You have products across pickles, jams, spices and ready to eat. How do you maintain the consistency and quality of each of your products?
Quality is what we take care of. Our recipes are those original recipes which are used by mothers across the country. The company believes in giving authentic Indian cuisine and looks customer satisfaction as main end goal. All our products are manufactured separately under strict guidelines and as per all manufacturing norms like ISO to ensure that the traditional food are maintained as closest to what is available across.
Being one of the largest players in India, are you listed with HORECA?
Yes, we are listed with HORECA. Last year we started food service as a separate channel wherein we specified people who worked for HORECA and target all the restaurants, hotels and caterers. We have products like 5kg pickle, 1kg pickle, and 1kg paste. So, there are products, which available specific to HORECA.
You are into ready-to-eat market. What percentage of the people in India prefers this and considers it as hygienic and healthy?
In India, Ready-to-eat technique was introduced in 1987 but, immediately sales didn’t begin. Now, the category is growing because of modern retail, working women and all such factors. In market only 2-3 per cent of people prefer this and that too in the major markets like metro cities but it is expected to grow by 20-25 per cent in the coming 2 -3 years.
You started as a tobacco palyer. What made you to come up with the idea of packed foods and RTE meals?
We came up with an idea to expand and decided to tap into the food industry in 2001 as this has been identified as the major growing segment and that’s when DESAI BROTHERS bought MOTHER’S RECIPE brand and started marketing it.
Can you tell us about the manufacturing capacity and the products you manufacture?
We have a complete state of processing facility at SHIRWAL, which is on Pune-Bengaluru highway. We process around 20,000 pickle packs per day and around 3, 50,000 bottle and pouches. We have products like papad, 59 recipes of pickels, cooking paste, ready to eat products, instant mixtures, spice mixtures.
What is the supply chain process at your end? Who are some of your clients in restaurants and hotels?
We get into two types of market one is modern trade and other is general trade. We have warehouses in every state from where we send directly to the distributors and from distributor to retailers. SAROVAR chain of hotels is our main client apart from that we supply to HALDIRAMS restaurants in north and other QSRs. We have industries like TATA motors and we are in talks with McDonalds, CCD and others.
You are present in over 40 countries with 1, 50,000 retail outlets. Can you tell us about your expansion plan for future?
We are going to increase the categories of our products. We are getting into spreads (sauces, ketchup and mayonnaise), innovative chutneys, ready-to-cook spice and gravy mixtures and we are also looking at lot of new instant mixtures. We also hope to double our retail coverage in next couple of years.
We also see that retailers are moving towards online business. Are you planning to enter the same space?
In India we are listed on around 40 e-groceries including big basket, localbaniya.com, but in long term process we are also looking for our own online store.
What is your turnover so far?
The food division turnover is around 250 crores and we are growing around 20-30 per cent year on year.
Can you name some countries where you export your products? Don’t you think the recent law passed by the government on the same is too stringent to follow?
We are main players in Middle East, Far East, Australia, UK, Europe, USA, Canada and Africa. Yes, import has been much difficult because of labelling of product.
