Gen Z Calling: Can Telephone Sat-Isabgol Answer?

The brief from Telephone’s customers is unusually clear: leave the green box alone.

“We have received a lot of feedback from consumers asking us not to change the iconic green carton,” says Niraj Wadhwa, managing director of Telephone Sat-Isabgol. Some consumers call the brand “OG.” Others call it “legendary.”

For a carton of isabgol, that is quite a fan following.

The pack has accompanied a product’s passage through families: a father who took it, a grandmother who recommended it, a younger person who grew up seeing it at home. In Wadhwa’s account, even younger consumers associate the carton with familiarity and heritage.

The company would like more of them to buy it for themselves.

There lies Telephone’s next challenge. How do you bring a new generation to an old product without disturbing the things that made the old product worth remembering?

The green dabba comes to that question with a business case. Sidhpur Sat-Isabgol Factory, the company behind Telephone, recorded sales of ₹149.2 crore in FY25, up from ₹117 crore in FY24. Net profit rose from ₹1.7 crore to ₹8 crore, according to financial data sourced from Tofler.

Those figures cover both the consumer brand and the company’s bulk-ingredient business. They establish the scale and profitability of the enterprise behind the carton.

Telephone has earned something more useful than an indulgent smile for surviving so long: a serious look at what it has got right.

When Customers Do the Talking

Wadhwa’s explanation of how Telephone acquired its customers begins with people they already trusted.

“People often remember that their father used to take it, or that their grandmother or another family member trusted the brand, and they continue with it themselves.”

Recommendations also come from chemists, friends and other relatives. The product enters a household with someone else’s experience attached.

For a digestive product, that is a valuable introduction. A buyer looking for something familiar and dependable may feel little need to experiment simply because another pack looks newer. The reassurance lies partly in knowing what to expect.

Telephone has allowed that recognition to accumulate.

Wadhwa traces the business to the 1920s and the brand’s launch to the 1930s, while acknowledging that an exact launch date is difficult to pinpoint. His grandfather established the brand. The original packaging, he recalls, was hand-painted by a local artist.

The telephone symbol offered a memorable image and a name pronounced similarly across languages, according to the family account. The thinking behind it was never formally documented, although old packs survive.

The green colour, telephone image and SAT-ISABGOL lettering have remained central to the identity. Wadhwa says the pack has had minor tweaks, rather than major changes.

For a regular customer, that continuity can make the next purchase effortless. The same visual signals lead back to the same product. Each redesign avoided also avoids asking a loyal buyer to learn the pack again.

That is a plausible part of Telephone’s appeal, although the company has not formally tested the contribution of individual packaging elements. Wadhwa also acknowledges that green cartons are common across the category. The telephone symbol and lettering matter alongside the colour.

The affection belongs to a recognisable combination, reinforced by use.

No Advertising Does Not Mean No Work

“Yes, we have never spent a penny on advertising in the traditional sense,” says Wadhwa.

The company has not invested in paid social media, influencer marketing or sponsored marketplace listings either, he says. Its growth came through product quality, word of mouth and distribution.

There is a temptation to turn that into a fairy tale about a brand that prospered without doing any marketing. The work behind the carton tells a more substantial story.

Wadhwa introduced a structured distribution policy in 2005, bringing greater discipline to territories, distributor relationships and market development. A family recommendation could only turn into a sale if the product was available.

Telephone also operates within an agricultural supply chain. Wadhwa describes psyllium as a sensitive, once-a-year crop, vulnerable to untimely rain during harvest. Consistency on a pharmacy shelf depends on sourcing and production decisions made well before the customer arrives.

His explanation for avoiding advertising is refreshingly practical.

“Our challenge was often meeting the demand that already existed rather than creating additional demand.”

With limited supply, spending to attract more orders was not a priority. That decision had a commercial logic. It also gives Telephone’s recent financial performance context: the company has grown while pursuing a model in which customers and distribution do much of the selling.

FY25 sales increased by roughly 28%, and net profit more than quadrupled from a small base. The reported net margin rose from 1.4% to 5.3%. Sidhpur also supplies bulk material to pharmaceutical, supplement and food manufacturers, and says it exports to more than 40 countries.

But the distinction should not obscure the achievement. The enterprise is profitable and expanding. The familiar box is backed by a functioning business, with sourcing relationships, manufacturing capabilities and customers beyond the domestic retail shelf.

Bigger Names Met an Old Habit

Telephone’s competitive history makes its endurance more interesting.

In November 2001, media reports described Dabur introducing plain Sat Isabgol after its flavoured Nature Care offering had struggled to gain ground in a market dominated by Telephone. Dabur’s stated ambition was to reach a 50% share over the following two years.

That was a target. By July 2006, little had changed. Media reports were still describing Telephone as dominant despite the presence of Dabur and several pharmaceutical and consumer-goods companies. These are historical accounts, not a measure of the market today. They nevertheless establish that Telephone’s position was tested by larger competitors. Its survival was not the result of having the shelf to itself.

The early experience with flavoured isabgol suggests a limit to the assumption that a familiar product becomes more appealing when something new is added. Existing users may have valued the plain product and the reassurance surrounding it more than a different taste.

That does not settle what younger buyers will prefer now. Dabur continues to market both Sat Isabgol and Nature Care, emphasising sweetness and ease of consumption for the latter. Telephone’s own estimate of 60–65% market share is based on field-team feedback and its understanding of the market.

The more defensible point is also the more interesting one: a specialist with a recognisable pack and a long history of recommendations has remained commercially relevant alongside much bigger names. The charm of the green dabba appears to have practical value.

What Should a Legacy Brand Change?

Telephone is hardly alone in having to decide which parts of its identity deserve protection.

Twinings offers a particularly instructive parallel. The British tea company traces its familiar logo to 1787 and describes it as one of Britain’s oldest unchanged commercial logos still in continuous use. Yet its history also records a moment when reputation alone was no longer the chosen route to growth.

In 1899, Twinings published its first print advertisement to reach more people and tell its story. Later, it introduced tea bags; more recently, it has moved into wellness teas and cold-water beverages, including Twinings Refreshers in 2025.

The enduring logo has coexisted with changes in how the product is promoted, prepared and consumed.

Coca-Cola demonstrates another approach. Its contour bottle, patented in 1915, became a recognisable feature worth carrying into new formats. Larger bottles followed in 1955; a 20-ounce plastic contour bottle arrived in 1993. Early American cans even carried an image of the familiar bottle to reassure buyers about what they contained.

The pack evolved while drawing on something customers already knew.

Closer home, Wagh Bakri’s tea lounges extended the brand into a different setting. Its official history dates the first lounge to 2009 in Mumbai’s Vile Parle, followed by Delhi in 2010. The brand could now be encountered as a place to sit and drink tea as well as a packet taken home.

Wagh Bakri has, however, changed its packaging. Its own timeline records new Premium packaging in 1997–2000 and again in 2019, followed by a new logo in 2025. Its lesson is about managing continuity through change, rather than leaving every visual element untouched.

These examples offer Telephone choices, rather than a prescription to imitate a tea lounge or a soft-drink bottle. A company can preserve recognition while changing the buying experience, the format or the occasion for use.

Telephone’s 5g sachet makes that point on a smaller scale. It offers portability while retaining elements of the original artwork.

Branding and marketing experts reckon that a young consumer may recognise the green carton immediately and still believe it belongs in their grandparents’ routine. “The brand’s task is to give that familiarity a reason to become a purchase,” says Ashita Aggarwal, professor of marketing at SP Jain Institute of Management & Research. Before changing a familiar pack, understand what people value in it and what they find dated. “You may need to change the explanation around the product much more than the product’s appearance,” she adds.

A Younger Reason to Reach for It

For Telephone, that explanation has an opening in the broader conversation about fibre.

In January, GlobalData linked the social-media trend of “fibermaxxing”, which encourages greater fibre intake, to younger consumers’ interest in gut health. Its Q1 2025 global survey found that 40% of Gen Z respondents were actively trying to improve their gut health. The survey covered 21,000 respondents across 42 countries; the figure is not an India-specific finding.

Retailers have responded with new products and formats. GlobalData pointed to fibre-focused offerings from British businesses including M&S and Holland & Barrett. An ingredient long associated with digestive regularity is being discussed in the language of everyday nutrition. For an established isabgol manufacturer, that creates the possibility of reaching someone who had never previously considered the product.

Wadhwa sees that opportunity.

“Gen Z represents an important opportunity as awareness around fibre, nutrition and gut health continues to grow.”

He also acknowledges that Telephone cannot yet put a number on the generational shift. “We do not currently have detailed data on customer age profiles, first-time purchases or repeat-purchase behaviour to quantify this shift.”

The company reports higher sales during a period of increased interest in fibre, but has not measured the contribution of those conversations. A growing enterprise and a younger customer base are different claims; the financial results substantiate the first.

The second will depend on what happens after recognition.

A young shopper might see the green carton and remember home. Whether they buy it, use it and return for another pack will depend on their own experience.

The traditional format can be less familiar to younger consumers, particularly when it comes to texture and preparation. “Convenience and portability are increasingly important to them,” says Wadhwa.

That is a concrete challenge. The pack may need little introduction, while the product still needs explaining. Clear information about preparation, appropriate use and what a buyer should expect could matter more than making the telephone look contemporary.

The Next Recommendation

The route to that buyer is changing too.

Telephone says it is available through Tata 1mg and Blinkit, among other platforms. Wadhwa claims increased awareness and consumption through online channels, though their contribution to the consumer business has not been disclosed.

A customer searching for Telephone by name brings an existing preference to the screen. Someone searching for fibre may arrive without one.

That person could discover the ingredient through a nutrition professional, a creator or another brand. The eventual choice may depend on which product most clearly explains its suitability, format and value.

Wadhwa welcomes the contribution newer wellness brands have made to category awareness. But education does not distribute sales equally.

A consumer can learn about fibre from one brand and buy it from another. “But if Telephone leaves the entire explanation to someone else, it also leaves them considerable influence over what the buyer looks for: taste, convenience, format or a particular benefit,” says Aggarwal.

Family trust can get an established brand considered. The product still has to fit the buyer’s life. You need to understand what prompted the trial, what made use difficult and whether the customer came back. “That is how you distinguish nostalgia from a new buying habit,” she reckons.

Telephone now wants to take a more active part in that introduction.

“This is the first time we are actively looking at how we can tell the story of Telephone Brand Sat-Isabgol and its legacy to a wider audience,” says Wadhwa.

The company is preparing for growth elsewhere too. Its material says a new manufacturing plant, expected to become operational in the first half of 2027, will double current production capacity. That supports a business serving both retail consumers and bulk customers.

For the consumer brand, the delicate task is deciding how much explanation to add while preserving what existing customers prize. It has a profitable enterprise behind it, a history of withstanding competition and a pack that some buyers actively want protected.

Those are advantages to build on. Telephone does not have to apologise for looking its age. It has to show a younger buyer why a product with that history might belong in their life.

The customer’s brief can stay: leave the green box alone. The brand has another brief to answer: give me a reason to pick it up.