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INTERVIEW

“Daily 200,000 bottles, pouches of pickle are processed”

Monday, 13 April, 2015, 08 : 00 AM [IST]

Though started in 1901, Desai Brothers Ltd (DBL) diversified into food industry in 2001. The company is known for its brand Mother’s Recipe offering products like pickles, ready-to-eat (RTE) foods and so on. The brand exports these traditional Indian offerings across the world. P Rajan Mathews, vice-president, sales and marketing, DBL, food division, in an email interaction with Rashmi Nair, talks about the company’s current growth in RTE segment and its future expansion plans. Excerpts:

You are known to offer Indian ethnic food products. What makes these stand out in the market?
It's impossible to count the number of cuisines there are in India. But one thing is certain: every single cuisine has its established accompaniment – a little something that adds a bit of zing to eating and imparts to it a flavour that many people believe is hard to live without.

The humble pickle cuts across cultures, languages and socio-economic barriers. Every class of people – be it the table of kings or the floor of the less privileged – is happy with a bit of it on the side. While no authentic data can ever be available as to how much pickle is consumed each year, there is complete clarity that the organised sector is beginning to flex its muscles. Much of this has to do with the increased migration of people and globalisation. As jobs take people from region to region and country to country, they carry with them some ingrained habits which are hard to change. One of these is the lust for the tangy pickle. Since it takes much doing to make these in a foreign land the organised sector provides them in sealed bottles.

Pickles come in literally thousands of bases and as many flavours. So brands like Mother's Recipe are confronted with a task that is both humongous as well as complex.

Pickling is one of the oldest methods of food preservation. Its history can be traced back to the dawn of civilisation, when people preserved and pickled foods to tide over famines, long winters or extended travel. A date to this art would take the reader to some 4,500 years ago when people learned to preserve cucumbers by putting them in brine – a solution of salt and water.

Pickles have been a part of Indian cuisine since time immemorial. Ancient Vedic scriptures mention pickles in detail. In the period since, every region has developed its own special

pickle and every home has a well-guarded, made-by-grandmother recipe.

Today, in millions of homes across India, glass bottles with bright red caps sit perched on kitchen shelves. These are Mother's Recipe pickles and are as authentic and as traditional as pickles will ever become.

The seed for the success of Mother's Recipe was sown with development and reforms in India. Out of these, nuclear families emerged and housewives stepped out of homes into offices and found less time for the hearth. But while this was happening the craving for delicious pickles of yesteryears never really left people. Mother's Recipe tapped on this hunger for traditional pickle and foods across India, serving people their regional traditional delicacies across states and boundaries. Today, the brand is synonymous with pickles made in the traditional mould or rephrased, in the way grandmother made.

The Mother's Recipe's brand success story began when Desai Brothers, now a fourth generation family owned business interests in food processing, tobacco, finance, logistics, specialty chemicals and health care, decided to diversify their operations and acquired the Mother's Recipe brand in 2001.

Keeping their experience of authentic Indian cuisine as a motivator, quality as a non-negotiable aim and customer satisfaction as the end goal Mother's Recipe, under the leadership of Desai Brothers, began a deliberate expansion. New researched recipes and professional expertise was acquired and was supplemented with distribution strength. With involvement of aggressive media promotions, the acquired brand was relaunched as a trusted and traditional Indian food brand. As a sequel to the launch – and success – Mother's Recipe introduced whole new product categories to include many of the components that complete a traditional Indian meal.

Tell us about your manufacturing facility, its capacity, and the products manufactured.
Mother's Recipe is now an entire cooking and culinary experience. It includes 12 categories of products – pickles, cooking and condiment pastes, curry & gravy pastes, chutneys, blended spices, ready-to-cook foods, ready-to-eat / heat-and-eat foods, instant mixes, papads, curry powders, mango pulp and canned foods in 130 variants.

There is Andhra Avakaya, Karnataka Cut Mango, Madras Thokku, Kerala Mango, Bengali Mango, Punjabi Pancharanga, Gujarati Methia Mango, Maharashtra Mango, Gujarati Gorkeri, Choondo and Red Stuffed Chillies amongst 43 distinct tastes and flavours from virtually every corner of the country.

These offerings of the recent past have expanded the brands' portfolio of products. This now includes nine variants of papads – the all-time favourite accompaniment, four variants of pastes that pack in the natural aroma of freshly minced spices, 20 different spice mixes that add convenience to cooking. These mixes contain no monosodium glutamate (MSG), no preservatives and no hydrogenated oils – just 100% natural and 100% fresh ingredients. To complete the offerings there are 15 classic Indian heat-and-eat dishes.

The brand's latest outpouring of affection comes in the form of breakfast. Realising that in today's hurly-burly of everyday life breakfast, the day's most important meal, is a regular casualty, Mother's Recipe did the only thing that could be done for these rushed homes. They prepared a ready-to-cook, instant poha and upma. All that this now required was to snip off the packaging, add the contents to boiling water, cover and let it cook. In 10 minutes a delicious, nutritious, traditional Indian breakfast is ready. Missing breakfast can now actually be a thing of the past.

The company has a state-of-art processing facility at Sarole (near Shirwal on the Pune-Bangalore Highway). The plant has been certified under ISO 9001-2008 and ISO 22000-2005 (HACCP), Halal and Kosher and also registered with US FDA, Spice Board of India and Export Inspection Council.

The company follows stringent, hygienic standards & strict quality control procedures implemented at various stages of processing to ensure that best quality products leave the factory. The plant has an in-house laboratory facility which is equipped with latest, sensitive instruments, to check the quality of the products at every stage.

The company is proud of its research & development team, which always begins with consumers’ requirement to develop the products based on organised market research conducted by its marketing team. The company ensures that best ingredients and right process of manufacturing are used for making various products authentic to each region. While purchasing raw materials such as fruits, vegetables and spices, great emphasis is placed on quality to ensure authentic taste, which Mother's Recipe brand promises to its consumers.

DBL Foods is putting up another state-of-the-art plant at Nadiad in Gujarat which will become operational after October 2015.

Is the technology used in the plant from India or imported? Where does India stand in the technical aspect with regard to food processing / RTE sectors?
The technology that is used in our plants are both imported and also localised for India. The technologies available in India in the food processing sector are still in the learning curve when compared to developed countries. There has been a net inflow of equipments from Europe, especially from Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and also from Australia. The presence of companies like Alfa Laval is proof enough, which strengthens this hypothesis that India has been a net importer of technology in this sector. In India, the major thrust in research and development in the food sector has been on the primary processing of food rather on developing equipments in this sector. There has been pioneering efforts put forward by the CFTRI, IARI, DRDL, Post-Harvest Technology Centre (PHTC, IIT Kharagpur) and DFRL. These laboratories have been fairly successful in developing innovative technologies in the food processing sector.

How much is the RTE market in India, at what rate is it growing? How is DBL share in the RTE sector? What are the prospects for future growth of RTE in India?
The ready-to-eat category was first introduced to the country in 1987, but suffered a slow beginning with consumers preferring traditional cooking. By the turn of the millennium, and the advent of new technologies to improve the shelf life of ready-to-eat products, alongside a growth in storage and distribution centres, the segment gained momentum.

With the development of retort technology, and increased differentiation among ready-to-eat players, the heat-and-eat segment broke away to become a market in its own right.

The RTE / heat-and-eat market is currently valued at Rs 240 crore and has been growing at a rate of 18% over the last three years and over the next five years, though its rise will reach 22% per annum as a result of rapid urbanisation, increasing disposable income and expected improvement in retail infrastructure, touching over Rs 640 crore by 2019.

RTE foods are currently dominated by ITC, MTR Foods, Kohinoor Foods, Gits, Mother’s Recipe and Tasty Bite Eatables.

ITC and MTR together contribute to just under half of the market share, while the other players make up 45% of the total production of heat-and-eat food. Other players in the category include ADF Foods, Priya Foods and Heinz who are relatively new entrants in the market with limited product lines and have a regional presence.

The category is largely export-driven as it is yet to establish a firm footing in the Indian retail market. However, domestic markets constitute 40% of the total revenues of heat-and-eat products.

Sales mostly occur in urban areas, especially in Tier I cities, where retail infrastructure is significantly developed. Mother’s Recipe RTE foods, in the domestic market, are slated for launch this year with 10 exciting variants.

The RTE food category has a tremendous growth opportunity in the near future due to a growing youth population, working women segment, increasing work and study commitments, declining culinary skills, the rising need for convenience, and surging disposable incomes, along with clever and innovative marketing which lead to a higher demand for heat-and-eat products.

Are there any new launches scheduled for the coming year or any new segment the company is planning to enter into?
Mother’s Recipe is in a major expansion phase and the new products that have planned to be launched are as follows:

New innovative products in the culinary & cooking pastes category: We already have ginger, garlic, ginger garlic and tamarind pastes and we will be adding products to aid the consumers.
Mother’s Recipe is a dominant player in the ready-to-cook spice / gravy mixes category and new products will be added to the range.
Mother’s Recipe will be launching its range of chutney and new spreads.
Mother’s Recipe will be launching new on the go instant mixes

Is your company into exports? If yes, then which countries/ region you are exporting to and which products ?
The food division of Desai Brothers Ltd has been awarded with the 'One Star Export House' ranking by the ministry of commerce and industry, Government of India, for excellence in taste and authenticity of our products. Desai Brothers Ltd holds a strong presence in the global arena especially in the Middle-East, Far East, Australia, the UK, Europe, the US, Canada and Africa, being one of the largest providers of traditional Indian kitchen taste exported to more than 40 countries in the world.

Talking about your most diversified product - pickles, what are the various ingredients used in it? How is the shelf life of the product maintained?
Mother's Recipe epitomises mother's love. It's a brand that strives to bring home the true taste of homemade pickles by ensuring that only the freshest, purest fruits, vegetables and spices are used. There is another reason, too, for its pickiness. In a world that gives tradition a go-by it's hard to believe that a brand exists that, in truth, believes that when people who lust for the taste of home are spread across continents it's not right that they be given second shrift. It's for this reason that Mother's Recipe refuses to compromise and will spend endless months in perfecting its offerings.
Perhaps, there is no better tribute to its customers than being true to them.

Everyday 200,000 bottles and pouches of pickle are processed at the brand's Pune production facility
It's the first Indian pickle brand to have researched and perfected 45 regional favourite pickle varieties
No other pickle brand is available in every Indian state and Union territory

We are proud to share that Mother’s Recipe has been rated as the best pickle available in Delhi NCR on value for money, taste and all other sensory parameters.

This independent evaluation of the pickles available in the Delhi NCR market has been carried out by VOICE (Voluntary Organisation in the Interest of Consumer Education) an NGO for the benefit of consumers. VOICE communicates to the consumers through their monthly magazine called ‘Consumer Voice’ which empowers consumers by informing them about the concept of Comparative Testing and how consumers can use it to make the right buying decisions.

Under the Comparative Product Testing and Service Evaluation of Jago Grahak Jago Campaign the Consumer Voice team evaluated nine brands of mixed pickle in oil from Delhi and NCR market on value for money parameters, microbiological parameters and sensory parameters. On all these parameters, Mother’s Recipe brand of mixed pickle had the highest acceptable rating and has been recommended as the ‘Best Buy.’

We at DBL – Foods ( Mother’s Recipe ) are proud to have such high quality products only in our portfolio and will continuously strive to give the consumers the best products.

Tell us about your in house laboratory facilities. What are the various certifications the company has, that enables exports?
Mother's Recipe is exported to 40 countries including the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, the Far East and the Middle-East.

The Government of India has conferred on the parent company the coveted status of a One Star Export House.

The plant has been certified under ISO 9001-2008 and ISO 22000-2005 (HACCP), Halal and Kosher and also registered with US FDA, Spice Board of India and Export Inspection Council.

What are the challenges faced by the company in regards to regulations, exports, technology and so on?
Unorganised players who dominate this sector contribute to 80% of industry volume. This leads to uneven levels of playing fields for each of the player.

Marketing Challenge of Processed Foods: Today it is easier to manufacture but the foremost challenge faced by any manufacturer of the processed foods is in converting the consumers from fresh to processed foods. Affordability and cultural preference of fresh food demands huge marketing costs in converting consumers to processed, packaged foods.

Formulation of Comprehensive National Level Policy on Food Processing: The comprehensive policy will ensure private sector investment in infrastructure development, increased farm productivity and ‘upgradation’ of quality and give further impetus to the food processing sector. The comprehensive national level food processing policy would also ensure institutional strengthening, capacity building across the value chain and would also seek to promote innovation in general and technological innovation in particular.

Need for Second Green Revolution in Agriculture: The first Green Revolution has run its course. Cereal yields are rising very slowly, water tables are plunging, and agricultural growth is also low. India needs a second Green Revolution which takes rice and wheat cultivators beyond the grain production stage to agro-food processing and gives value addition and would also solve the issue of constraints in raw material procurement. This high-end initiative requires commitment from all the stakeholders in the food value chain.

Implementation of GST as Per the Set Deadline: Government should ensure timely implementation of GST to provide incentive to the food processing sector, while removing subjectivity in treatment and classification of various food products. Some packaged foods which are of daily necessities, be classified at lower rate of taxation.

Which are the major clients you cater to in India from the hotels and restaurants sector?
Mother’s Recipe has launched its food services this year and is concentrating on the large segment of catering and QSRs. It has tied up and is in talks with most of the large caterers and five star properties and restaurants and will initiate the tie-ups with QSRs as the products get launched.