BakeryBiz, Mar-Apr, 2021

BakeryBiz traces the business circumstances and impact on bakery product suppliers during the Covid times. An insight.

Bunge, a 200-year old food giant headquartered in the US acquired Masterline brands in 2003. Masterline under Unilever pioneered the concept of specialized bakery fats for various applications in India and Bunge reinforces the Masterline tradition of emphasis on specialization, experimentation, value addition and innovation and further exposes users of Masterline to international expertise. Bunge is currently present in the oils and fats space in the B2C and B2B segments in India.

COVID Impact

There’s been an effect on the business. We have a significant presence in the bakery ingredient space and most bakeries across the country weren’t fully operational for at least half the year. However, the oil segment and the bread and biscuit ingredients segment of our business improved with the increase in manufacturing and consumption of bread, snacks and biscuits, with people eating more of these products while working from home.

Business Impact

The business was definitely impacted and our response to the situation was keeping our operations ongoing so as to ensure that customers who were in need of our products never saw a shortage of stocks. Our teams, although staying home and working remotely, continued to stay in touch with all customers whether operational or not to give them confidence that we were always there for them. We also ensured we were the first movers in the market as they started opening up.

Future thinking

Businesses are bound to evolve and we will start seeing a larger number of hybrid businesses and by hybrid I mean businesses will thrive whether run online or offline. Coming to our own business line, I believe that change is the only constant and although the impact on the business is clear, we are in the process of helping our customers move to more flexible models of business operating both online and offline which in turn will ensure continued uninterrupted business for us.

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Based in Mumbai, Coco & More is a reputed firm dedicated to offering a comprehensive range of baking solutions. We represent many of the leading global brands for Professional and Home Bakeware, Chocolate Equipment, Baking Accessories and a wide array of Baking Ingredients.

COVID Impact (Rating 0 to 10) – 4

While it is true that COVID-19 has had a huge impact on certain segments of the baking industry, especially Boutique Bakers, Restaurants & Hotels,
what came as a pleasant surprise to us was an exponential rise in the number of home/hobby bakers, who took to baking in a big way during the lockdown. Since we deal extensively in Baking Ingredients and Home Bakeware, we were able to cater to the steady demand from this fast-growing segment which helped us sustain our business even during lean times.

Business Impact

COVID-19 has definitely opened up new opportunities and taught us to relook at our business offering with a fresh perspective. As we continued to cater to Home Bakers, we also perceived a popular trend of new Hobby Bakers. We were equipped to meet the specific demands of this segment through our range of quality Home Bakeware equipment and Baking Ingredients that were packaged for retail consumption. Having said that, our wholesale distribution and supplies to Professional Bakers, Hotels and Restaurants serving desserts that consumed premium ingredients were impacted by more than 70per cent.

Future thinking

Online sourcing of Baking Ingredients and Home Bakeware is definitely on an upward swing and we foresee a sizeable volume of our business being generated online. In fact, we are currently in the process of launching our Sales Portal and App that will offer Home Bakers a choice of fine baking solutions at a click of few buttons. We firmly believe that tough times don’t last, tough players do.

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Cremica Food Industries is a leading manufacturer in sauces and condiments segment with a quality offering, helping customers to grow with innovation and integrated backend solutions.

COVID Impact (Rating 0 to 10) – 7

Now the situation has recovered due to quality offerings in this segment. The retail segment has especially grown due to an increase in at home consumption during COVID.

Business Impact

The impact was to the tune of 15 to 20 per cent, which will get sorted by the first two quarters this year. We are focusing more on retail and organised trade, especially E-Commerce business.

Future thinking

The business will recover fast in the current year. We attribute our recovery to quality offerings. Business consolidation will benefit organised players who have created a reputation over the years by quality offerings. We are inching up towards innovation and taking it to the rural part of India which was less affected and moving fast on growth.

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Trufrost markets a truly international range of commercial cooling and foodservice products for bakeries, hotels, restaurants, bars & pubs, coffee shops, ice cream & beverage, food retail & display, food preservation and the bio-medical & healthcare segments.

COVID Impact (Rating 0 to 10) – 7/8

Since the pandemic directly impacted the hospitalityrelated segments such as hotels, restaurants, bars etc., the overall impact on these segments was almost 10 and still continues to be a high 7 or 8.

Business Impact

The acutest impact was obviously during the series of lockdowns; the situation started to look up around July and by September, we were back and bouncing.

Future thinking

We continue to be bullish about the long-term fundamentals of HORECA/ Food business, the setbacks caused by the pandemic notwithstanding. The pandemic did not leave much choice for businesses but to reinvent themselves, many sheer survivals. We were no different. We were forced to try many things. We spread our eggs in different baskets which included exploring new market segments and geographies. We clamped down on trade credit, cut down on travel to where it was truly essential, encouraged video calls with internal as well as external stakeholders, and resorted to some serious training initiatives for our sales and service teams. We got lucky with some of these measures with business growth back to pre-Covid levels from September onwards.

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Crust ‘n’ Crumb is a global player in the Baking & Confectionery industry and specializes in developing, manufacturing, and marketing creative and innovative baking solutions to industrial bakers, commercial and craft bakers, food service companies, confectionery manufacturers, and flour millers.

COVID Impact (Rating 0 to 10) – 7

Each of us were impacted with differing degrees of difficulty due to COVID. When the lockdown was announced, and few days ensuing it, there were a lot of ambiguity, with the business almost coming down to zero. Yet, during the lockdown, in Kerala, bakery was part of the essential segment, and we were able to capitalize on our locational advantage of being a manufacturing unit within the state. But, as the unlock process started, the market slowly revived in all parts of India, and we were able to get to the expected targets set for the period.

However, in the current weeks, the situation is shifting, with the pandemic peaking in certain markets. We face uncertainty by revaluating strategies as circumstances change, to strengthen the ability to sense and react. Overall, the performance of 2020 for our organization can be marked 7, as we are sustaining and functioning to the best of our ability within the varying challenges.

Business Impact

Essential changes in customer behaviour, supply chains, and routes to the marketplace, knocked us off balance at the initial stages of lockdown. But this was overcome by empowering teams driven by intent, led by data, and powered by technology – this optimised the company’s resilience while reviewing prospects for growth. Evaluation of the market pushed us to expand our focus from tier-1 cities to tier-2 and tier-3 cities, because the work-at-home scenario, became an impetus for a lot of people in shifting back to hometowns during lockdowns. New strategies of marketing were implemented, that helped in avoiding a significant impact on business.

Future thinking

We ought to continuously adjust to evolving market situations, with timely updates through conversations with customers. Pandemic has forced us to understand the significance of IT and digital connectivity; it is imperative that we utilize lessons acquired from this experience to establish systems for future disruptions, to keep vital operations and projects functioning efficiently.

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Exporters, importers and distributors of premium food ingredients, bakery & confectionery, bar supplies and non-food products Representing world renowned brands like Ireks, Valrhona, Boiron, Giffard and Super Chef and Chef’s Choice.

COVID Impact (Rating 0 to 10) – 5/6

Despite the challenges and the economic downfall, it gave us an opportunity to explore new avenues and innovate the way we do business by transitioning to the online marketplace and becoming more customercentric ensuring top safety standards along with top quality products.

Business Impact

Foodservice was impacted almost 40 per cent. Diversity in our client portfolio and multiple product lines, kept us engaged with the clients. The relationships built over the years with the clients and business flexibility proved key tools to sustain during the pandemic.

Future Thinking

Foodservice industry looks promising, people are willing to go out and spend even more after the lockdown. The industry is also shifting towards making a conscious choice of using high-quality ingredients and value for money to the customers. Internationally basic food requirement grew, which help our export business to grow exponentially. We have moved our meetings online, keeping business more robust as well as saving time and
travel costs. We are looking to continue to import premium food solutions, explore and develop our client base both regionally and globally.

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Confect, a brand under G’s Patisserie is India’s only chef-based baking ingredients company. We are proud manufacturers of each and every product
that we sell which is

backed by our promise to provide the best quality ingredients giving cakes a superb finish – they are designed to perform whether one is a beginner or a professional chef.

COVID Impact

We grew a lot during Covid, and it truly came as a blessing in disguise. Typical mentality with most people is that imported is best, however, due to Covid and the import restrictions it brought with it, people started leaning towards quality and value for money which has been our motto since the first day. So gimmicks that were truly short-lived came to an end. Our clients stood by us throughout this period.

Business Impact

The baking industry grew by leaps and bounds, as it should and with it we grew as a company by more than 500 percent.

Future thinking

The future as well looks bright- it may just be the inherent optimist in me speaking. The home bakers’ community has grown tremendously during Covid. – many have ventured and discovered the joys of baking. Almost every household today has a parent who knows how to make breads, cupcakes or muffins. In other words, it is becoming a standard staple at home. Many supermarket chains today have huge baking sections, something we didn’t find easily up to just 2 years ago. Also with Covid, commercial kitchen churning out run-of-the-mill commodity cakes have been overtaken by home bakers, owing to the ingredients and the care that goes into the preparation of these goodies.

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Goodlife Technologies Pvt Ltd, an ISO 9001:2008 certified company, specializes in fully computerised heavyduty stainless steel cookies drop machines, special dough aeration planetary mixers, specially designed cake machines, handmade cookies machines etc. We are having an expertise of over 15 years in manufacturing machines and 20 years in running a practical bakery where we use our own machines and test them rigorously on full load.

COVID Impact (Rating 0 to 10) – 5

This pandemic has resulted in manufacturing and production shutdowns and lead to chain disruptions which have additionally affected the economy. Along with this, disruption in logistics facilities during the lockdown has created more issues within the market as consumers weren’t getting products
as per their requirement which ultimately affected the market. Another factor that has created an impression on the market is the lack of availability of products. Therefore, due to these issues, smaller bakers within the unorganized segment are the worst affected.

Business Impact

Across the world, every industry, either supporting industry in terms of the availability chain or directly involved in manufacturing has adversely suffered from this pandemic. The food industry was allowed to resume operations due to the demand for packaged food products like cookies, biscuits, snacks, and bread during the lockdown but it is not true for every product category.

The bakery manufacturing companies help the food processing companies to feed a global population of close to eight billion people. During lockdown demand was high. Even while fighting with COVID-19 we tried hard to fulfill the requirements of our clients. But due to the unavailability of manpower, equipment, transportation, bank papers, and other many issues, the bakery industry was unable to provide machines to the bakery owners. So, we can say our business was immensely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic

Future thinking

The outbreak of COVID- 19 has brought the world to a halt where every industry has got a severe impact on it. This crisis has delivered an unexpected situation which everyone is going through. Due to the lockdown, companies have taken initiatives to open a webshop (for their online presence) for micro bakers and service providers to connect directly to their customers. The pandemic had initially slowed down the artisan bakers’ sector, but the initiatives taken by the manufacturers – including home delivery services, helped fast-track the bakery sector. As things settle down and the bakery business gets regularised, the bakery equipment manufacturing industry will also see a boom in business. As we know, the bakery processing industry is a behind-the-scene enabler, that proficiently and quietly processes food from farm to plate. The global market has experienced an upsurge in demand in recent years. So, process automation and advanced robotics are required in this sector for a rapid transition.

Also, based on the evolving customer needs, we will propose some innovation, demographic change. The outlook for the bakery processing equipment sector seems optimistic, and therefore the processing equipment industry will still witness robust growth in the years ahead.

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Bangalore-based Mangharam Chocolate Solutions is India’s first Total Chocolate Solutions company. In the field of Chocolate since 1993, we bring this rich experience to our customers by supplying them with the finest Chocolate Machines, European Moulds, Personalised Moulds, Chocolate Colours and Materials, etc. to make a wide range of Chocolates, Cakes and Confectionery.

COVID Impact (Rating 0 to 10) – 5

Covid has changed the game for most businesses on the planet. In the Indian scenario, Chocolate and Bakery business had been hit due to lockdowns, etc. in the first quarter of 2020, but have picked up since, rather significantly. This could be attributed to freelance home bakers getting more active providing easy door-deliveries from home, higher consumption of comfort foods, more time to gain knowledge and promote their products on social media, etc. Our business has remained steady and growing at a normal pace. However, margins have been hit due to rise in the prices of inputs – metals, fuel, labour charges, etc.

Business Impact

The response has been a positive one. On one hand, we have been adding new products to support our customers to make better Chocolates and Bakery products. We have also been busy improving the quality of our equipment by adding new features and functions with an aim to make world-class chocolate equipment in India. Additionally, we have improved our social media presence and increased our focus on digital marketing.

Future thinking

To foresee anything in the current scenario would be very difficult. But, having gone through a rough patch, most business owners, including us, would look to optimise our resources, make use of available avenues, ideas and innovations to maximise our business and avoid unnecessary financial commitments. The future of India seems very bright and we all would surely benefit if we work in an organised manner to give our customers high-quality products at affordable prices delivered to their door-step!

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We are a company dedicated to providing complete solutions to the needs of food processing companies in India. We have partnered with renowned international food processing equipment manufacturers and provide quality equipment and after-sales service of the highest standard. The specific market categories for which we offer equipment are – snack food, bakery, ready meals, frozen food, meat processing, hygiene and packing.

COVID Impact

The COVID impact was positive for our organisation in terms of machinery sale. Our sales reached an all-time high and we are entering into the next financial year with a good carry forward order. It would be attributed to reaching out to our customers with the right products and at the right time. The surge in demand basically lead to most of our customers opting for a capacity expansion approach and we benefitted from the same.

Business Impact

We are forecasting growth of roughly 70 per cent for the next financial year. Whereas we have pretty much closed this financial year at the same level as last year despite losing couple of months to COVID.

Future thinking

The future is positive – more players are entering into the segment and existing players are consolidating their position by expanding capacities. We continue to develop relevant products that serve a particular need for our customers and help us create a niche too.

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Premia Food Additives are producers of 100 per cent egg-free cake mixes (Vanilla, Chocolate and Red Velvet), customised bread improvers and eggfree doughnut and croissant mixes. Manufacturing operations of the organisation are set up at MIDC Taloja in Taluka Panvel.

COVID Impact (Rating 0 to 10) – 8

During the pandemic situation, we could stand very strong in our commitment and ensured supplies as partners to all major bakeries in India. Being involved in essential supplies of food raw material to bakeries, we experienced substantial increase in demand for our product during Covid from industrial bakeries, which were open and supplying bread, rusk, buns and cookies to food shops, departmental stores and to the common people.

Business Impact

We have seen good growth in our business. While our business was not impacted during Covid, on the contrary, we have seen a growth of more than 25 per cent.

Future thinking

In general, we see a very good future for the bakery business in India. We want to be a part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat story with our bakery premixes. Our product range has a growing market in India and we also see a huge potential in the export of our products.

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We are leading producers of Rotary Rack Oven, Tunnel Oven, High Speed Slicer. Make up line including Mixer, Hoist, Dough Divider, Rounder, Moulder. Also, we are into Final Proofer, Rusk Automated Unit and cookie plant.

COVID Impact (Rating 0 to 10) – 6

The overall impact on our business was somewhat positive and we would rate it 6. As we all know, harsh lockdowns in our country and across the globe in general, led to a shift in consumer habits and thus, consumption of packaged food products surged. Bakery products being among the preferred choice of snacking at home, the general bakery industry benefited from this shift.

Business Impact

Our customers (bakery units) saw substantial growth in demand for their products following lockdowns during 2020. However, due to a shortage of skilled workers, bakery units also realized the real potential of automation in their plants and machinery. This resulted in an increase in demand for our machines and through constant engagement with our customers, we helped them enhance their capacity through a higher degree of automation and bigger machines. This also meant that we had to step up our own production capacity and optimize the entire supply chain amid challenges related to raw material availability.

Future thinking

The packaged and convenient food (snacks) industry should continue to see a greater shift in demand in their favour given work from home and stay at home become new normal. However, product innovation in the Indian snacks and food segment would be the key as today’s consumers have greater exposure to the outside world and hence, they are becoming increasingly demanding. This should be a huge opportunity for nimble and agile players while a threat and a risk for others.

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Tropilite is an exceptionally seasoned R&D driven food ingredient & biotechnology company that emphasizes on facilitating tailored solutions for the Bakery, Food Service & Dairy industry. Tropilite provides its products, particularly under three renowned brands – TROPOLITE, FLEXI, BIOFLEX.

COVID Impact (Rating 0 to 10) – 2

This is attributed to lower production due to the scarcity of our workforce. What worked in our favour was our inventory planning which was adequate to sustain demand for the initial 2 months. In addition, a growing number of home bakers during the COVID period kept demand high and offset the drop in the B2B segment.

Business Impact

In the initial 2 months, we struggled to meet our targets. However, post lockdown our revenues went back to being on par with the pre COVID times. Since B2B segment was impacted the most, we created a new B2C business model for home bakers and end-users alike with retail packing of our products. This helped us tide the shortfall in the B2B business.

Future thinking

The future of our business holds a lot of promise and looks bright. To say that COVID had a positive impact for us would not be wrong given that we have ventured into a new vertical of the B2C segment. On the other hand, our B2B business is back on track and generating volumes and revenues matching a pre-COVID era. We are bullish looking into the future with the vaccination drive and India being COVIDfree soon.