PC Musthafa 00:00

Running any business is tough. You’ll get a lot of complaints. Running a food business is very, very tough business. But then running a fresh food business without adding chemicals and preservatives is the toughest job in the world. My parents when I started going to college, they both decided to skip one meal every day to educate me. We Indians don’t trust our packaged food. Anything in a package form is considered as unhealthy. We launched the product in the market, we were surprised nobody was willing to buy a package batter. We started sending 100 packets to market and 90 has to come back on so. We can create one of the largest fresh food business in the world, all of us can do wonders in the world. But we all wait for tomorrow. My grandfather could never eat a full meal in his whole Life. I still feel that I should be able to feed him in the world hereafter.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 00:43

Hi, this is Siddhartha Ahluwalia and welcome to the Neon show. Our guest was listed by Forbes India as one of the tycoons of tomorrow. Today, he is co-founder of India’s biggest fresh foods company. And one of the most inspiring entrepreneurs. It’s my pleasure to welcome iD fresh foods PC Musthafa on the Neon show. I would also like to thank our sponsors, Prime Venture partners, for sponsoring the neon show. Hope you enjoy it.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 01:13

 

Musthafa your journey has awe-inspired me right. Your humble beginnings. And you always say right, you had determination. But I think it was more than determination that helped iD reach to where it is like today. We would like to discuss that. It’s your journey, iD’s journey, lessons learned along the way? And your understanding of the because you have been in this market for almost 18 years. Now. Yes. So your understanding of the entire food chain in the market and you have, you know, shared on various platforms that food is so special to you. Because you know, in your early childhood, breakfast was the one thing that you craved for but you could never have it because of your circumstances, right? And sometimes I feel that you know, the people God wants to bless and show the world as an example. They are the people that suffer the most in earlier lives right because diamonds are created under pressure, there is no easy way to make a diamond. Right. And you are among the very few diamonds from India that you stand on an international like you will give a lecture on in Harvard, which is so prestigious the case study of iD is in Harvard today. I want to start, you know your journey by what are the earliest memories of your childhood. Maybe when you were five, six years age or seven years old that shaped Musthafa into what he is today.

 

PC Musthafa 02:49

I used to see my dad working slogging for almost 12-13 hours a day in a ginger farm and still trying to meet… finding it difficult to meet both ends of the family. That’s a situation that I had faced during my early days.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 03:08

And these are the memories because till when we are 3 to 4 years old, you’re not able to recollect right? Yeah. But once you are able to recall that, hey, this was five years old. This is the first impression that you have of your childhood.

PC Musthafa 03:23

So the initial days, and I remember those, those were the solutions. And when I was like 10-11 years old. I did my first startup. In today’s world it is called Startup. Yeah, those days it was called survival.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 03:40

Yeah, I remember the story very well. Right. You used to go from your village to Wayanad 14 km.

 

PC Musthafa 03:46

My village from my Chennalode to the nearest town which is called Kalpetta which is the capital of Wayanad is 14 kilometres away. And there were no roads, there was no transportation. So we had to walk. And of course I had to cross the river with the help of a boat. It’s all of them the experience that I had.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 04:08

There were also river between you and you’re nearest town?

 

PC Musthafa 04:10

Yeah. And there is no bridge, right? So to cross all the way and then I used to borrow money from my uncle and go to the village, go to the town, buy chocolates, at wholesale price, bring it back and then set up a makeshift store during my summer holidays in my village. In front of my home. It was like a makeshift store made with my mom’s saree, and dad’s bench. And my mom also used to make lassi, and some lime soda and stuff like that. Lime drinks, right? And then I used to sell that, make money. And that was my first success enterprise. And of course when I made profit, I returned the capital to my uncle.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 04:56

And what was your background of your dad & granddad.

 

PC Musthafa 05:02

So both of them, my granddad migrated from, you know, I think from a place called Calicut to my native Wayanad and then they started farming, okay.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 05:14

And farming for others not for their own farm?

 

PC Musthafa 05:16

No. So they started working for others. And then dad could not pursue his studies. And he started working in a farm. And he was the eldest in the family, and he had to take care of his siblings. And his dad was a… my grandfather was not very healthy. Yeah, so my dad had to slog and take care of his siblings. And that’s my initial memory in my life, I still, I still have, you know, that feel right now, my grandfather could never eat, you know, a full meal in his life, I’ve seen that happening, right? I still feel that I should be able to, you know, support him in the world hereafter, or feed him in the world hereafter

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 06:08

And you believe in the concept of the world hereafter after that. And so you feed a lot of, you know, people in poverty today. So you think that that karma of yours is somehow able to go to your granddad.

 

PC Musthafa 06:23

It’s my responsibility. Right? It’s my responsibility to do my duty. And this is one such duty that I do.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 06:32

Can, Can you describe? One is how was your home in the first 10 years of your life, if you remember.

 

PC Musthafa 06:38

So it was a it was like a very specific cottage. Yeah, made with the, I don’t know what is called Hay, right. And it used to leak. So I still remember during an Eid day, and we had a guest at home. And, and he had, He was well dressed with a white shirt and white dhoti. Yeah. And it rained, it rained, and then it leaked. And, you know, when when, when it leaks through the cottage, the hay, right? It’s the black coloured water comes out. And his dress was completely spoiled. And he was angry at my dad, when this happened. I sort of I felt very sorry for my dad that day, because those are the memories of my life, right. But I know, for the first thing that I did was, after getting getting a job, I built a decent Home for my parents, we are probably the what do you call, Poorest in the village before I got a job. And then we sort of became one of the richest village after I got a job.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 07:58

And you were the eldest among your siblings. Yes. So you also had from the beginning responsibility that, you know, I want to take care of my brothers and sisters.

 

PC Musthafa 08:09

I had that dream to ensure that my dad doesn’t have to work for 14 hours a day, and still struggled to meet with the family. So I thought I should support him. And that’s when I started working with him in a ginger farm.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 08:29

At what age you started working around?

 

PC Musthafa 08:31

10-11 years time, during my summer holidays, yeah, I used to either do my makeshift store and make some money. Or I used to work with him in a Ginger farm. If it was like shorter period, I used to work with him. My weekends and all I used to work with him in the ginger farm, used to get very, very small money, but I used to save that money. And with that money, when I think some 150 rupees or so I saved and I bought a goat. And that was the first asset in the family. Right? That became two three goats. And then I sold all the three four goats and bought a cow. And the cow became our regular income for the family. The milk from the cow became the regular income for the family.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 09:20

And this happened in how many years? This is what, two three years like you’re 10 or 11.

 

PC Musthafa 09:25

I was yeah! 12- 13 that time. till 12-13 You got a cow? Yeah. Own cow and managed.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 09:32

Yeah, that must have been a really proud moment to get the first asset for the family and cow is very well revered in a village right? Yes. Somebody who has a cow also holds a Stature.

 

PC Musthafa 09:42

One is that second is you know, we’re able to eat three meals a day, okay. Because the milk from the cow was regulating for the family.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 09:56

And if you can describe right the Memories of what were the meals that that I believe your mom used to cook for the entire family.

 

PC Musthafa 10:04

So during those days. You know, I somehow felt my I told this to my dad as well, right? He and I know his income was very less, but they still not used to spend money. They used to save money for I know my my sister was a sister’s were at that time. 10 years 9- 10 years old, right? But then my dad used to save money for their wedding. Yeah, instead of eating during those days. So the Tapioca was one.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 10:41

What is tapioca?

 

PC Musthafa 10:42

Tapioca is one such item that you get in the farm right that’s as one item that we used to eat, sometimes rice very limited or the subsidised wheat that it gets from the ration shop.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 10:57

And and rise and wheat you had to purchase tapioca was usually from the farm.

 

PC Musthafa 11:02

Yeah. wheat and rice both we used to get a subsidised rate from the ration shop.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 11:09

Got it. And you mentioned right? That you’re your father, you used to earn 10 rupees a day, when you used to work at Farm Your father used to earn 50 rupees.

 

PC Musthafa 11:19

Yeah, that was later in life. Initially, my dad used to earn 10 rupees a day.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 11:24

Okay, Dad also used to get 10 rupees a day when you were like nine or 10 years old, and-

 

PC Musthafa 11:27

-My dad used to get 10 rupees a day, I never used to work. During those time, when my dad was getting 50 rupees at a stage, I used to get around 10 rupee.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 11:35

That is when you were 10 years 10-11 years old. And all the male members of the family are also working at the farm.

 

PC Musthafa 11:42

Now, so we used to do something else during that time to support our dad, myself, my sisters and my mom used to go to the forest occupy collect the wood, okay, and bring it back and sell it in the village. And, and make some money out of it.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 12:04

So that have been what hardly 1500 to 2000 rupees per month of family income.

 

PC Musthafa 12:10

Less than that, yeah. And this is we are better you don’t get job every day in during those days. Right?

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 12:16

At farm there is no guarantee of the job?

 

PC Musthafa 12:17

No for example, you know, when it rains, they don’t work. And you’re not getting paid at all, no nothing. And during that was a difficult time, right? Especially during the rainy season, you know, three meal was almost impossible.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 12:31

let’s say out of the 365 days, I assume-

 

PC Musthafa 12:34

Half of the days during those days was heavy rains during and during those days in Wayanad. Half the time.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 12:41

So there was I can assume that there was no predictability that tomorrow the food on the table would be there or not.

 

PC Musthafa 12:47

No and there will be no savings as well.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 12:50

How is your village now right? Has it improved?

 

PC Musthafa 12:52

It has this sort of developed now. Okay. Good Roads, good school within Indoor Stadium. Right with nice homes.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 13:05

Everybody has had a pakka home now in your Village?

 

PC Musthafa 13:09

Mostly yes.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 13:11

And I believe that iD would have played a large role. So now when you go to your village-

 

PC Musthafa 13:18

Won’t say we have given someone money but we were able to give we were able to show the show some of the kids in the village some of the smart boys in the village world outside the village and they got exposure, some of them work to the iD some of them outside as well. And you know, have been successful.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 13:39

And is there an iD factory near the village or in the village?

 

PC Musthafa 13:43

We have Factory only in five places Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Dubai. Okay.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 13:52

And is there something in Wayanad that employees?

 

PC Musthafa 13:57

No, there is no employment generation happening in Wayanad. But we have many people from Wayanad in working with us, okay, the sales team or in the factory, or even in the corporate job.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 14:08

Okay. And how many if you remember it, how many families would be there in the village that you have?

 

PC Musthafa 14:12

I think my village would have around 400-300 to 400. And as you make the best part about the village was, you know, even today, yeah. We were very well connected. Yeah. My dad knows every member in the village by name. Okay. I wouldn’t know most of them. Right. We had a mosque, church and a temple in the village. Yeah. Right. Well connected. We celebrate festivals together. Yeah. You know, we just, you know, walk into a place to home and, you know, get a coffee that’s, have coffee together. Okay. And that’s the kind of, irrespective of caste religion so that’s the best part about the village life.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 14:58

You have very fond Memories also even today. Of your Village, I think that the only thing that’s stung you right? and that made you determined was that you might have gone back to bed hungry many times, right?

 

PC Musthafa 15:14

So inspired by the village experience, we launched a campaign in bank in different parts of India called Meet your neighbour. During the Independence Day time last year, we’ve done it like 2-3 times. Okay. We said invite your neighbours for breakfast, and iD will take care of the meals for you. Okay, we will we will serve iD foods free for free of cost to you, do you only think that you have to do is just invite them for the breakfast or for meal. Yeah. And that was something which we excluded with an iD and did try to do something good for the society. Yeah. And as a businessman, it was a good sampling exercise for me.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 16:02

Agree. And once these housewife in, I assume, in villages, were making dosas using iD batter, you would get a real time feedback.

 

PC Musthafa 16:13

Yeah, no, they still don’t make it. Don’t get iD batter in the village. You know, we are very limited. In our distribution network. Okay. We are there in 70 cities across various parts across like, six countries. Yeah, but we’re not there in Wayanad Okay. Our production’s not available in Wayanad Okay. And there’s a reason for it. We in fact we tried it. But no, they still want to make that batter at home. Okay. So we decided to withdraw the product from market.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 16:44

Okay. So you you tried the idea? I assume you had five, you mentioned 400 families in the village right? Out of them. 100 youth would have come up during your time. And they would have been part of iD as employee in some way or another

 

PC Musthafa 17:00

100 plus maybe? Yeah.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 17:03

Well, these are youth who, in other cases, because you fought so hard at every moment to come out of Village. Right?

 

PC Musthafa 17:12

I wouldn’t take any credit for that. It is their skill. Yeah, they were smarter than me. Yeah. The only thing was, I was lucky to come out to the village and see a world outside. Yeah, they didn’t have the opportunity. And me and my cousins took up the challenge. When we started iD, we said that is one of the most important reasons that we will venture into a business, which is to create employment for smart Kids from the village. Okay. And to some extent, yes, we were able to show them the world outside.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 17:46

When was your first hire that you did from your village?

 

PC Musthafa 17:49

Now the first, our first hire 2015— 2005 itself! Five, six time itself. The first hire was in village.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 17:57

And the first chance that you had to go out of village was your college. Right? 11-12th.

 

PC Musthafa 18:03

Yeah, so I didn’t know. I haven’t seen I hadn’t seen a world outside. Wayanad Until my 11th after completing my 10th I went outside Wayanad. Outside Wayanad not Kerala so outside Wayanad.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 18:22

And which was this place? Where you went to?

 

PC Musthafa 18:24

I went to a place called Farook college in Calicut.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 18:27

Okay. And Calicut became your new home for two years almost? Yes. Did you come back to see your family often?

 

PC Musthafa 18:36

Weekends. And holidays used to come back.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 18:38

It used to be or two, three hours away from your home?

 

PC Musthafa 18:41

Two and Half hours us by bus by bus. But that day, by the time even the know, bus those katcha road or mud road from the town to my village as well. So there was bus transportation at that time as well. So look at the case of my dad, right? Our parents. He worked 12-13 hours a day. Yeah. And try to feed us and then he saved some money to educate me. And when I started going to college they both decided to skip one meal every day. Right to educate me. So if my dad can take me to where I am today, all of us can do wonders in the world. Yeah. And that’s the only reason that he is my role model. And the greatest inspiration my life.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 19:39

How far was your school? Can you describe your school life?

 

PC Musthafa 19:43

So the. In my village, there was a LP school and UP school LP is low Primary and Upper primary until seventh. So the school was around close to one kilometers away from my place, walkable and it was I went to the vill- I just went to the school just two days ago. Did a photo shoot for Forbes. Okay. same school.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 20:07

So you cleared your plus two at age of 17, I assume. Yeah. And then four years of engineering.

 

PC Musthafa 20:15

Yeah. Then I worked with Motorola India, for one-

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 20:18

You started your first job at what? Age of 21?

 

PC Musthafa 20:21

21. Yeah. Okay. And so then I worked with Motorola, India, and (Inaudible) for one and a half years. Yeah. Then, I mean, of course, India and Ireland. And then I went to Saudi. after this I was only 22 years old. I bought my first car. First cycle, car or vehicle whatever you wanna call.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 20:41

Got it. And by the time, you know by, by the time you went to Saudi and you already built a home for your?

 

PC Musthafa 20:48

No, I did not build. So I was working in Saudi, that time I decided. To build the home

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 20:57

And how big was the new home that you built? If you can describe?

 

PC Musthafa 21:01

It was a major upgrade from where we were. No. So it was a five bedroom. Okay, nice. Concrete. Okay, home, one of the best in the village at the time, around 3000 square feet. Okay.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 21:17

And what’s the current home that your parents live in?

 

PC Musthafa 21:20

A better home than a better home for you?

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 21:21

So you have been upgraded, upgraded? And how big is the Current house around?

 

PC Musthafa 21:26

Around 7000 square feet? Okay. Same village, same village, but done in a modern way.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 21:33

Okay. Nice. It’s been an amazing journey right? And what do you think kept you going right? Determination is only just one thing you know, because you kept on pushing yourself for better, better better, you could have easily settled in your job in Motorola right or in Saudi for a long period of time, right. Because it was accused you mentioned right that you after some time started getting like one lakh rupees of salary. And this was what back in 97’—96’?. That was huge salary. Back then, why why even?

 

PC Musthafa 22:13

My dad felt it was my annual package, not my monthly package. he couldn’t believe.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 22:20

You’re sending more than half of it back to your home?

 

PC Musthafa 22:23

Almost, almost all of it Thats how I build my home.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 22:30

So, why did you even come back to India like you could have gone on to

 

PC Musthafa 22:34

So I then moved to the Dubai along with my boss, right? Again with Citibank Yeah, was getting a decently good salary almost three lakh rupees a month, very Kushi(Happy) job, yeah, you were what 25-26? 26 and good, everything was going smooth. But then I was just sort of getting bored. So, I decided to come back to India with three objectives. One, I want to spend more time with my parents,

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 22:34

Which year did you come back to India?

 

PC Musthafa 22:59

Twenty years – 2003 2003, almost take after six years, six years of my merchant with outside India, I decided to come back. I decided to come back with three objective and it was very, very, very clear about these two objectives. One, I wanted to spend more time with my parents. So that’s the reason I decide to come back to Bangalore. When, if I go back to Wayanad I will not get a job. Yeah, right. So it is important for me to come back closer to home. So Bangalore was of course the first choice. Second, I had a good gate score after my engineering. I was one of the top maybe 100 Rank holders in India for my MS studies, MTech, but my financial situation was not good enough at that time for me to pursue my studies. So I wanted to pursue my high studies. The second reason, third, and what are the most important thing that I wanted to do something for my village? Yeah. As I mentioned earlier that I was very lucky to come out of the village and see a better world. There are many smarter kids in the village who was not lucky enough. So I thought I should do something for them. And so three reasons that I decided to come back to India. I did my MBA from IIM, Bangalore.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 24:38

That was 2005 to 2007 or?

 

PC Musthafa 24:40

05 to 07 living in Bangalore was closer to home. So I was able to spend more time with my parents that they coming here or me going there. And then, you know, doing something for the village was the inspiration for me and my cousin’s to get into a business idea.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 25:00

And your cousins are also from the same village. Yes. How did they move to Bangalore?

 

PC Musthafa 25:04

So my cousin, my cousin Nazar, eldest in the family or in the group ran away.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 25:11

Okay, at what age?(Chuckles)

 

PC Musthafa 25:12

I think he was around 15-16 years old. He ran away and came to Bangalore, he ran away and he was missing completely. We were not able to trace him. Yeah, he ran away and came back I think after like a year or so, okay. He was working in Bangalore is working in Bangalore in a tailor shop, no, in a textile shop, as a sweeper. And that’s how he started his journey. He is again, an A classic example of for determination. Yeah. Very, very strong, determined person.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 25:47

And when you you and your cousin decided to start iD that’s 2005 Right. First or second year of IIM Bangalore. So. So what was your cousin doing at that point of time?

 

PC Musthafa 26:01

My cousins were running a small team Kirana store in a place called Indiranagar in Bangalore it was very small setup. And that’s where this whole journey of iD started.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 26:10

And you mentioned right at that point in time, they used to get the batter to sell to retail customers Yeah, in in small polybag?

 

PC Musthafa 26:23

So there was a of course we discussed various ideas. And one such idea was about Idli Dosa Batter. The reason being there was a batter supply who was supplying batter in a plane pouch with a rubber band on the top you will still see in some part of Malleshwaram in Bangalore and Matingai in Mumbai. This batter had all sorts of quality issues, service complaints and hygiene issues. My cousin’s tried to fix the issue with this vendor multiple times didn’t work out. And that’s when we thought of solving it ourself. And we had no idea about food technology no idea order about making breakfast we’re not have no idea when we eating breakfast. Yeah. And that’s where the whole journey started.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 27:05

And how do you make a batter?(Chuckles)

 

PC Musthafa 27:08

We are. I had no idea even today by the way my cousins the best in doing all these things, I am just front ending the discussions. Whatever iD is today, is what they have created not me, I am just – one of the co-founder and all credit should go to them not to me. Now, coming back on your question, you know, when we started, we started with very small setup my cousin’s retail store in Indiranagar at a small storage area out there and of course we clean it up yeah and made it a 50 square foot area kitchen with then we bought we already have what we had was 50,000 rupees with that we bought one grinder-

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 27:59

And you were the most educated I think among your cousins right rest when you you mentioned one of your?

 

PC Musthafa 28:03

Education has nothing to do with this one right?(Chuckles). So it was a partnership firm we started. I was pursuing my MBA from IIM Bangalore that time. So this started in and with one grinder, one mixer one sealing machine one weighing scale and a second-hand TVS scooty or what would we had a 40,000- 50,000rupees investments and we started making and it took us almost 9-10 months to get the batter right okay. But once we had that wore protect then we thought yes we have cracked it we will make it Successful, we launched the product in the market. We were surprised nobody was willing to buy a package batter. We started sending 100 packets to market and 90 has to come back Unsold. It took us almost nine months after that for us to sell 100 packets of batter, which year was this? 2006.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 28:12

So, you are managing both your studies at IIM Bangalore and you come back in the evening?

 

PC Musthafa 29:12

I used to work, I used to support my cousin’s on weekends and my holidays okay. And of course I used to whatever funding I had to do and even the strategic discussions so called whole discussion of course we used to do but otherwise the operation was completely done by them for almost three years. Until I completed my MBA.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 29:36

Till 2006 It was hard for you to sell even 100 batter in a day or in a month?

 

PC Musthafa 29:43

In a day. 100 kg in a day.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 29:45

100kg job and from the same Indiranagar Kirana shop?

 

PC Musthafa 29:48

Yeah. No we had 20 stores, okay you have when we had we were supplying 20 stores, okay and even to the stores and we were not able to sell 100 packets.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 29:57

And they used to return back and all unsold. But so, at what point of time you started seeing the real demand come in, just from the Bangalore?

 

PC Musthafa 30:09

When we were able to sell 100 packets a day. That gave us confidence.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 30:14

Which year from 2006 to ?

 

PC Musthafa 30:16

2006, right. We started 2005 and 2006 is this one. So 2006 and 2007, I think, we got the confidence. And then we setup a small kitchen. We can’t call it factory. I had some savings from my overseas job. Yeah. invested that money and set up a small kitchen in a place called C.V- C.V Raman Nagar. In Bangalore.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 30:40

Where there is Gopalan malls out there. Yeah, same road. Okay. And what happened after you set up that kitchen.

 

PC Musthafa 30:49

Then we were able to grow the business. We started recruiting more people and recruiting more stores and placing the product in the stores and the product was a great product. In fact, you know, that’s my biggest asset, right? Our product is a hero, if you don’t get the product or you don’t even attempt to, you know, sell it and build the brand, so the good thing about the product was it was a hero product to people who tried it loved it.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 31:17

So So tell me right earlier in all these Kirana stores, rubberband batter was getting sold?

 

PC Musthafa 31:24

Very, very minimal. So the other people were making batter at home. There was unbranded batter being sold in very many stores.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 31:25

Okay, so there was no not actually a market for batter?

 

PC Musthafa 31:39

No, this was a category creation accessory. You created a category. Yeah. It said I would say category conversion exercise. Yeah. Because people know, all of us used to make batter at home.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 31:50

Almost there was like zero competition because there was no category at all.

 

PC Musthafa 31:54

No. I think that’s because competition was the grinders at home. Which one? Grinders at home – grinders.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 31:59

At home, okay. And for example, for all South Indian households, right? Yes, Idli Dosa are a daily eat thing. Yes. Right? So grinding batter at home would have been a daily exercise, which would have taken what half an hour to one hour for each household.

 

PC Musthafa 32:15

It might take only half an hour, 45 minutes to complete, but then it takes one full day of mindshare. Okay. Because you got to start the process 24 hours before it if you don’t do sock properly, yeah. Right. And grind, mix, ferment it properly, then make the batter next day as dosa or idli the next day.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 32:39

Got it. And you had that insight that the market doesn’t exist right now for this for selling ready made better. But it will in future, right? How what was that? It gave you conviction that there is no market here?

 

PC Musthafa 32:54

And so, when we were able to sell 100 packets a day. Yeah, that gave us confidence. And of course, we thought we can do this in 1000 stores. And then we did put a plan and a plant to create a clear batter for 5000 kg a day. Okay. And that was all dreamed, 5000 kg batter in Bangalore with what is possible today, by the way we do almost 10x of that in Bangalore.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 33:18

Okay, that’s the difference. 50,000 kgs in Bangalore.

 

PC Musthafa 33:21

So that’s that’s how the whole thing started. So coming back. There are many such stories or many such, category conversion, which has happened in the past. Yeah. Let’s take the case of Atta(Wheat). Yeah. During my childhood days, we used to get subsidised wheat from the ration shop. Yeah, my dad used to buy it. And you know, bring it home. Yeah. It was dirty. Right. And my mom used to clean it. Wash Yeah. And then dry it to the sunlight. And then in good to be in a polybag and I then used to take Chakkia mill or sometimes she used to make it at home itself. Right. You have a Chakki at home the man No, no Chakki she had a manual you know, wheat what you call grinding system at home right? So she has to manage all manual. So as to you know, make atta and then no. A store it in a container. And whenever needed, she used to you know use it right. And it makes a chapathi. If I tell this story to my kids today, they will laugh at it. They won’t believe how old are your kids? I have three boys. Right two of them are in college already. Okay one’s in school, so the story I am telling you is this transition from a it Chakki atta mill to a packaged Aashirvaad and Annapurna of the world was actually happening. So we were seeing with our eyes that gave us the courage and then you can actually see the same thing happening for other categories as well right? Masala for example you know curd for example, pickle all of them are homemade. So, homemade to packaged food conversion was story happening that gave us a confidence.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 35:30

And I assumed it was for a long period of time there was nobody else in batter market?

 

PC Musthafa 35:35

Even today I think we there are no play nobody else in the – a very, very ,very limited players even today. But there’s a large opportunity for people to get in.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 35:46

You think that currently you have reached the peak of the market in India are they still market left?

 

PC Musthafa 35:52

No no no no huge opportunity left. So, if I do simple maths with you for a market like Bangalore, Bangalore let me do a roleplay with what will be the Bangalore population.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 36:03

I assume it will be like somewhere around 30 lakhs or 40 lakhs.

 

PC Musthafa 36:06

Bangalore population? Bangalore population is 1.3 crores Okay. In 1.3 crore population as per our study, almost 95% plus bangaloreans eat Idli, Dosa on a regular basis and as a regular basis it’s on average it’s three to four meals in a week okay, is made of Idli dosa batter. They could make Idli, dosa, Set dosa, masala dosa, paniyaram and uthappam whatever, whatever but this is the average consumption of batter at home with 1.3crore population, three meals in a day with a 95 percentage consumption and every meal you end up eating three idli or three dosa. So, if you do the maths right 1.3, 95% of it that I assume 1.2 * three or four meals into three idli we are talking about almost total 12 core Idli in a week. divided by seven you’re talking about close to 1.7 to two crore idli in a day. Yeah. To crore idli in a day needs 1 million kg of Batter, I only do 50,000 kg of batter even today in a market like Bangalore. So 95% of the market is still homemade. As per our study. Almost 100% of the batter in b2b restaurants is made in their assurance they don’t buy from outside. But whereas if you look at homemade almost 80% of the batter consumption, they make it home. So I see, you see a 5x opportunity in batter consumption at home itself. Just in 1 city just in one city. Right? If you do say maths for Chennai, right, numbers will always remain the same. Except one one aspect instead of three meals in a week, they will do five meals a day. Right? With the Idli and dosa. Yeah, that’s the eating batter.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 38:23

Musthafa you mentioned about right today 50,000 kgs of iD batter gets consumed in Bangalore. And there is a capacity for almost 10 lakh or 1 million opportunity, opportunity that is almost getting consumed. Yes. Right.

 

PC Musthafa 38:43

If you cannot imagine the size of the idli market, yeah. 1 million kg of batter is like 100 Asian elephants. 100 Asian elephants. Okay, that’s the Weight of idli batter being consumed in market Bangalore every day

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 39:00

It’s almost the size of a football field if I can imagine Asian elephants occupying right what would it take to? To to make them because each elephant is what 100 tonnes or something?

 

PC Musthafa 39:13

(Chuckles) Such a large opportunity. In fact, I kept I think probably the idli batter are dosa are better? Yeah. What is the most consumed food item in the world?

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 39:26

Why is that?

 

PC Musthafa 39:28

Because tell me any other product is being consumed to that level. Any other product?

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 39:34

I agree with you right. It might be the most consumed breakfast item in the world. Right? What I just want to see the reason why it become so common?

 

PC Musthafa 39:45

I think it’s the health aspects. Yeah. And you know-

 

PC Musthafa 33:21

So that’s that’s how the whole thing started. So coming back. There are many such stories or many such, category conversion, which has happened in the past. Yeah. Let’s take the case of Atta(Wheat). Yeah. During my childhood days, we used to get subsidised wheat from the ration shop. Yeah, my dad used to buy it. And you know, bring it home. Yeah. It was dirty. Right. And my mom used to clean it. Wash Yeah. And then dry it to the sunlight. And then in good to be in a polybag and I then used to take Chakkia mill or sometimes she used to make it at home itself. Right. You have a Chakki at home the man No, no Chakki she had a manual you know, wheat what you call grinding system at home right? So she has to manage all manual. So as to you know, make atta and then no. A store it in a container. And whenever needed, she used to you know use it right. And it makes a chapathi. If I tell this story to my kids today, they will laugh at it. They won’t believe how old are your kids? I have three boys. Right two of them are in college already. Okay one’s in school, so the story I am telling you is this transition from a it Chakki atta mill to a packaged Aashirvaad and Annapurna of the world was actually happening. So we were seeing with our eyes that gave us the courage and then you can actually see the same thing happening for other categories as well right? Masala for example you know curd for example, pickle all of them are homemade. So, homemade to packaged food conversion was story happening that gave us a confidence.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 35:30

And I assumed it was for a long period of time there was nobody else in batter market?

 

PC Musthafa 35:35

Even today I think we there are no play nobody else in the – a very, very ,very limited players even today. But there’s a large opportunity for people to get in.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 35:46

You think that currently you have reached the peak of the market in India are they still market left?

 

PC Musthafa 35:52

No no no no huge opportunity left. So, if I do simple maths with you for a market like Bangalore, Bangalore let me do a roleplay with what will be the Bangalore population.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 36:03

I assume it will be like somewhere around 30 lakhs or 40 lakhs.

 

PC Musthafa 36:06

Bangalore population? Bangalore population is 1.3 crores Okay. In 1.3 crore population as per our study, almost 95% plus bangaloreans eat Idli, Dosa on a regular basis and as a regular basis it’s on average it’s three to four meals in a week okay, is made of Idli dosa batter. They could make Idli, dosa, Set dosa, masala dosa, paniyaram and uthappam whatever, whatever but this is the average consumption of batter at home with 1.3crore population, three meals in a day with a 95 percentage consumption and every meal you end up eating three idli or three dosa. So, if you do the maths right 1.3, 95% of it that I assume 1.2 * three or four meals into three idli we are talking about almost total 12 core Idli in a week. divided by seven you’re talking about close to 1.7 to two crore idli in a day. Yeah. To crore idli in a day needs 1 million kg of Batter, I only do 50,000 kg of batter even today in a market like Bangalore. So 95% of the market is still homemade. As per our study. Almost 100% of the batter in b2b restaurants is made in their assurance they don’t buy from outside. But whereas if you look at homemade almost 80% of the batter consumption, they make it home. So I see, you see a 5x opportunity in batter consumption at home itself. Just in 1 city just in one city. Right? If you do say maths for Chennai, right, numbers will always remain the same. Except one one aspect instead of three meals in a week, they will do five meals a day. Right? With the Idli and dosa. Yeah, that’s the eating batter.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 38:23

Musthafa you mentioned about right today 50,000 kgs of iD batter gets consumed in Bangalore. And there is a capacity for almost 10 lakh or 1 million opportunity, opportunity that is almost getting consumed. Yes. Right.

 

PC Musthafa 38:43

If you cannot imagine the size of the idli market, yeah. 1 million kg of batter is like 100 Asian elephants. 100 Asian elephants. Okay, that’s the Weight of idli batter being consumed in market Bangalore every day

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 39:00

It’s almost the size of a football field if I can imagine Asian elephants occupying right what would it take to? To to make them because each elephant is what 100 tonnes or something?

 

PC Musthafa 39:13

(Chuckles) Such a large opportunity. In fact, I kept I think probably the idli batter are dosa are better? Yeah. What is the most consumed food item in the world?

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 39:26

Why is that?

 

PC Musthafa 39:28

Because tell me any other product is being consumed to that level. Any other product?

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 39:34

I agree with you right. It might be the most consumed breakfast item in the world. Right? What I just want to see the reason why it become so common?

 

PC Musthafa 39:45

I think it’s the health aspects. Yeah. And you know-

 

PC Musthafa 39:50

The tradition. In traditional Indian food has had a history behind it, right. There’s a reason why it Idli’s popular in South and chapathi is popular in North right. So, similarly for every region so, probably that’s the reason you know in a market like South idli is so popular interestingly people in North also now love Idly and Dosa’s. In fact, in fact, we we’re not very sure whether to launch a product in Delhi okay. For the initial 15 years of operation is a no Delhi may not do well for us. So, it is a no to this two years ago just during COVID time, we decided to test the product in the market Okay, by airlifting from Mumbai, you can imagine one kg of batter being airlifted from Mumbai to Delhi and the cost aspect over there right we said let’s go test it we were surprised a positive surprise with the market response and then we decided to set up a factory in Delhi okay. And Delhi has become one of the most successful region for us now.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 41:05

What are your areas like regions of consumption among these five cities by numbers?

 

PC Musthafa 41:11

So, the batter volume, so Bangalore it’s around 50 and Bangalore. Bangalore in as in inner Bangalore, Chennai is around 15. And then if you look at you know, Hyderabad around 20, Mumbai that around 20- 25 and Delhi, they’re almost in 10. Okay, and just in two years, less than two years.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 41:39

And what are your insights on? You mentioned that you have almost zero preservatives.

 

PC Musthafa 41:48

Not almost actually zero preservative. There is nothing called half pregnant. Okay. It has zero chemicals, zero preservatives. Okay.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 41:58

But how does the food last without?

 

PC Musthafa 42:01

It doesn’t last right? Why should it last? So when the whole world was busy doing r&d for product shelf life extension, we said we’ll keep a product 100% natural, no chemicals no preservatives, but sell it fresh. So let’s create today you made the batter we reinvented a business model to sell fresh okay, which is Zero-Inventory model, so let I will tell you how the whole thing works. We start the manufacturing process today. Product is packed but it’s not ready for consumption. It gets fermented it has to be over fermented overnight so by tomorrow morning is ready to be shipped to the market packed and shipped. It’s already packed okay it’s also packed already packed. So tomorrow morning it gets shipped after fermentation Yeah. So fermentation happens after packing okay in a controlled environment Yeah. And from there on a daily basis the Product goes to market so tomorrow morning if you come to my factory, you will find zero stock Okay. literally zero stock you will not see when one pack of batter left. Yeah, because everything which is manufactured today and ready for shipping tomorrow morning will go the market tomorrow okay. And then throughout the supply chain, whether it is my distribution centre or my van or in stores we try to manage zero-inventory okay.

 

PC Musthafa 43:22

That’s why we don’t have a storage in our distribution centre. We don’t we don’t have a storage and distribution centre everything comes from the factory tomorrow morning let’s say for the morning the product comes in Yeah, it we do cross docking from larger truck to smaller truck, yeah, the product goes to market. Interestingly, now, we have a factory in in Bangalore, but the products are available in, in Cochin and and Trivandrum and say Chennai, Mangalore, Mysore as fresh product, how is that possible? So, we have an inspiration out there inspiration is actually the ready ready mix concrete right you know, how the works right. So, if you look at the ready mix concrete vehicle, they mix they you know, mix it, but the real mixing process happens during transit. Yeah. So, we follow same process at iD. So, what we do is a product which has to be you know, sold in let’s say Cochin market tomorrow morning, yeah. production process partially gets completed today. Yeah. And immediately after the process is completed, which is product is packed, we lower it to a truck Yeah. And we maintain a controlled fermentation process in the truck, the temperature, the temperature. So, the product is fermented during transit, what is the temperature that you have to maintain? It depends, right? It depends on weather so close to around usually it is for To some degree temperature. So by the time the product reaches Cochin, it is properly fermented. So the, instead of sending a product after fermentation, we send the product before fermentation. Two benefits, one, the product doesn’t get spoiled. Second, we are able to sell fresh. And so the whole model is fine tuned.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 45:21

And for example, what is the life of the fermented product?

 

PC Musthafa 45:27

If you keep iD batter, yeah, outside the refrigerator, it will get spoiled in within one day. Okay. And that’s the best test to see if product has the preservative’s or not right. Yeah, you will actually witness a bomb blast it, the packet will expand. Because the product will ferment. It forms gas packs expand, beyond a point packet will explode to explode bomb blast. You should actually do the trial yourself buy batter kg 1 kg batter. Keep it outside, you will see the bomb blast. That’s the best test to see if the product has preservatives or not. In our packaging. Plus, no proper storage will get you seven day shelf life.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 46:16

Let’s say you refrigerated immediately. Yes. As soon as you buy it. Yes. And in even in retail shop.

 

PC Musthafa 46:22

And during the supply chain through the supply chain, you could maintain the cold storage.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 46:26

But today a lot of mislabeling of food is happening, right? Yes, a lot of food is getting sold as healthy food. Maybe it’s the thing, Atta biscuits Maidha free biscuits, right? All these companies in cereals, American cereal companies, they are selling cereals labelled as healthy for kids. Right? What What’s your view on it? And this is increasing day by day because Indian food habits are slowly getting westernised.

 

PC Musthafa 46:59

My take, yeah, is we Indians don’t trust packaged food. Anything in a package form is considered as unhealthy. Yeah. We we buy packaged food by doing some compromise, knowing that it is not good for me and my family. We are here to make the change. Our role here is to fight a war against chemicals and preservatives in the food. And that’s what we have been fighting for the last 15 years or 18 years. We are soon launching a campaign called Flip the back. Today. We only look at the claims on front of the pack. Yeah, this is this healthy biscuit or you know, maida free biscuits. Healthiest noodles. Yeah. Right. Atta Noodles. And so that’s that’s the kind of claims that you look at, yeah. But then we don’t read the ingredients. If you read the ingredients, you won’t buy the product. So the campaign that we’re starting, in fact, a couple of companies have come together. And we’re launching this campaign called Flip the back. And we want to make it as a moment is to read the ingredients before you buy anything. Because you are responsible for the health of your family. If you feed them wrong products you will regret for your life. It is better read the ingredients. Read the ingredients. So the campaign the whole campaign itself, flip the pack read ingredients, then you decide to buy or not including iD products. Our our policy is that if ingredient is something that our grandmas cannot recognise. Yeah, it cannot go into the food. So our theme itself is iD it’s food, only food. There’s nothing else in it.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 49:03

And other thing because of whatever this you know the entire junk food-

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 49:10

-packet food. prevalence in industry that is happening is the the rise of diabetes cases. Yep, almost one person out of every 10% is the pre diabetic or diabetic. Yep.

 

PC Musthafa 49:24

And I heard Kerala is the diabetic capital of India.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 49:26

Yeah. It’s very surprising, right? How a nation that used to eat healthy food. Fresh food has been converted into a nation of diabetic people and obese people in all happened in the last 15-20 years starting with noodles that can be cooked in two minutes.

 

PC Musthafa 49:50

Hopefully we will reverse it. Yeah. And our role here is to bring back the traditional food and make it convenient for you to eat access it.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 50:00

I think that’s one of the reasons why you’re not selling ready-made idlis right?

 

PC Musthafa 50:04

Yeah so the, we’re not selling ready made idli and dosa for a reason yeah. What I have learned is a homemaker is the gatekeeper for the kitchen can be he or she decides what to feed for the family. Now, if I sell idli he or she is not willing to accept that on a regular basis because the feel the goodness of adding the value add in the last touch. So we sell batter they take the batter, customised the taste some Somebody want fermented more lesser fermented all of them possible they can customise add the ingredients on top of it. Like somehow my wife add onion in it make it Uthappam. Yeah. Add their love serve it hot for the family yeah. When the idli comes out soft the credit goes to homemaker Yeah, not to iD and if for some reason if Dosa is not crispy enough my wife can blame it on me the brand iD so what we’ve learned is never ever take credit away from the homemaker. He or she is the gatekeeper for the kitchen. never replace the role of a customer help them to help them to do their job better. And that is the philosophy of iD and that’s the reason we don’t sell idli we sell Idli batter.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 51:50

Right now iD has batter iD has coffee –

 

PC Musthafa 51:53

Paratha’s Chapati, paneer five products six curd as well. Yeah.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 51:58

So what are the other products that you are thinking of launching in the next five to 10 years.

 

PC Musthafa 52:01

So our role here is to coconut also, our role here is to help consumers eat fresh and stay fresh. So anything in the package form if there’s a fresh take on it that’s the area that we want to venture into. So there are many areas right but packaged food is not trusted or packaged food when it

 

PC Musthafa 52:30

is a long life it is not close to homemade Yeah. So that is something which we are looking at everyday aspects right any packaged food you take including noodles for a second for example we will bring in a fresh take on it. Okay, so in fact we recently conducted a trial in UAE market Okay, and launched fresh noodles in the market. Just for the sake of the market.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 52:55

And what is the ingredient that they are made up of?

 

PC Musthafa 52:57

All natural Ingredients and none of the MSC blah blah blah that goes into that right? And all natural ingredients we tested without maida? or no we have both Maida as well as wheat or we tried both.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 53:10

Is maida or bad for health like there’s a narrative right among the mass media that don’t consume maida’s bad for health.

 

PC Musthafa 53:18

SO anything you know overdose is bad for health right? Forget about my arm even if we eat rice. If there’s a way that you can, you should use right. So I would say the same thing for Maida as well. Maida, if you look at the maida available in the market are made with a lot of chemicals, preservatives and additives. In our parottas that we make, we use natural maida which is made with which we work with our vendor partners to make clear level Maidha and we use that Maida to make parotta’s and same thing for the noodles as well that we tried.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 54:10

Because if I can recall earlier right, I’m 36 now and I belong to a small town called Meerut when I was six or 10 years old My grandfather used to go in a bakery shop and we’ll you know get a rusks made biscuit made on orders.

 

PC Musthafa 54:34

So let me also tell you about the maida the story right. let’s see if you want to buy a cake. Yeah. Right. You wanted to buy a cake, a one kg cake and it has to be big that’s your expectation. Yeah, you won’t get that from 1 kg Miada. Yeah. So what do we do? The cake there, add whatever is required to make that happen. Yeah, so you could set an expiration date clearly. If you want. If you make a cake from a clean level maida, the cake will be only this size. Yeah. But that as a customer you are willing to accept?

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 55:14

Obviously, right? Yeah. So that’s your image of fluffy cake.

 

PC Musthafa 55:17

Yes. As a customer you want large fluffy cake who and you want to pay for only 1kg? Yeah. So I think we ourself are culprit for most of these things at iD when we decided to launch paratas, which are made with Maida and some of them with wheat as well, we decided to keep it clean. And out there. We outspent more volume of ingredients, let us okay, that’s the reason my products come with a premium. But we want to keep it clean.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 55:48

What is the future of the Indian food industry? The way you think it’s going?

 

PC Musthafa 55:53

I think fresh sells. Fresh is a future. We Indians don’t trust a packaged food. Right? The best way to best reason to believe is a shelf life. If you come if you get if I give you a batter with a two year shelf life, you’re not gonna trust it Yeah. But when I told you that, buy buy my batter, keep it outside and you will see bomb blast one day you will sort of trust it. Even then it comes in a package form. So fresh sells in India, I think fresh is the future.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 56:32

And how do you build trust for the different kinds of forms earlier the packet food came with 6 months 12 months shelf life right now in next 10 years? How How is this narrative shifting towards packaged food?

 

PC Musthafa 56:48

So when the whole world is busy doing r&d for product shelf life extension? Yeah, we are busy creating a zero inventory business model. Okay to sell fresh, I hope many companies venture in to fresh business.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 57:00

And you think as you become big, other companies are also following the same model?

 

PC Musthafa 57:04

I have seen many companies doing that already. They were examples. Even those companies were doing this, you know, Idli powder. Yeah. Right. For decades, has now started making fresh batter, which is good for the society, or the community. Yeah. It happened. I’m happy that at least we saw revolution. Yeah, we start that.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 57:26

Yeah. And in other categories, for example, let’s say quick food for Idli still takes like if I order a batter at home, it will take me half an hour to make Idli or dosa. Right. Are there any quick food items that say that you’re thinking that will happen next areas where a fresh food can be ordered in 10 minutes from from companies like iD?

 

PC Musthafa 57:53

Yes. So there are a couple of products that we’re working on. Like one item is chutney for example, okay? For you to make chutney at home, it’s a half an hour to 45 minute job. So we are now trying to crack a 10 minute chutney. Okay, we’re not calling it two minute chutney, but probably 10 minutes chutney. Okay.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 58:11

Musthafa your main target audience started with the House Maker who’s cooking the food for the house. Right. And that was I believe the insight behind the batter and why you ship batter instead of Idli. Now coming to questions of food habits of Gen Z, right?

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 58:27

Your your kids are of that age, how the food habits of Gen Z is evolving.

 

PC Musthafa 58:33

So they will still love batter are they okay? If I take three generations, my mother, my wife and my kids, right? This generations, my mother still make batter at home. Okay, I’ve been trying for the last 15 years you have not been able to convince her not been able to successful, I will not be successful for her to buy iD batter. Okay. My wife knows how to make better at home, okay, but she feels it’s waste of her time to make batter at home, she would rather buy iD batter and your serve the Idli and dosa to the family. And she enjoys doing that. Whereas my kids will not know how to make batter at home. Okay, but they would still love idli & dosa. Yeah. So, you know, a future looks very promising to a brand like iD with Gen Z.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 59:24

iD is one part of the equation of the entire food ecosystem that Gen Z is consuming. What are the other observations you have from the consumption in Gen Z on the food aspect’s.

 

PC Musthafa 59:35

Very health conscious. Even the 18 year old Yeah. So they I should at least started thinking about now from health aspects right?

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 59:44

If you remember right McD and all these dominoes came back in India 15 years ago, so-

 

PC Musthafa 59:49

By the way, they still eat the junk food. I’m not saying that they would not but at least you know, your claims of healthy food. Yeah, it’s something is easier for you to do. communicate with them. Yeah. Right. And second, it’s easier for me to communicate with them now, because I know they are on OTT. Yeah. Right. So my communication goes to them through OTT. Yes. So it’s easier for me to communicate. So those are the benefits that I see with Gen Z.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 1:00:19

And how is technology playing a role in the food habits of today’s generation?

 

PC Musthafa 1:00:27

So iD runs on IT, okay. And that’s a fact. Look at the case of iD almost a 40,000 outlets with our own 10 products being visited every day and every transaction has got it placement, replenishment, stock rotation, cash collection, invoice writing and settlement. You can imagine that complicated complications that comes in so you cannot build or you cannot run a business of this scale without technology. So technology is an important role. But then the most important aspect is wastage. For running any business tough, you will get a lot of complaints. Running a food business is very, very tough business. You will know this.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 1:01:26

The highest amount of shutdown during COVID has been in the food Yes.

 

PC Musthafa 1:01:30

But then running a fresh food business without adding chemicals and preservative is the toughest job in the world. I’m serious. Now. You will get a lot of customer complaints. The biggest issue is the wastage. Yeah. Look at the kind of product we deal with our porottas come with three day shelf life. Batter comes with seven day shelf life. You cannot the biggest challenge is a wastage. Yeah. Biggest challenge is to manage your balance between Stock out and wastage. When we started, we were getting 90% wastage in like three years. We were getting 25% wastage. There is no way for us to make this business profitable and scalable with that kind of wastage. That’s when we started capturing store wise item wise day wise sales and wasted data for every store. Yeah. We now uses data to forecast the demand to plan a procurement plan our production for item loadout from large truck to small trucks. Predictions plays an extremely vital role now, with that, we are able to control the wastage. Today, at an overall iD level we are less than 4% wastage in for a mature city mature product will be running at less than 1% wastage that is a gold standard even for large companies like Nestle’s or Rituals for food food product that we’re able to get with the technology so iD runs on IT. So by the way, by the way to sell fresh technology is the only way.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 1:03:22

And how big is the IT team that you have in house?

 

PC Musthafa 1:03:24

We have a combination of in house and outsourcers I would put it in.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 1:03:29

And you have like 2500 employees today right.

 

PC Musthafa 1:03:31

Yes. So, our IT team in our in house IT team will be moderated member team now, okay. But many of the things are outsourcing as we work with vendor partners.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 1:03:40

And how many own trucks you have for supply chain, across five cities? Across this 75 operate only five cities that you operate in.

 

PC Musthafa 1:03:51

And in a market like Bangalore we would have 80-85 Yeah, but in a Market like Mangalore we will have five now, so we optimised.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 1:04:00

So today you’re doing 600 crores in yearly revenue 3000 crores of valuation, what next right as we conclude this, for for iD fresh, right because we are the the entire country which looks up to food is looking for to you as an example, right. And you’re setting an example for the next generation of food companies, for example, Whole truth and other companies.

 

PC Musthafa 1:04:28

So, stay true to the promise. Right? We at iD you know value, the ethics and values, the most important aspect than anything else. And that’s how we build the brand, very strong value system. And once the founders and management team believe in the value system, naturally your team will believe and the business that you run will have the strong value system and purity is our value system. When I say purity, it is not just a product as pure for sure. But the way you run the business, it has to be pure. Right. So, purity at its best is what we drive. And I hope that we will be able to lead that revolution bringing purity as a theme of any food business.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 1:05:24

And are you planning to go public anytime soon?

 

PC Musthafa 1:05:26

three years

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 1:05:27

That’s the aim you have set for your team.

 

PC Musthafa 1:05:29

Maybe cross a 1000 crore run rate with double digit debit. We are already in fact last month we had a double digit debit. So EBITDA is taking care of right now.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 1:05:39

What is the PAT of the company right now?

 

PC Musthafa 1:05:41

So we are double digit EBITDA so our PAT our depreciation will be very minimal. So almost all of the EBITDA will fall through the go through the PAT or, or PBT.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 1:05:54

And let’s say what would be the year on year growth rate today.

 

PC Musthafa 1:05:57

So last year, we had a 29% personal growth. Our aspiration was to grow 40% the percentage this year, our first few months were not that great. But in October we did pretty well.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 1:06:11

Got it. And just wanted to while concluding, you know, a fantastic conversion. I learned a lot. Thank you. I want to share one example right of the priorities that you had, I think 2005-2006 Taj hotels gave you a very large order for a diamond snack by iD. Right. And it was make or break for a company because you were hardly doing one 1 crore of revenue in 2010 time 2010, What was the revenue of the company.

 

PC Musthafa 1:06:39

We were doing I think around 4,3-4 crores of revenue that time a year. With a breakeven revenue small, hardly able to take salaries for yourself and forget about me taking a salary. We were not able to sal- we were not able to pay salary to employees. Right, the salary payment to employees was delayed by almost six months.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 1:06:57

And how big was the order that Taj was placing with you?

 

PC Musthafa 1:07:00

Almost in my one year revenue? Wow, like almost 4 crores of order? Yeah, it was not a one time order. 1 year would have been close to my money? It was just to supply the dye it was actually much profitable for other businesses. It was just to supply a bar snack. It was actually no. So we had this product called diamond cuts. Yeah. And a chef wanted to buy diamond cuts from me. And, you know, I was an entrepreneur, and really curious to know, the use case of this product. Because it was such a large order, right. And my purpose was to learn from him and create a pitch deck and go sell the same product to other large hotels across the world and make a lot of money. And that was no reason for me to a meeting with the chef. And when I met the chef, he told me about the Diamond cut’s product that we have. We had said this is a great product, very unique. And we want our customers to have the unique experience. We want to serve it as a Bar snack. And that’s the first time I heard the word Bar Snack. I had no idea what was bar snack.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 1:08:19

You never tasted alcohol.

 

PC Musthafa 1:08:20

No, no. So from that I was confused. I we discussed and debated with my co founders. Yeah. On one side, we had a huge order, which was helping us to pay salaries to employees on time and take home a decent salary for ourself and pay tuition fee for my son. And on the other other side we had a value system the value system was conflicting with the business interest. That’s when this tough decision had to be taken. So we came back and we took a final decision to reject this order. I called up the chef and I told him about inability to service order. He shouted at us shouted at me I accepted. I put the phone down and I felt crying. I felt crying not because I lost his order. I felt crying because the Almighty God gave us the courage to take the toughest decisions in the most difficult time in my life. Courage to take such tough decisions helped us to create a strong brand that we are today. So the important learning from here is when you’re in a dark tunnel you will see some light. Right? You think it is you seems it’s the light at the end of the tunnel not always mostly is a train coming up from opposite side sometimes but be careful.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 1:10:11

And that would have been a defining moment for you. Yes. Thank you so much Musthafa. Your journey so inspirational if I can say for very few entrepreneurs because you inspire the entire generation of kids who never had resources never had food and you have shown them that if you can do it, lakhs of Indian or maybe millions and crores of Indian kids-

 

PC Musthafa 1:10:36

I was a below average student, right. And my dad was the only reason to educate for me to get educated. And my cousin’s had the courage to take this journey in the those days. And of course, I joined them. If we can create one of the largest fresh food businesses in the world, all of us can do wonders in the world. Yeah. But we all wait for tomorrow, thinking that we’ll do it tomorrow, but tomorrow never comes. So my suggestion or my message to all those entrepreneurs in making is look around. identify problems and opportunities. Solve it today. Don’t wait for tomorrow.

 

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 1:11:32

Thank you so much! Thank you!