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Nidhi Food Products enters Dakshina Kannada mkt with DFRL’s chapatti tech
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Wednesday, 04 March, 2020, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Nandita Vijay, Bengaluru
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On receiving technical assistance from Mysuru’s Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL), a part of the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO), Nidhi Food Products (NFP), Nitya Chapattis’ parent company, has managed to capture markets in the Dakshina Kannada region.
Marketed under the brand name Nitya Chapatti and Pooris, the products are available in most bakery outlets and general stores in Puttur and Sullia. The company’s manufacturing facility is in Narimogaru-Mukkve in Puttur.
“Our Nitya Chapatti is the first product to be launched in Dakshina Kannada. It has witnessed good demand and favourable customer feedback. Our primary intention is to serve the customers better,” Radhakrishna I, director, Nidhi Food Products told F&B News on the sidelines of the National Horticulture Fair, organised recently by ICAR-IIHR.
The five-year old Nidhi Foods was established with the objective of providing people the convenience of ready-to-eat chapattis. The business provided considerable employment opportunities to the locals and also encourage the concept of home-made products.
The 26-item product range of the company, whose manufacturing facility covers an area of 3,000sq ft, includes not just chapattis, but millet products and flax seed preparations too. It also has entered into the ready-to-cook mixes for rava idli, dhal curry, upma, dosa and millet idli.
“Within a span of just one year, we covered a lot of areas to supply the range, but the focus is largely in Udupi and Mangaluru. We are looking to expand our reach in other parts of Karnataka, like Bengaluru and Mysuru. Exports are also in the pipeline,” Radhakrishna said.
Currently, the company is identifying the right distributors. While there are several competitors in the space, Radhakrishna said that NFP’s unique selling proposition was health and nutrition.
“It took us a year of research and development to come out with these products. We have total workforce of 31. Of these, 16 are women and the remaining are men,” he added.
There is a major shift in people’s food habits, as wellness and health are the top priority. There is also an interest for traditional foods and natural ingredients.
“The challenges in this space are acceptance by consumers and convincing them on the purity and health benefits,” said Radhakrishna, adding that participation in expos is a platform to grow the market.
“There is extensive sampling at our stall, which is viewed as a promotion activity. Our product consumption depends considerably on word-of-mouth, and this is driven by positive customer experience,” he added.
“Investments initially were to the tune of Rs 1.25 crore through banks, and going forward more is on the cards. Chapattis have a seven-day shelf life. These are only for the market in a 60-100km range. Products like ragi roti mix and flaxseed puligore mix have a shelf life of three to six months,” he added.
“The fastest-growing product is chapattis, and we have created a niche in the space. After that, there are ragi soup mix and a range of millets, which have demand in Puttur and Mangaluru,” Radhakrishna said.
“There is a visible trend that people have shifted to millets for better health and nutrition. A range of ready-to-cook and eat products are on the anvil. These include instant millet upma mix, dosa mix, idli mix and dhal curry, and wll be available a few months from now. We intend to touch 30-40 products within this year,” said Radhakrishna.
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