Rich’s Thought Leaders’ Forum brings together bakers from diverse formats of operations to prospect for solutions. A report:
In a trendsetting development, bakers across India will get to thrash out the most pressing issues in the industry together with their most valued supplier. Rich’s Thought Leaders’ Forum will huddle bakers together at round-table conferences in several cities not just to probe but also to scoop out solutions.
The first of the series of Rich Thought Leaders’ Forum, was organised by BakeryBiz magazine, it was held on August 13 in Mumbai. Unrelenting quest for quality was the single most pronounced theme that percolated the conference room at Hyatt Regency Mumbai which brought together five heavyweights from the industry.
The five bakery professionals — Ronak Mehta, Chef -Owner, Oven Fresh, Salahuddin Khan, Owner, Danish Foods, Saroj Samtani, Director/Partner, Aaro Foods Pvt Ltd (Hangout), Jignesh Patel, Owner, Pastry Point, Chef Vikas Seth, Corporate Executive Chef, Dish Hospitality Pvt Ltd —kept the conversation vivacious through to the end while Team Rich’s— Pankaj Chaturvedi, Executive Director & CEO, Rich Graviss Products Pvt Ltd, Ashutosh Goel, General Manager – Marketing, Rich Graviss Products Pvt Ltd , Chef Pankaj Jain, Corporate Chef, Rich Graviss Products P Ltd —made propitious interventions to get to the bottom of the issues being discussed. All participants concurred that the industry is not only growing but also witnessing drastic changes. “It’s growing and going to grow more. People are moving from mithais to cakes, and there is no looking back. I think we need to give variations. That’s what people want,” said Jignesh Patel, Owner, Pastry Point.
The paradigm shift in consumer behaviour bodes well for the industry. People travel outside the country more often than before and demand higher quality, observed the participants. The challenge is to live up to the expectations of today’s discerning consumer. Salahuddin Khan, owner of Denish, had a more upbeat mood. “I feel the industry is growing. From butter cream, the industry has come to use fresh cream. In our country, due to the temperature and climate conditions, we cannot maintain a fixed quality. There are factors like this but we are still growing in the right direction.”
“There is going to be growth, and new competition. You need to focus on new products,” Saroj Samtani, Director/ Partner, Aaro Foods Pvt Ltd agreed. Metropolitan cities are grappling to fight stagnation in growth. Most speakers looked up to smaller towns to drive growth in the coming years. “We can say only twoand three-tier cities are growing. Mumbai is not growing much,” said Ronak Mehta, proprietor of Oven Fresh.
Availability of quality manpower and its retention is a cause of concern for the industry. Participants threw light on what their organisations have been doing to retain manpower. Chef Vikas Seth, Corporate Executive Chef, Dish Hospitality Pvt Ltd , Dish Hospitality, said his organisation did face attrition. “But today, the situation has stabilised,” he added.
On the sales and marketing front, complimentary items rather than discounts are the best way to widen one’s customer base. However, discounts also play its role. There were diverse opinions on taking the franchise route for expansion. “Most franchisees don’t do justice. We have seen what happened to many big brands who gave out franchises. There are possibilities of malpractices too,” Samtani expressed her view. “We have maintained our quality. We have maintained a certain relationship with our customers as well. We maintain limited supplies, we try out new products, we experiment on small portions, but our basics are the same,” she laid down her solo vision.
Mehta pitched for more organisation in the industry. Individuals running business out of their home would bring down quality standards, he feared. The informal nature of their business allows them to circumvent legislative clauses. However, others felt that entrepreneurs could not be stopped from carrying on any trade of their choice.
Everyone agreed that the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA), which came into being in 2006, will bring more order in the industry. But there are teething troubles in implementing the Act. The clause regarding segregation of garbage is an example, according to Mehta. The garbage, segregated into degradable and non-degradable as per the legislation, is put together again in the disposal facilities of the municipal corporation, rendering the whole exercise futile.
