CaLDRON February 2014 - Valentine's Day Special | Page 39

FOOD FAD - INTERVIEW

VB: It’s interesting that over the
past few years, companies like
ITC, Heinz and Hindustan Lever
introduced frozen food but exited
the market soon, while McCain
survived. What’s the secret to your
success?

the fact that the Indian F&B market
is influenced heavily by uncertain
weather conditions, which greatly
affected the quality and availability
of basic food ingredients. Being a
labor intensive industry, it also faced
a challenge of shifting manpower or
inadequate resources.
To meet these needs, we offered ‘FroVM: The frozen foods market in
zen Foods’ as a quick solution which
India is at a nascent stage, and
promises round-the-year availability,
typical of any market in its early
consistent product quality and even
development stages, it has fewer
products, lower consumer awareness reduces overhead costs for the operaand inadequate cold chain network. tor (perfect portions, high piece count
When we entered India in 1998, the and no wastage). With passage of
only frozen foods were peas, vegeta- time and efforts towards generating
bles, meat and ice cream. The concept trial and experience of frozen foods,
this category has considerably imof using pre-prepared frozen snacks
proved over the years.
was virtually unknown in Indian
market. It was a challenge for us to
convince customers to choose ‘frozen VB: But don’t you think that Inover fresh’ ingredients. We decided to dia’s cold chain networks are not as
first understand their needs and offer well equipped to maintain quality
standards required for frozen food
solutions that worked for buyers.
packs?
Our industry research brought out
CaLDRON February 2014

VM: Frozen food penetration in any
country is fully dependent on the
support from cold supply chain facilities. It is an efficient cold chain that
transports frozen products in stipulated time frame while maintaining the
required temperature.
The cold chain segment in India
is dominated by unreliable suppliers and small businesses with poor
networks. As their services are not
integrated, it leads to wastage and
damage to food due to frequent handling and transfer. We have worked
closely with third party cold chain
operators to implement the latest
technology in infrastructure and cold
chain refrigerated transport. ■

Vinita Bhatia
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