About us

Hello there curious visitor! I think this is the part where we're supposed to throw in business jargon like ‘quality first’ or ‘best in class’ and show you how professional we are. But we'll try to keep things a bit more casual and upfront.

 

Chances are, if you’re reading this, you've skimmed through our website, and you have a vague idea of what we’re trying to do. But maybe you still have some nagging questions at that back of your head – like ‘Who are these guys? Why would I drink this in place of a meal? What does this drink offer over any healthy, conventional meal?’

 

We’ll try to address some of your more pressing concerns here.

Our beginnings in Singapore

 

My co-founder and I formulated the first iteration of Sustenance in March 2017, for ourselves. We worked day jobs with long hours - when our busy schedules got in the way, we wanted to eat healthy without thinking or trying. Our goal was not to completely replace our meals, but have a convenient alternative for our ‘functional’ meals – that quick breakfast in the morning, or that desk lunch that we had alone at work.

 

We quickly found out that there were a lot of people like us, who wanted to eat healthier, without having to put their diets at the center of their lives or spend a bomb to eat healthy.

 

We worked together with Singapore’s leading clinical dietitians, and world class suppliers based in the US, to create the first version of Sustenance – nutritionally complete meal shakes that were ready anytime, anywhere. These meal shakes were delicious, filling, and most importantly, greatly reduced the friction to eating healthier.

 

Cooking your daily meals works great in theory, but is just too much of a hassle. Most people don't have the time to spend an hour everyday cooking and cleaning up.

 

Today, we’re the market leader in Singapore - we sell thousands of meal shakes every week to people from all walks of life. We come recommended by most of Singapore’s leading clinical dietitians and nutritionists, and we retail at some of Singapore’s biggest chains, like Watsons and NTUC Fairprice.

 

Why we gained traction in Singapore

 

If you’re with us so far, you might be wondering what we bring to the table as a company – and why we’re so successful in Singapore. After all, the concept of meal replacements isn’t new, there are already well-established players in market.

 

Picture your ideal healthy meal in your head – for me it’s a plate of brown rice, served with a heaping portion of fibrous vegetables, some legumes (for protein) and a serving of fruit to finish it off. Where we come in is simple – we give you your ideal meal as a delicious, ready-to-mix green smoothie shake. It has everything your body needs to thrive, and none of the nasties.

 

 

 

While there were already several meal replacements in the market, none of them met the mark for us. The existing options were not fit for sustained, long-term use because they had one or more of these problems:

 

• They contained artificial junk like synthetic vitamins and synthetic flavours
• They were loaded with highly processed ingredients like refined sugar and oils
• They lacked sufficient amounts of key nutrients like protein and dietary fiber

 

Our meal shakes on the other hand, contain only natural, whole foods that you can find in the grocery store – ingredients like brown rice, oats, berries and vegetables. These ingredients are also minimally processed – the fruits and vegetables we use are freeze dried and then pulverized. It’s the gentlest way to dry and preserve food, while also locking in most of the nutrients.

 

The ingredient lists you see in our website are exhaustive, there are no cheap fillers hidden as ‘proprietary blends’ or ‘natural extracts’. What you see is what you get. 

We combine over 20 plant based, whole food ingredients to bring you a balanced and nutritionally complete meal.  

 

Unlike almost every other alternative in the market, we come very close to a proper, home cooked meal – our shakes are minimally processed and close to nature.

 

Our foray into Hong Kong

After securing funds for international expansion, the first market we looked to was Hong Kong. Our scenarios are similar – a melting pot of cultures in a busy, metropolitan setting, our fast-paced lives, the push for progress and efficiency and so on. We believe that Hongkongers will find our shakes of value, just as Singaporeans did.

 

If you’ve already been taking meal replacements, give ours a try. A good chunk of our customers switched over from well-known meal replacement brands. None of them have ever switched back. If you’re skeptical, grab our starter kits and give it a shot!

 

If you’re new to meal replacements, and want to find out more about how this will work for you, get in touch via email (gautamparam@sustenance.shop), mobile (+65 9027 0847) or drop us a message on Facebook. We’re very responsive – we usually reply to queries within a couple of hours.

 

Gautam Param
Co-founder, Sustenance