2. Made in India: Entrepreneurs from Food Industry

1. ON A FAST 'FOOD' TRACK

Samar Qureshi, director, Fast Trax Foods Pvt. Ltd. has the credit of building one of the most successful, Indian, fast -food empires. Braving the biggest recession since 1930, successfully catering the Commonwealth Games and managing a sale 56 per cent based solely on positive word of mouth, Qureshi has managed to pull off the unimaginable going from two outlets to 22 stores in just a few years. Having spent most of his formative years in Australia, Qureshi came back to India with the mission to begin Fast Trax.

"In Australia, I worked part-time as a member of a popular fast-food chain's crew. That was my first taste of the fast-food industry. I remember being completely fascinated by the concept of a 'quick service restaurant (QSR)'. The gap between a proper QSR format restaurant and traditional Indian flavoured one was vastly apparent in India. It was in 2005 when I decided to diversify and set up a QSR format restaurant," he expresses. Fast Trax is one of the first fast-food chains to be present at Delhi's leading schools. They have been a part of three international events in Delhi since their inception.

"At the CWG event held recently in Delhi, we set a new Indian record of selling over 6,00,000 fresh burgers in the shortest time period ever," adds Qureshi. But the road to success is never that easy and one has to face challenges head-on.

Talking about the challenges that his venture faced, Qureshi adds, "We knew right from the beginning that establishing an all-Indian fast-food brand with international items on our menu, in a market dominated by foreign MNC players would not be an easy task. First, we faced the problem of establishing ourselves as a brand. Acceptability was also another big challenge where people were used to really high standards. Our aim was to bring out better quality product, so that it is acceptable by our consumer," he concludes.

1. Aachi Foods — A Recipe for Growth

Since the final years are going for their In-Plant Training from the next week, I thought of sharing some new real life stories about people who have made it big in the Food Industry to bring out the entrepreneur in them. As our 1st  first feature we have the story of Aachi Foods from my/our own Tamil Nadu. Hope you all enjoy the feature and give your responses in the comments section below.

 1. Aachi Foods — A Recipe for Growth

“Nothing gives me more pleasure than seeing my brands stocked on the shop shelves,” says Mr Padmasingh Isaac, Founder Chairman, Aachi Foods, to a question on what he does to unwind… his hobbies?

If this is his idea of fun, he certainly must be a very happy man.

‘An Agent in Every Village'

In just over a decade since 1998 the ‘Aachi' group of brands has grown to over 160 products with plans to add even more. An agent network of about 3,500 across South India, ‘an agent in every village' ensures shelf space in 10 lakh retail outlets.

“What more do I want in life?” he asks. Lots more, it becomes evident, as he shares his recipe for growth.

He is in the process of making Aachi an umbrella brand to cover a range of food products, just about everything that is found on the kitchen shelves in any home.

More than three-fourths of the Indian food industry is in the unorganised sector, unbranded and commodity based. This is an opportunity to organise the unorganised and integrate them, which is what Aachi Foods is doing, he says.

As Mr Isaac sits in his office sharing his views on what the food processing industry offers to the entrepreneurs, there is a continuous stream of visitors – office staff consult him on pricing a new product, he instructs another to dash of a letter to a supplier to make up his mind.

There are over 5,000 food products that can potentially be branded whether masalas, the spicy powders that go into the making of mouth watering dishes, pickles, instant mixes that make life easy for someone cooking… the list goes on, he says.

This is one of the reasons that multinational companies are keen to enter India, says Mr Isaac, as he veers off to launch a tirade against the proposal to allow foreign direct investment into retail. “In India, there are more vendors than office goers,” and each of them is an entrepreneur. Foreign retailers will edge them out, he cautions.

The Government should support the domestic food processing sector and farmers both of which are crucial to the rural economy. Infrastructure such as cold chain is needed; entrepreneurs have to be encouraged with funding assistance and simplified procedures, he asserts.

Somebody has to organise the domestic food sector, and it is not a job for one person. Aachi Foods may have been conceived by one person but within a few years he had realised that growth could be bigger if shared with like minded individuals. Which is why he opted to outsource production to other entrepreneurs, says Mr Isaac.

MSc. in Food Technology/Food Science and Nutrition Admissions at SSSIHL

Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning (Deemed to be University) has notified the admission process for the following Postgraduate programmes of 2 years duration.

1. Master of Science in Food Science and Nutrition.
2. Master of Science in Food Technology.

Please visit the links for more information:

Admission Policy: http://www.sssihl.edu.in/dnn/Admissions/AdmissionsPolicy/tabid/606/Default.aspx

Courses for Admission: http://www.sssihl.edu.in/dnn/Admissions/CoursesforAdmissions/tabid/607/Default.aspx

Application Guide: http://www.sssihl.edu.in/dnn/Admissions/ApplicationGuide/tabid/608/Default.aspx

Online Application: http://www.sssihl.edu.in/dnn/Admissions/OnlineApplicationPortal/tabid/609/Default.aspx

Admission Related Downloads: http://www.sssihl.edu.in/dnn/Admissions/RelatedDownloads/tabid/610/Default.aspx

Admissions Contact: http://www.sssihl.edu.in/dnn/Admissions/ContactAdmissions/tabid/612/Default.aspx