The pandemic highlighted for many a desire to become more health conscious. In the GCC the vitamin market is still developing, but Dubai-based start-up rite. is looking to disrupt the local vitamin market.
Rite. founders Guillaume Tripet and Sebastien Herriau launched their company to capitalise on the shifting trend and fill the gap they identified in the market.
They tell Arabian Business about their business, what they’ve learned so far, and they see on the horizon for rite.
When did you come up with the idea of rite or realise there was a gap in the market for the business?
It all started with a personal need. We realised it was quite difficult to find all the nutrients, vitamins and minerals in today’s food and especially in the Middle East where most of the food products are imported. As a result, we feel tired, stressed, most of us gain weight and we’re even losing our hair. It’s all connected to food, and of course trying to keep a healthy lifestyle.
That’s why one in two people in the Middle East consume pills or capsules on a regular basis. During the pandemic, the health supplement category boomed. As always, the leaders are multinational companies but none of them are local to the region. Most supplements are also imported from other parts of the world. We decided to create our own brand with benefits that are customised to the GCC needs.
If you walk into a pharmacy or a supermarket, it’s rare that you have an amazing experience: Most products look like medication, it’s hard to trust them and you don’t really understand their complicated labels.Our mission is to make pill popping fun and delicious, with clean products that are easy to understand.
Rite. is the first gummy brand to use a blend of premium vitamins and plant extracts such as acerola, guarana, ginseng, artichoke, fennel, pineapple stem, cola seeds, horsetail, or rose petal. Most brands use synthetic vitamins, additives and sweeteners. We decided to manufacture gummies that are 100 percent vegan, clean and reduced in sugar.
What is your business plan?
Our approach is quite different to others: We are close to our community, we co-develop our products according to our consumers’ feedback. We aim to deliver a unique experience at all touch points; form the moment you order until the delivery we will contact you, follow up on your cure, ask for suggestions, and deliver a beautiful and personalised package which will connect you to our brand and its values.
As a result, our fans don’t hide their supplements in their kitchen but instead, they take them to the office or the gym.
Rite. founders Guillaume Tripet and Sebastien Herriau
We are now a lifestyle brand, and we’re proud to be the first of its kind in the UAE. The engagement of our community is so strong that 50 percent of our members reorder month after month. Global brands going through distributors will never be able to create this kind of connection.
Is the company bootstrapped or have you raised capital from investors? Can you take us through your funding journey?
Rite. is a self-funded business. We are happy to control all aspects of our brand and make decisions based on our feelings and of course data.
We launched early 2021, and we prove the model and the traction. Now, we are looking for business angels to help us scale to the next stage: experts in e-commerce, in retail, in nutrition, and local key opinion leaders.
What are your expansion plans?
For now, we deliver in the UAE only, we saw a high demand in neighbouring countries, so we will open GCC online deliveries by Q3. We believe in an omni-channel strategy, you will find our products in specialised shops, wellness centres, gyms, and soon supermarkets. The GCC is our primary focus, and we are dedicated to make rite. a local success.
Where would you like to see the company in the next five years?
Our ambition is simple: Become the leading gummy vitamins brand in the GCC by 2023. In five years’ time, we would have our own laboratory in the UAE and our own innovation lab to test out new concepts in wellness.
What is your vision for the company?
In this competitive market, innovation is key. We are already thinking of new supplements forms that don’t exist yet and our goal is to be a global innovative leader in this space.
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