while the remaining 40 are cloud kitchens (also known as dark kitchens) that handle all online deliveries.
With its presence in online marketplaces, the brand’s merchandise is available in over 80,000 pin codes across India.
In an exclusive interview with IndiaRetailing, Kanchan Achpal, Chief Marketing Officer of Smoor Chocolates elaborates on the brand’s ambitions, expansion strategies, and more.
Edited excerpts…
What led to the transformation from Bliss to Smoor?
Bliss Chocolates was founded in 2008 to introduce the Indian market to the taste of authentic chocolates. The founders chose Bengaluru for its cosmopolitan vibe and crowd and opened the first outlet at Whitefield. The store featured a traditional, understated identity with subtle packaging that lacked vibrancy.
Between 2008 and 2015, efforts were made to educate customers about the difference between compound chocolate and couverture chocolate. Compound chocolate, made with vegetable fat, is vastly different from couverture chocolate, which contains a higher cocoa butter content. The latter is considered real chocolate and offers better health benefits, especially darker variants. During this period, Bliss also catered to corporate gifting needs during festivals like Diwali and Christmas.
By 2015, the need for rebranding arose to inject freshness into the brand and it led to the birth of Smoor. Along with launching the flagship store, the brand underwent a complete transformation. Colours like turquoise, burgundy, blue, green, yellow, and orange replaced the earlier subdued tones of brown and gold.
What are the current sales channels of Smoor?
In the beginning, our focus was primarily on offline retail because we wanted our customers to visit our good-looking stores and experience the product. Whether it was savouring a cup of hot chocolate or coffee, having a meal, or selecting a gift hamper, our goal was to create a welcoming lounge atmosphere.
We opened our first offline stand-alone store in Indiranagar in 2016, which features an outdoor area, a private section at the back for special events, a main space showcasing our range and a gifting section where customers can create their own hampers.
However, post-Covid, we shifted our efforts to strengthen our online presence. This included ramping up deliveries through platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, and Myntra, food aggregators like Swiggy and Zomato, as well as enhancing our own D2C website.
Recently, we have also launched our products on quick-commerce platforms like BlinkIt and Zepto.
Has Smoor received any funding since its launch?
At the time of inception, it was not about external funding in the traditional sense but rather individual investors who contributed to the brand. These investors acted more as silent partners, while the business operations were entirely led by our founder-director, Sharma, who has been with the brand since its inception.
In 2022, foodtech company Rebel Foods invested in the company and acquired a majority stake. Over the past two years, we have been strengthened by its support.
What is Smoor’s online v/s offline sales ratio?
Approximately 60% to 65% of our sales come from offline channels, while around 40% to 35% comes from online sales, which includes e-commerce and quick-commerce platforms, as well as our D2C marketplace.
How do you balance in-store and delivery business?
Currently, our deliveries are handled through a combination of third-party logistics (3PL) providers like Porter and Dunzo. However, we also have a strong in-house delivery team.
Our customers often require a more personalised service and our in-house fleet is trained to handle these special cases. This is especially crucial during peak seasons like Diwali and Christmas when we deliver gifts to high-net-worth individuals (HNIs) or large orders, such as when a CEO sends gifts to their entire office of 50-100 people.
What is the number of stock-keeping-units (SKUs) Smoor has?
Our main product categories include chocolates, cakes, pastries, macarons, breads, cookies, and baklava. Under each category, we typically offer around 40-50 SKUs. Thus, in total, we have more than 300 SKUs across these main categories.
Some SKUs remain consistent year-round, while many are seasonal and vary depending on demand and the time of year. We introduce seasonal products throughout the year, such as strawberry desserts during the strawberry season, mango-based products in April and May, and plum cakes and gingerbread cookies in December.
Any plans for new product categories?
Yes. We are really focused on developing a product range that leans more towards the health-conscious side, something we have never done before. This includes offering vegan chocolates, sugar-free options, or products with reduced sugar content, to cater to the growing number of people interested in healthy eating. Therefore, 2025 will be dedicated to launching these kinds of products, as we don’t want to miss out on this market.
How many store formats does Smoor have?
Smoor operates a mix of three store formats.
The first is a larger lounge format, offering an extensive menu that includes continental as well as Asian, snacks, and desserts, alongside chocolates.
The second format is a smaller café, with limited seating and a more concise menu due to the smaller kitchen size, offering items like coffee, hot chocolate, and sandwiches.
The third format is kiosks, typically found in high-traffic areas like malls and airports, where customers can quickly pick up items like pastries or gifts without sitting down. The menu is designed for grab-and-go purchases, ideal for people on the move.
Across India, which region is witnessing the highest demand?
When looking at our website, we notice significant demand from tier-2 cities where people are eager to spend but do not have offline access to brands like ours. During gifting seasons like Diwali, we see a surge in orders from smaller cities like Lucknow, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Goa and other cities where we only have an online presence.
Among the five cities we operate offline, Mumbai shows great potential for us. Initially, people in Mumbai were unfamiliar with our brand, but last year we focused more on marketing, organising events and partnering with OTT platforms and award shows in the city. As a result, we are receiving a lot of corporate gifting inquiries from Mumbai.
What are your offline expansion plans?
We are considering expanding into certain cities, with Delhi being a key focus due to a strong demand for our products. Our corporate team in Delhi often receives feedback that there’s a need for a large store, and we take such customer inputs seriously. Similarly, Hyderabad is also on our radar.
We plan to open about three to four large lounge stores, and 15 to 20 cafes and kiosks over the next two years. Tier-2 cities like Lucknow and Chandigarh are our target, though we will start with smaller formats to test the market. So, we are looking at around 20 stores in total.
Are there any challenges the brand is facing now?
Ensuring customers are exposed to new product ranges and an improved online delivery experience are constant priorities for us. However, these areas are not without challenges.
For instance, our products are sensitive to travel and temperature variations, and if any item does not arrive in pristine condition, it can ruin the entire customer experience. We invest huge effort in creating a seamless delivery process to tackle this and make sure that deliveries are made within a three to four-day window.
Another major challenge last year was the sharp surge in chocolate prices, which nearly doubled at one point. As chocolate is our core ingredient, this directly impacted our costs. Though we had to adjust our pricing, we did so conservatively, and customers have been understanding of this situation, recognising it as a shared global issue.
Competition also plays a dual role—it keeps us motivated to improve while highlighting the challenge of maintaining quality while justifying premium pricing. Educating customers about the value behind our pricing is ongoing, but their trust to indulge in our products affirms our efforts.
Any plans to go global?
Maybe much later, but not in the immediate future. For now, we are focused on strengthening our presence and operations within the country.
However, the demand from abroad is evident, especially during festivals, when we receive numerous requests from people living overseas to deliver locally to their friends and family. Once we have established our roots domestically and achieved our goals here, we may explore the international market as our next step.
How was 2024 for the brand?
The year was fantastic for us, particularly during October, November, and December, which are pivotal months for driving revenue growth. We are optimistic about 2025 and determined to achieve even greater milestones in the coming year.
Top priorities for 2025?
Primarily, we are focusing on developing a menu with a strong emphasis on health, backed by extensive research and development (R&D) to create many options for customers.
Secondly, we are tapping into the potential of the beverage market by introducing a range of hot and cold beverages. This initiative includes baristas making personalised experiences with beverages, currently launched in two stores.
Thirdly, we will expand our product range on quick commerce channels. It is fascinating to see that people are now buying even precious metals on these platforms.
Additionally, our new factory near KR Puram, Bengaluru spanning over 65,000 sq. ft., is set to begin operations by January. This space will allow us to overcome current space constraints and scale up production capabilities, enabling us to undertake projects we couldn’t before.
