In a market dominated by tea drinkers, Sleepy Owl Coffee has carved out a unique niche, transforming the coffee experience for Indian consumers. With an innovative approach to retail supply chain management – specifically the food and beverage segment – the brand has quickly risen to prominence. Co-Founder Arman Sood shares insights into how Sleepy Owl’s journey began, the challenges they faced, and the strategies that have propelled them to the forefront of the coffee industry in India. From sourcing high-quality beans to ensuring seamless logistics and embracing sustainability, Sleepy Owl Coffee is not just brewing coffee but also a supply chain success story.
Can you share the story behind the inception of Sleepy Owl? What inspired you and your cofounders to venture into the coffee industry?
We’re three friends who all love good coffee, but could never find a great cup when we needed it. We were passionate about our coffee when we had day jobs as lawyers and bankers. Back then, there was satisfaction in finding the right brew during a busy day. That brew, unfortunately, was never easy to find. Our ideal coffee would be easy to get, easy to store, and easy to drink anytime, anywhere – all while tasting absolutely perfect.
So we started researching the coffee market in India from the supply side and realized that India grows some of the finest Arabica coffee, most of which is exported leaving very little for Indian consumers. We also realized the gap in the market was to make brewing fresh coffee easy and convenient.
So after we had identified the gaps and were determined to find the solution to them. We quit our jobs, put in the effort, innovated, and a year later, Sleepy Owl was born.
Cold brew coffee is relatively new to the Indian market. How did you identify this gap and decide to introduce cold brew as your flagship product?
Startups were offering freshly roasted beans, ground coffee, and various brewing equipment. From the viewpoint of 23-25-year-olds just starting out, we saw a need for a more convenient way to enjoy coffee that wasn’t instant and didn’t require complex brewing setups.
Additionally, given that India is a tea-drinking nation (even more so when we first started in 2016), we didn’t want good coffee to be intimidating.
We believed that the artisanal coffee market was making things complicated for the consumers working hard to increase the perceived value of a cup of coffee. On the other hand, the instant coffee market told you that anything other than instant granulated powder took too long and therefore was not worth the effort. We took the middle path. We wanted to get customers rich, delicious, freshly brewed coffee in an instant. And so we started with Cold Brew Coffee.
Can you elaborate on your sourcing strategy, particularly your choice of single-origin Arabica beans from Chikmagalur?
Good coffee comes from great beans. And a cup of coffee is only as good as the beans used to brew it. Curated high-quality beans, the right roast, and a fresh grind are what make Sleepy Owl special.
We use 100% Arabica Coffee. Grown above 5300ft in Chikmagalur, and sourced directly from farms, our plantation coffee is some of the best around.
A cup of Sleepy Owl has a deep, characteristic, chocolate flavour that’s a direct result of our choice of beans. We work hard to maintain this flavor profile all year round. It’s smooth with a hint of natural sweetness that comes from slowbrewing.
This is an abridged version of Arman’s interview published in the July edition of the Logistics Insider Magazine. To read the complete interaction, click here.
