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Pankajj Chaturvedi speaks to Syed Ameen Kader about his strategies.

Pankajj Chaturvedi, executive director, Rich Graviss Products, speaks to Syed Ameen Kader about his marketing strategies and growth plans for the company.

What kind of product and services does Rich offer in India?
We have acted as a catalyst to grow the cakes and desserts market in India. Our flagship brand Rich’s Whip topping, is the largest non-dairy whip topping in the country. We launched Niagara Farms, a dairy blend topping that can entice consumers time and again.

A milestone for us in food product innovations was to develop a product for hot kitchen applications. Rich’s Cooking Rich Hot Kitchen is specially designed for Indian cuisine. This product was awarded the Robert E Rich ‘Spirit of Innovation’ award – the highest award for innovation in Rich’s worldwide.

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Recently, we introduced Rich’s Truffle Base which makes the process of making truffles very convenient. It saves on consumption of chocolate and inventory costs, at the same time ensuring hygiene and consistency.

Rich has been in India for more than a decade now, but you have adopted an aggressive marketing strategy since the last couple of years only. Why so?
Rich Graviss Products is a very young company in India. We take great pride in being a customer focussed company that has introduced innovative products and solutions, and delighted food service connoisseurs across the world.

As a progressive food company, we are connecting with our partners - the food service professionals in India. Since 2007, we have launched about 25 new products in just 20 months.

Our business strategy involves intense focus on the product life cycle. In coming years, we will continue to introduce more innovative products and solutions with the value proposition to our customer of convenience, quality and profit maximisation.

Can you tell us more about your expansion plans in India?
We are already the market leader in the bakery channel with over 70% market share in the toppings category, as per our internal estimates. We are looking at increasing our production capacity by opening one more manufacturing plant in northern India.

The new plant should be operational within a year’s time. Along with our existing plant in Pune, which is a certified R&D lab by the Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India, the new facility will help us meet the demands of the market and service nationwide customers more efficiently.

In-house R&D helps us develop products as per the preferences of the India taste palate. With our nationwide distribution network, we promise consistent availability and delivery of our high quality products across the country

What is your core marketing strategy?
We believe in the ‘voice of the customer’. All our marketing strategies or product ideas evolve from extensive customer interaction. We are committed to building relationships with the customers, and spend a lot of our time understanding their needs.

We have benefited from Rich’s global experience in the food industry, and we constantly update our associates with knowledge in all spheres of the business – culinary, marketing and distribution.

Our team of chefs share their knowledge with customers across the country helping them with new recipes and applications, thereby improving their sales and profitability.

We have a very systematic but exhaustive market validation process in which several prototypes are validated with key customers, that is, chefs across the country. Recently, we sponsored the IFCA National Culinary congress at Hyderabad, the objective being to build relationships with the chef fraternity of India.

Our marketing strategies or product ideas evolve from extensive customer interaction like these. Our products have been developed ‘by the chefs for the chefs’.

How has the economic slowdown affected you?
The slowdown has affected our customers and hence affected us too. The hospitality industry especially has been bearing the major brunt of the economic and security problems. But we see this as a momentary issue, as the demand is far more then the supply. There is tremendous growth potential in the sector.

We can help our customers affected by this slowdown to recover faster through our global experience. The four key elements in the future of the food service industry would be innovation, hygiene, consistency, and availability.

Food service customers looking to grow their business geographically would need standardised products and solutions that serve their needs across the country.