Wingreens Farms bought cash-strapped Raw Pressery at about a fifth of its 2018 valuation

Wingreens Farms makes dips and sauces; Raw Pressery sells cold-pressed juices, soup, nut milk, coconut water and smoothies

Wingreens can script a turnaround of Raw Pressery by folding the cash-strapped juice brand into its existing consumer portfolio

Raw Pressery had raised Rs 150 crore from investors including Sequoia Capital, Saama Capital, DSG Consumer Partners and Alteria Capital

Raw Pressery was set up in 2013 and sold premium cold-pressed juices with limited shelf life that need chillers in the supply chain. Its last annual filing for the year ended 31 March 2018 showed a loss of Rs 48 crore on revenue of Rs 33 crore.

Raw Pressery last raised Rs 65 crore from existing backers two years before, at a Rs 500 crore valuation. It had been looking to contain losses and turn around for more than a year, trying to shed its premium image. A source said the business could not scale and kept making losses, so there had to be a hard stop on cash burn.

Per ET's sources, Wingreens acquired the company at a valuation of Rs 100-110 crore in a share swap for investors, with the founders cashing out. Sequoia was a common investor in both companies. None of the parties responded to ET's emails.

Raw Pressery had made consistent losses and could not scale

Its products had limited shelf life and needed chillers across the supply chain

Premium niche beverages stay a small part of modern retail because of price

Wingreens saw it as a natural fit for its portfolio and a turnaround candidate

A premium, short-shelf-life category with chilled logistics was hard to scale, and investors took a roughly 80% mark-down to hand it to a consolidator.

As of 2021-01-21 the deal was reported through anonymous sources only; the companies had not commented, and the turnaround plan was only intent. The valuation of Rs 100-110 crore is as reported by ET.