harvest gold: delhi’s no. 1 bread - indian institute of ... · the fact was that egg was never...

VIKALPA • VOLUME 37 • NO 2 • APRIL - JUNE 2012 117

It was 10 in the morning of a hot day in May 2010. The heat wave of Delhi wasdriving people mad with no signs of rain, and adding fuel to the fire was aterrible traffic jam ahead. Taab Siddiqui had to catch hold of her team to assign

some work to them as she would be away for a couple of weeks from May 24, 2010onwards. She had planned a trip to South Africa, after having a really hectic closingof the financial year.

While moving towards the corporate office at Mahipalpur (Extension), perhaps themost congested area of South Delhi near the airport, her car crossed the BRT corri-dor near Chirag Delhi flyover and stopped at the traffic signal. While crossing thesignal, fiddling with her blackberry phone, she looked out of the window and startedwondering what the green colour meant to her as a business woman and to Delhi asa city.

During that time in Delhi, the government was giving a lot of emphasis on protect-ing the environment and saving the ecosystem by planting trees and adopting prac-tices to create a green atmosphere. The major reasons were the forthcomingCommonwealth Games and the increasing pollution in the city. Small hoardingswere installed across the city with slogans such as “GREEN DELHI CLEAN DELHI”,“GO GREEN” etc. Marketers were trying to sell green marketing concepts, findinginnovative ways to show their concern for the environment.

But for Taab Siddiqui, green colour answered many of her critics’ queries – therewere persistent mails from people who thought that her soft bread contained egg.The fact was that egg was never used as an ingredient in the Harvest Gold bread andto highlight the vegetarian character of its products, the company started printing agreen mark on the packing.

She had to reach the office by 11 am as she had invited Equus Red Cell, the Ad shop,for launching their website. This was an important meeting for building the brandimage of the company. Moreover, she was planning to go national and hence to be onpar with the other competitors, internet presence and social networking were a must.As her car drove into the parking area, she heaved a sigh of relief that she couldescape from the peak traffic and was still running ahead of her schedule; she couldthus afford to spend a couple of minutes with her staff as she had to inform themabout a new product. She walked in and called everybody in the Conference Roomto announce the ‘breaking news,’ particularly to the male employees. “I have a good

M A N A G E M E N TC A S E Harvest Gold: Delhi’s No. 1 Bread

Noria Farooquidescribes a real-life situationfaced, a decision or action

taken by an individualmanager or by an organiza-tion at the strategic, func-tional or operational level

KEY WORDS

Indian Bakery Industry

Green Marketing

Procurement

Packaging

Quality Standards

Cost-cutting Measures

118

piece of news to share with you; we are entering into achallenging segment of semi-cooked rotis in certain partsof Delhi to start with! Now all men should stop pester-ing their mothers and wives to make garam rotis1 forthem,” she jokingly warned them. The launching of thisproduct was quite close to her heart because she per-sonally hated making rotis during her earlier days. Af-ter getting back from her tour, she had thought of givinga green signal to this daring product of her company.

Piyush, the executive assistant to the lady, standing be-hind her, was quite apprehensive about the product. “Isthis roti business really going to work? There can be otherways of empowering the Delhi women. We all reachhome late and the least that we would want is a freshlycooked meal with fresh chapatis,” he thought.

It was honestly a challenging step of experimenting withthe sensitive Indian consumer, and that too men. Previ-ous records showed that this venture was quite popularin the West but in India it was still a question of valuesystem for every household. But that was what HarvestGold was known for: “Challenging the Challenges.” Ifthe company failed then what would happen? Perhapsthey would stop this venture and move ahead with somelearning as this would not be the first time they werefailing. A couple of years ago, they had tried sellingmineral water but that had not gone well with the peo-ple. The business was not a success and they had topromptly shut it down. The problem lay in the logistics.Another issue for the company was the implementationof CNG norms2 — along with its other contemporaries,it was constantly bugged by the Delhi Government offi-cials who wanted them to have CNG fitted trucks tocarry their products, and these companies had no choicebut to follow rules. Their concern was that, how on earthwould their products reach the breakfast tables of thecustomers on time if the trucks had to stand in longqueues for CNG refueling, which was inevitable due tolimited CNG stations. What would happen to theDilliwallahs”3 who wanted to have only Harvest Gold?Managing the current distribution system was really a

hard task for them. For that matter it was a crucial issueeven for other food companies like Mother Dairy andPerfect Bread because their business too depended ongood logistics.

The most important issue for the company was expand-ing in other parts of the country and managing the dis-tribution of fresh bread in such a way that her customersgot the product at the right time and were not attractedto the alternate options offered by the retailers. Now thetask ahead was to develop a business model for gainingnational presence – it could be franchising or contractmanufacturing.

Harvesting gold in the Delhi market during the nine-ties, but strapped by the investment ceiling of Rs 30 mil-lion in the reserved sector of bread manufacturing,Harvest Gold realized that the future lay in franchisingits brand and technology across the country.

Taab Siddiqui’s strong conviction for outstanding qual-ity had brought laurels to the organization, which shedid not want to lose just by expanding the business. Infact the organization faced a major challenge when itstarted outsourcing the jobs. Their major objective wasto fulfill the need for a good quality product involvinglow cost techniques that the customers could trust. (SeeAppendix I for cost control methods). What differenti-ated them from others was quality, and their endeav-our was to follow it 365 days.

HARVEST GOLD: ORIGINS

Adil Hassan was a chemical engineer from IIT Delhi,who switched to making bread with an investment ofRs. 10 million. After his marriage with Taab Siddiqui,an MBA from Aligarh Muslim University, in 1988, theyhad shifted to Singapore but returned to India in 1992 tomake their living in Delhi. They hit upon the idea ofbread-making when they failed to find fresh and decentbread in Delhi. So, they decided to make bread and therest, as they said, was history.

Adil Hassan and Taab Siddiqui commissioned theirplant as Harvest Gold Foods India Pvt. Ltd. and com-menced production in June 1993, at its state-of-the-artfacility at Bhiwadi, Rajasthan (installed capacity: 75,000loaves of 800 gm each a day) with a premium range ofHarvest Gold white bread in 400 gm (Price Rs 7 a loaf)and 800 gm (Rs 13). The product was an instant hit with

1 Hot Indian breads made of wheat flour. Most Indian people prefer tohave them hot.

2 CNG(Compressed natural gas) is an alternative fuel and is widely ac-cepted by vehicle owners because of low cost and clean burningaspect.The government has made this option mandatory for trucksand autorickshaws, i.e., they have to get their vehicles CNG fitted.

3 People belonging to Delhi.

HARVEST GOLD: DELHI’S NO. 1 BREAD


a Rs. 400 million turnover in just five years. They fur-ther diversified into related products like hamburgerbuns, pizza base, etc.

Earlier there was a domination of two manufacturers —Modern and Britannia. Demand was high and supplyinadequate; hence whatever was produced was sold.Bread was sold in wax papers. People used to stand inqueue for hours for delivery vans to get their loaves.Such was the dominance of Britannia and Modernbreads. Other competitors like Taaza and Bakemanswere not so popular. Since the national players were Bri-tannia and Modern (now limited to a few parts of thecountry), every state had its own local brand. Short shelf-life of bread made it difficult for big players to distrib-ute bread at distant places. From 1995-96 up to 1998-99,Britannia bread market share witnessed a fall due to thestiff competition from Modern Foods. Still Britanniacould manage to regain its shape due to the takeover ofModern Foods and the time spent in its restructuring.Again that could not last long and Britannia faced someproblem in its distribution of bread. This particular cri-sis was the reason behind Harvest Gold’s success as themarket leaders were fighting with their destinies.

Harvest Gold did not have any distributor for its breadat that time; so, it approached the distributors of Britan-nia and Modern. These distributors agreed to keep astock of Harvest Gold bread and sell it whenever therewas a demand for it. It also approached the Nirulas forkeeping its bread on their counters. But everything tooka turn when customer response turned out to be over-whelming. Within a span of two years, there was no look-ing back for them. Harvest Gold was 17 years old with aturnover of more than Rs. 1.2 billion with one plant, onecity, and one product. Its only plant was in Bhiwadi fromwhere all its products were distributed. What was mostremarkable was the company’s distribution system – thetrucks were painted with Harvest Gold’s name and logo— a true example of mobile branding. This was a case ofa local player taking on a big brand and emerging asthe market leader within a span of just one to two yearsof launch. Other than the normal white bread, it alsomade sandwich bread, Bombay pav, burger bun, brownbread, kulcha, pizza base, sweet bun and milk rusk,daliya (Porridge) bread, garlic bread, and multi-grainbread and sold its own atta (wheat flour). Their labelaccounted for 80 per cent of the bread consumed in Delhiand NCR and headed a Rs. 1.2 billion (and growing)

business that employed 800 people and supplied 2,50,000loaves per day. Each 380 gm loaf was priced at Rs 11and 800 gms at Rs 20 in Delhi. For other states, therewas an addition of Rs 1 or 2 per loaf.

INDUSTRY OVERVIEW

The Indian bakery market was valued at Rs. 32.95 bil-lion in the year 2008 and was expected to reach Rs. 43.08billion by 2012. The market was split into rural (22.5 %)and urban (77.5%). The two major bakery products,bread and biscuits, held about 82 per cent of the marketshare.4 The per capita consumption of bread in India wasonly around 1.5 kg to 1.75 kg in various zones.

The consumption pattern in the four zones of India was27 per cent in the North, 32 per cent in the South, 23 percent in the East, and 18 per cent in the West.5

Size of the Indian Bread Industry

The four million tonne bread industry was growing atthe rate of 6 per cent and was expected to grow at thesame rate in the medium term. However, the organizedsector was growing at the rate of 8 per cent. In 2006-07,the total production of the organized sector was esti-mated at 1.8 million tonnes.6

The bread industry consisted of organized and unor-ganized sectors, contributing around 45 per cent and 55per cent of the total bread production respectively. Theorganized sector consisted of around 1,800 small scalebread manufactures around the country, besides 25medium scale manufacturers and 2 large scale indus-tries which were permitted to continue on the basis oftheir installed capacity in 1976 when the Governmentof India reserved bread industry for the small sector.7

The unorganized sector including the neighbourhoodbakeries, etc., consisted of an estimated 75,000 breadbakers mostly located in the residential areas of citiesand towns. Thirty-five per cent of the total productioncame from the small scale sector with about 1,500-1,800units in operation.

4 Sourced from the website of business standard,http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/kitindian-bakery-market-in-2008/333773/=,May 28,2010

5 Sourced from the website of Ministry of Food Processing Industry,India http://mofpi.nic.in/images/file/volume 2.pdf=, May 28, 2010.

6 Ibid7 Ibid

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Operations

Procurement at Harvest Gold

The flour was procured by the Purchase Department atBhiwadi through the millers and suppliers who first sentthe flour samples to the Quality Control (Standards)Department, where these samples were tested on vari-ous quality parameters. If a sample met the requiredspecification, it was accepted. The rates were then de-cided by the Purchase Department and finally the orderwas placed. The company maintained the suppliers’profiles and the orders were placed only when required.

Price

The price of wheat flour (See Appendix 2) was deter-mined on the basis of the price of wheat, atta, suji, andbran prevailing in the market on a day-to-day basis.Maida, atta, bran, and suji were made out of wheat in theratio of 55:15:25:5. At Harvest Gold, the formula usedfor calculating wheat flour rate was:

Wheat flour = wheat rate/quintal – (atta rate/kg.*rate/kg 0.15 + suji rate/kg. * 0.05 + bran

rate/kg. * 0.25)/55

The wheat flour was tested on various quality param-eters before procurement. These parameters played avery important role in deciding the products to be pre-pared, e.g., bread-making required strong gluten, morethan 12 per cent protein, hard wheat, etc. Followingquality parameters were required to be satisfied:

Wheat Non-grade Data

Moisture content: The acceptable limit of moisture con-tent was less than 12 per cent. This parameter was veryimportant for storing wheat in the godowns/silos. Themoisture content depended on the weather conditionsat the time of harvesting. Higher moisture content ad-versely affected the keeping quality of wheat.

Protein content: This is an important parameter formaking different products of wheat. For making goodquality bread, chapati, and biscuits, the protein require-ment was greater than 12, 10-12, and less than 11 percent respectively.

Sedimentation value: This parameter indicated glutenstrength. For making good quality bread, chapati andbiscuits, the requirements were strong, medium-strong,and weak gluten respectively.

Hardness: This was an important parameter for prod-uct development as soft, medium-hard, and hard wheatwas required for biscuits, chapatis, and bread respec-tively.

Alkaline water retention capacity (AWRC): It was animportant parameter for evaluating the quality of bis-cuit and had a negative correlation. A value of less than60 per cent was considered ideal for making good qual-ity biscuits.

Flour Data

Extraction rate: Milling industry was interested inhigher extraction rate (flour recovery). An extraction rateof 55 per cent was generally preferred.

Dough Properties

Alveo graph parameters: The alveo graph was usedmainly to evaluate bread-making potential of wheatflour. The four alveo graph parameters were:

P – Peak (mm)L – Elasticity (mm)P/L – Ratio of peak and elasticityW – Overall resistance

The flour with high L and low P was generally weakwhereas the flour with low L and high P was over-sta-ble and thus neither of them was considered suitablefor good bread-making.

Quality Evaluation

Loaf volume and bread quality: For the evaluation ofbread quality, parameters like loaf volume, stickiness,appearance, crust colour, crum colour, texture, taste, andaroma were considered and among all these parameters,loaf volume was considered the most important and wasgiven maximum weightage while evaluating bread qual-ity. The quality of flour for bread-making was tested notonly in the labs but also on the floor, by making breadout of the various samples sent by the vendors. For gain-ing national presence, the biggest challenge ahead forthem was to standardize the different flour quality avail-able in different states of the country.

Biscuit quality: For evaluating the quality of biscuits,spread factor was calculated by dividing the diameterof the biscuit with its thickness. The quality was consid-ered poor, average, good, very good, and excellent when



the spread factors were <6.0, 6.1-7.0, 7.1-8.0, 8.1-9.0 and>9 respectively. Like bread, there was scope of improve-ment even in the quality of biscuits, which was requiredfor taking them to the international level. Soft wheat flourwith weak gluten strength and low protein content werethe basic quality requirements for making good qualitybiscuits.

Quality Assurance

Quality had always been the central force for any busi-ness proposition. Harvest Gold had adopted a strictquality policy in its unit, which was well monitored bythe Quality Control & Assurance (QC&A) Department.The quality was stringently checked at different levelsof production, which included:

• Primary inspection of raw materials• Quality assurance during work-in-process• Quality check of finished material.

Besides this, the Quality Assurance Department paidmeticulous attention to post-production handling andpackaging of their products to improve bread’s shelf-life. Due to the company’s adherence to the quality ofproducts, it was accredited by the prestigious ISO cer-tificate. Raw material was procured from various ven-dors who had to follow strict norms and adhere tovarious standards of quality. The company did randomsampling of raw materials and checked samples in itsown R&D lab and stored in dry cool and sanitized storesin its own facility.

Commercial bread-making was held to strict govern-ment guidelines regarding food production. Further,consumer preferences compelled bread producers tomaintain a high quality standard of appearance, texture,and flavour. Therefore, quality checks were performedat each step of the production process (Appendix 3).Producers employed a variety of taste tests, chemicalanalyses, and visual observation to ensure quality.8

Moisture content was particularly critical. A ratio of 12to 14 per cent was ideal for the prevention of bacteriagrowth. However, freshly baked breads had moisturecontent as high as 40 per cent. Therefore it was impera-tive that the bakery plants be kept scrupulously clean.The use of fungicides and ultraviolet light were two

popular practices. Most of the commodities and rawmaterial had seasonal cycle of prices as they peaked andfell in intervals. Hence they could book maximumamount of their requirement when prices were low.9

PACKAGING AT HARVEST GOLD

Bread was generally a highly perishable item, having ashelf-life of a maximum of 72 hours in a tropical coun-try like India. The government had made it mandatoryto stamp the date and time of manufacture and expiryon the packet. Therefore, once the bread was baked andpacked, any baker would make it a point to see that itreached the market at the earliest.10 The people at Har-vest Gold thought of grabbing the opportunity of intro-ducing an innovative packaging mechanism for theirproduct. It thus pioneered in introducing transparentsheets where consumer could have a look at the prod-uct without opening the pack. At a time when the com-petitors were using wax paper for packaging, HarvestGold started using a clear, cellophane wrap with a sig-nature red base. Then, the expected happened — tangydollops of plagiarism pervaded the bread market. Soon,shop shelves were stocked with cellophane-wrappedbread-brands with logos, packaging, and even nameshaving the same touch and feel as Harvest Gold. TaabSiddiqui and her team were confident that they still didnot taste like their bread. But they felt the need to createa brand in the minds of the consumers. By the end of1997, it became clear that to stand apart from the na-tionwide bin of wannabes — Honey Dew Gold (Delhi),Taaza Gold (Faridabad), Golden Harvest (Calcutta),Spenser-Gold (Goa), Everest Gold (Chandigarh), etc. —Harvest Gold would have to knead out a unique brandstrategy for generating consumer pull.

MARKETING

Some ad practitioners were of the view that wit mustcome at a later stage, when the brand was already es-tablished, and was seeking to build a connection withthe consumer. But in the case of Harvest Gold bread,the company and the advertising agency, Equus RedCell, decided to go the funny route right from the start –with a tone and language the consumer would under-

9 Sourced from the website http://www.shumaonline.com/html=, May29, 2010.

10 Sourced from the website http://aibma.com/industry/html,=, May 29,2010.

8 Sourced from the website http://www.madehow.com/volume-2/bread.html=, May 29, 2010.

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stand, and capturing the issues they could relate to.Swapan Seth, co-CEO at Equus, who had handled theaccount since 1997, was of the view that selling a breadbrand on the basis of milk content or preparation tech-niques would be boring and silly.

The campaign comprised weekly 80cc and 60cc print adsthat were similar in look and feel, and used a limerick toparody or comment on an everyday issue, be it Bill Gatesor the Delhi winter. The advertisement even made a digat itself: “Bakwaas Advertising. First Class Bread.”11 Hu-mour worked in this case because it used the lowest com-mon denominator; so, it was almost like the voice of theconsumer (See Annexure).

Using humour for a brand – even a low-cost, low-in-volvement one – was risky. But, at the heart of greatbrands lay the ability to take risks – and luck favoursonly the brave. The brand had over 92 per cent share ofthe organized market for bread in Delhi, and was a cultbrand. Still, it took great courage and tremendous trustin the agency on the part of the client to back a cam-paign that took a risk.12

In 1998, on a Friday, when the premium white breadmanufacturer Harvest Gold Foods India Private limitedunwrapped the first of its year-long, Rs. 2.7 million ad-vertising campaign, its aim was clear: the Delhi-basedbrand was determined to become the toast of the coun-try’s bread basket. With the sales restricted to Delhi andits environs, growth in the nineties had risen by a hearty65 to 70 per cent a year, and the sales were projected totouch a buttery Rs. 500 million in 1997-98.13

Realizing that it was often the domestic help who wasduped into buying the cheaper Harvest Gold duplicates,the company had to ensure that the consumers begandemanding Harvest Gold by name.

With the company hoping to earn a good part of itsbread-and-butter from Harvest Gold franchisees acrossthe country, the brand needed to establish a communi-cation platform which would spread smoothly from lo-cal to national coverage. The media buying was inge-nious too. During that time, the brand was distributedonly in Delhi and its environs. Therefore, the Harvest

Gold advertisement appeared in a fixed position, on theback page of Delhi Times, and only on Friday’s — whenthe readership peaked — for a full 52 weeks (See An-nexure).

Keeping in mind the cost-effectiveness of the advertise-ment, Suhel Seth, CEO, Equus believed that in any par-ity-driven commodity, communication was a key discri-minator. Both the agency and the client wanted the breadto come alive in a funny, exciting, smart, and sexy man-ner. Behind their back, people used to comment on theirads being very silly. Many, however, thought of takinga clue from them and prepare funny ad content. Theywould thus have ads such as “Milk content ki14 no infor-mation, softness ka15 no mention, I said “Chaddo na, breadkhao.16 Why create tension?’’ But when you go to pickup bread, ik gaal must be saaf17 and clear That HarvestGold is what you buy. Not just any bread, my dear.”

Harvest Gold was totally focused on quality. It men-tioned the product details on each of its bread packets –“Harvest Gold Industries Private Limited proudlypresent, HARVEST GOLD, a fine quality white breadbaked in a state-of-the-art plant with quality testing con-forming to the American Institute of Baking standards.Harvest Gold is brought to you in an international qual-ity pack to ensure freshness and hygiene.”(See Appen-dix 4 for food safety and standards.) Even their customercare number and email ID were mentioned on the pack-ets of their product to entertain feedback from the cus-tomers.

DISTRIBUTION

The marketing system in the bread industry was basedon a strong retail-wholesale distribution network andbeing a highly price-sensitive low-margin food productwith very short shelf-life (about four days on an aver-age) and the resultant return of more than 10 per cent ofdispatches, the industry was witnessing a very competi-tive environment with the result that inter alia the con-sumer’s choice and preferences played an important rolein the sales pattern of different brands of bread in themarket.18

11 Bakwaas is a hindi word which means worthless.12 Sourced from the website http://www.thehindubusinessline.in/cata-

lyst/2002/12/26/stories/2002122600040100.html,= april 19,201213 http://www.expressindia.com/news/fe/daily/19980223/05455374.html

14 ‘Ki’ here means has15 ‘Ka’ also here means has16 ‘Chaddo na’ bread ‘khao’ means leave it and have bread.17 Ik ‘gaal’ must be ‘saaf’ means one thing should be clear.



Harvest Gold’s success largely depended on its excel-lent distribution system enabling fresh delivery of vari-ous items. Its competitive advantage lay in owning thedistribution system and continuous upgrading with in-novation and latest technologies. The best thing aboutHarvest Gold was its small size which facilitated smoothdistribution of its products. However, for having natio-nal presence, there was no option other than outsourcingof the distribution.

The owners of Harvest Gold recalled the days when theyhad to sell the breads on the traffic signals to generatean awareness besides increasing sales. Those were thetoughest days of their lives – not in monetary terms butin terms of having a burning desire to become a suc-cessful entrepreneur.

The couple had recently returned from an extensiveworld tour where they had been looking for the latestprofessional practices in distribution of fast-moving con-sumer goods with emphasis on bakeries. Many millionsof Rupees-worth of cost-saving opportunities and serv-ice improvements were identified – e.g., attractiveschemes for big retailers, capturing the shelves of mod-ern trade channels, improving on management infor-mation system, excellent demand forecasting and specialdelivery vehicles on different occasions, sticking withthe policy of cash on delivery (COD) for big retailersand three to four days credit policy for small retailers.

A long-term strategy was created that affected every-thing in the supply chain from the profitability of indi-vidual products, through breadroom operations, evento examining running costs of individual delivery vehi-cles. There was a firm opinion in the industry that dis-tribution was a major driver of manufacturing efficiencyand once a person understood its role in fresh food hecould not afford to get it wrong.

Generally there are two peak slots when bread is dis-tributed, morning and evening. Harvest Gold used todispatch hundreds of thousands of loaves daily to hun-dreds of sales outlet. One was the morning sales slot,i.e., Harvest gold dispatched hundreds of thousands ofloaves daily to several thousand sales outlets with eachoutlet having two sales peaks — one was the morningsales slot from eight till ten and the other was the evening

customers’ slot from four till seven. Breads were quicklyand safely loaded defective breads used to immediatelyget either exchanged or returned.

While holding MDP’s and workshops, Harvest Goldrealized and identified various issues that could be ad-dressed so as to make the strategy successful. They be-gan by holding as well as participating in a couple ofsupply-chain workshops to identify problems and is-sues, e.g.,

• Stock item profitability• Fleet maintenance approach• Costs of transferring product between plants to con-

solidate orders• Cost to serve various customers and channels• Distribution channels such as retail, industrial, food

services• Profitability of different customer types.

Analysis of the different customer types and the rela-tive distribution issues associated with each helped themarticulate the cost-to-serve improvement opportunities.

So, while the supply chain of other products could planin terms of weeks and months, a big baker had to thinkin terms of hours and minutes. This task was com-pounded by the large reverse logistics effort requireddue to the fact that bread was generally sold to majorsupermarkets on a sale or return basis and because itwas sold in crates that stacked on to dollies requiringreturn to the bakery. Empty shelves meant lower sales;so, grocery category managers always aimed to havetheir shelves fully stocked during peak demand peri-ods – an interesting problem for merchandisers whenone remembered that bread demand was compressedinto these two daily time slots. So, supplying enoughbread to fill shelves was a critical tactic in the overallstrategy.19

Handling and Logistics

Logistics played a key role in the bread industry, as aproper logistic support enabled the producer to trans-port his products in the market at the right time. A pro-ducer had to see that all the packs were stacked in solidcontainers – steel or plastic crates – in order to avoidcompression of bread (reduction of volume) during

18 Sourced from the website http://www.fnbnews.com/article/detnews.asp?articleid=18007&sectionid=32, April 19, 2012.

19 Sourced from the website http://www.logisticsbureau.com.au/archive/Bread_Supply_Chain.htm =, April 22,2012.

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transportation.20

In case of bulk transport, Harvest Gold made use oftrucks and tempos, and in case of smaller deliveries tothe retail shops, the producer used smaller tempos andbicycles. A producer also had to make sure that all vehi-cles were thermal proof so that the bread could be main-tained at a lower temperature. All the products weretransported preferably in the night or early morning inorder to avoid heat and humidity and also traffic delays.Even after the product reached the retail outlets, the pro-ducer had to educate the retailer to keep the bread awayfrom direct sunlight. Otherwise the bread would startsweating and result in fungus formation, reduction inweight due to loss of moisture, change in the texture,etc.21

The Bhiwadi plant was the only plant and the productwas distributed from there. What was most remarkablewas the company’s distribution system where the truckswere painted with Harvest Gold’s name, thus also serv-ing the purpose of mobile branding. The products wereloaded in these trucks and unloaded at various depotsin Delhi. From the depots, the products were carried bythe outsourced trucks to the various corners of the cityas per the demand of the customers. The retailers of thesuburbs in Delhi demanded 400 gms of the white breadthe most whereas the retailers in the posh localities likeVasant Vihar, Vasant Kunj, Greater Kailash, DefenceColony, and demanded different variants of HarvestGold bread. The mode of revenue collection was cashon delivery from the retailers by these outsourced truck-men. In a very few instances, they gave the product oncredit and that too only for a couple of days.

The breads were packed in plastic crates each of whichwas around 1-2 kgs; each person carried 3-4 such crateson his shoulder. While unloading, the person freely re-moved the load which on impact with the ground causedserious cracks after several falls. One crate full of breadsweighed around 6-7 kgs; four crates weighed around24-28 kgs and would cost around Rs 200. Breakages werecommon at the edges.

Around 50,000-60,000 crates were circulated everydayin the market in a cycle. Breads needed to be delivered

20 Sourced from the website http://www.fnbnews.com/article/detnews.asp?articleid=18007&sectionid=32, April 19, 2012.

21 Ibid.

within 3-4 hours. Therefore, crates were handledroughly. They were stacked inside a truck and trans-ported to various markets. Normally, no empty spacewas left in the trucks. Usually one person on the truck(3.5-4 ft. high) handed over the crates to two persons onthe ground who carried them to the shops on the shoul-der. These crates were dropped from the shoulders (4-4.5 ft. high) usually on the concrete floor and hence theimpact damaged the crates.

The company organized a design competition amongthe students of the Indian Institute of Technology (Delhi)to develop a creative technology innovation so that thecrate could be carried at a lower height thus reducingthe impact level, while not compromising on the quan-tities carried and also increase the trays’ resistance tocracking on falling on the ground. A presentation/videowith reference to the design statement was shown tothe participants who were told that the original cratemust remain the same.

COMPETITORS

Among major competitors of Harvest Gold was the com-pany manufacturing Premium bread under the brandname “PERFECT” which figured in most of the Premiumstores and virtually all the 5 Star joints in Delhi. It hadstarted its business in 1993 with a small plant, SeetaFoods Pvt. Ltd., located in a small industrial town,Hathin, Faridabad with a very minimal turnover. In aspan of just a few years, by adding on two most modernplants, LR Foods (established in 1997) and HarpreetFoods Pvt. Ltd. (established in 2000) at Faridabad, andfurther coming up with Perfect Bake in 2006, LR FoodsPvt. Ltd. had garnered 45 per cent of the market share



of Premium Bread in Delhi.22 They covered the NationalCapital Region including Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida,DLF and all other adjoining cities and were also opera-tional in Agra, Ferozabad, Bharatpur, and Alwar dis-trict in Rajasthan. Its competitor, Britannia, had its majorcontribution to its revenue from biscuits. So, bread mar-keting had taken a backseat; in fact there were lot of com-plaints from people who were not able to get fresh breadfrom Britannia.

Another competitor was Modern Foods. In West Del-hi’s busy Lawrence Road industrial area lay the rem-nants of a shattered divestment dream. Bleary-eyedguards — there had been no power for the last two days— opened the rusted iron gates of what was once theModern Food Industries Limited (MFIL), but just to saythat the leading bread manufacturer had downed itsshutters. Modern Foods, which once had a 40 per centshare in India’s bread market, no longer dominated theshow. Inside, the factory doors remained sealed as pi-geons fluttered in and out of empty dark halls that hadbeen stripped long ago — mute testimony to a well-pub-licized takeover of the first public sector company in In-dia in 2000 by the Hindustan Lever Limited (nowHindustan Unilever Limited), also its only bread maker.

But if the plant was defunct, strangely enough, ModernBreads was still present on breakfast tables across thecountry. The companies MFIL, merged with HindustanUnilever Limited (HUL) in September 2006 and all MFILemployees, now 392 from an initial strength of 2042,were now HUL employees. In short, high costs and anunmanageable work force in a low-margin business hadmade MFIL an indigestible deal for HUL. What turnedHUL away from Modern Bread was that the brand hadno distribution network of its own; moreover, it lackedquality standards and grappled with trade union trou-bles and high production costs. Still worse was the workethic and culture which did not synchronize well withthat in HUL. Though HUL created a distribution net-work and adopted a franchisee route to reach marketswith standardized quality norms and made an operat-ing profit in 2002 (and a 19% growth in sales), it wasrocked in 2003 because of political reasons.

The Modern bread brand was available in a wide vari-ety of white sandwich bread, brown bread, Atta (wheat

flour) Shakti Bread and Modern 7 Must Multigrain Breadin more than 50 towns across the country, includingmajor metros. “Modern Foods is contributing to boththe top-line and bottomline of our foods business,” saidPrasad Pradhan, a spokesperson for HUL. Insiders say,however, that HUL was struggling with the Modernbrand. From 13 units, including those in key markets ofDelhi, Jaipur, Indore, Ranchi, Kochi, Kanpur, Kolkataand Chandigarh, it now had only six operational unitsand brand franchisee arrangements with others acrossthe country.23

Major Brands

The two major players, Britannia and Modern Foods,had a market share of 10-12 per cent and 7-8 per centrespectively in 1998. Apart from these two, there were afew large regional players such as Spencers in SouthIndia, Vibbs in Maharashtra, Kitty and Bonn in Punjab,365 days in Delhi NCR, Haryana, etc., and Harvest Goldand Perfect Bread in Delhi and NCR.24

New Variants of Bread

For some time, bread was thought to be fattening, andmany people avoided it in their daily diet. Studiesshowed, however, that it was toppings such as butterthat accounted for most of the fat-induced calories. Infact, bread was an excellent source of low-fat, complexcarbohydrates. The renewed interest in bread had ledto consumers’ taste for a variety of bread types. Nolonger was sliced white bread the norm. Grocery storeshelves now offered myriad wheat breads and multi-grain breads.25

ISSUES AND FUTURE CHALLENGES

Harvest Gold was known in the city as well as in NCRfor its USP in smart marketing and quality control, itsresponsiveness to changing market and high class ma-chinery and its straight competition with Britannia,Modern, and Perfect Bread in Delhi together with somelocal players. Having its own distribution was a real

22 Sourced from the website http://www.perfectbread.com/company.php,June 1,2010

23 Sourced from the website of http://www.tehelka.com/story_main39.asp?filename=Bu210608breakingbondwithbread.asp,May 31,2010

24 Sourced from the website of http://www.divest.nic.in/comm-reports/dereports1.pdf page 60=,May 28,2010

25 Sourced from the website http://www.madehow.com/volume-2/bread.html=, May 29, 2010.

126

value addition and its success wholly depended on it.In this way the company was accountable to its custom-ers in addition to keeping strict control on the channelmembers. The customer base was also wide and carriednames like Reliance, IIT Delhi, and Private Hospitals,etc. The company was quite sure of making the productavailable in the morning on the breakfast tables of itscustomers. The future task ahead however was to de-velop a business model for national presence (marketexpansion) and it could involve franchising and contractmanufacturing and stringent cost-cutting measureswithout diluting the quality and compromising on stand-ards.

The companies which had greater geographical presenceor were multinationals could achieve better price by buy-ing bigger volumes instead of buying for individualunits. Central buying policies were recommended forsuch units. Bulk buying resulted in annual contracts fora period of twelve months with prices being finalizedfor the entire period.26

Even a company like HUL known for excellent distri-bution could not help Modern bread. This was the chal-lenge Harvest Gold faced in going national. Also it hadto be very careful in designing its business models be-

fore launching the bread in the country with differentcultures and languages and above all different tastes.Bread-making was its core competency which it did notwant to deviate from. They were totally focused onmaking good quality bread and increasing their size bygoing national only by selling bread and its variants.

The promotion gathered lot of attention from the peo-ple as many waited for the advertisement in Delhi TimesMagazine on every Friday. Even kids in the age group of3-4 years could very well recognize the bread advertise-ment because of its vibrant colour and style. HarvestGold had become a generic name for bread in almostevery household of Delhi and NCR. Moreover, they wereholding meetings with their advertising agency, EquusRed Cell, for launching their website, a common plat-form used for communication these days. Just the otherday, one of her vendors had asked for the business cardand was taken aback when he did not see any websiteaddress on the card. They had to launch a creative freshlooking website as this was the trend and need of thehour. As far as CNG fitted trucks were concerned, therewas still some time in the implementation of the stric-tures. So, they could rest for a while. It was possible thatit might not even happen. So, they had to sit with theirfingers crossed.

26 Sourced from the website http://www.shumaonline.com/html=, May 29, 2010.27 Sourced fro the website http://bakerybazar.blogspot.in/2009/06/cost-reduction-strategies-for-bakeries.html=, June1,201028 Sourced from the website http://www.shumaonline.com/ on June1,2010


Appendix 1: Cost Cutting Measures27

The competitive world corporate houses and businesseswere struggling to maintain profits and healthy bottom lines.The costs of production, fuel, raw material, and human re-sources were rising each year. These developments haveprompted people to look for cost reduction ideas and meth-ods.

Those who had opted for focused cost reduction strategiessurvived; those who could not manage perished. During eco-nomic downturn, it became more important to make costreduction programme a major initiative in the industry.Companies were finding it difficult to retain people and werelaying people off which was unprecedented in the recenthistory of industrial recession. Companies had to developtheir own cost reduction programme for saving withoutcutting jobs.28

Economic slowdown and low spending by consumer hadforced big bakery manufacturers to implement cost reduc-

tion strategies in their plants and operations. They wereongoing rather than knee-jerk programmes. One had to con-tinuously strive for innovation, modification, or automationfor savings in factory operations

Substantial cost savings could be achieved in the followingareas:

Procurement or Purchasing

Procurement involved acquiring products, services, andworks from vendors or internal source. Sourcing was theprocess of identifying, evaluating, and negotiating with sup-pliers and service providers. This included the entire ven-dor selection process as well as contract management. Itopened doors to a rich supply of raw materials, facilities,and labours at lower prices, thus reducing costs and increas-ing competitiveness in markets around the world. The pres-ence of foreign-produced finished manufactures compels


domestic industries to be innovative and efficient, both ofwhich are keys to profitability and longevity.

Raw material comprises around 60-65 per cent of the prod-uct cost. Hence savings in raw material purchase can addon to profits. The main raw materials are flour, fat, sugar,additives. Apart from these, engineering items and packag-ing materials are also required. Some of the cost-saving ideasinclude bulk buying, forward buying, sales tax exemption,excise duty free procurement, reverse auction, imports orsourcing from across the globe.

Logistics

The cost of transportation both inbound and outbound wasvery high. Efficient logistics management in the followingareas definitely helped reduce cost:

• Freight or transport management• Inventory management• Warehouse design and location• Type of transportation

Energy

Energy also contributed to the cost of manufacturing; hencereduction of cost of energy should be a priority for manu-facturers. Following are some ideas for reducing energy cost:

• Getting an energy audit done and implementing the au-ditors’ suggestions

• Saving fuel through energy efficient burners• Saving power energy through energy-efficient motors

• Installing screw compressors• Using alternate fuels by sourcing cheaper fuel like CNG,

LPG, RFO, LDO, etc.• Recovering heat from ovens• Using FRP fans for cooling tower

Packaging

Packaging material was also a major factor in the cost ofmanufacturing; hence selection of packaging material hadto be done with care . Few ideas were:

• Reducing or modifying shape and size of the product• Reducing packaging waste through thickness or gauge

reduction

Automation to Increase Productivity and Reduce Manpower

Automating bakery processes can result in substantial sav-ings in cost. Areas where we can go for automation are:

• Raw material and finished product handling and stor-age

• Adding radio frequency dryer to increase the oven pro-ductivity

• Automating packaging processes from feeding tocartoning and palletizing.

Outsourcing

Few of the processes – like sugar grinding, promotion, pack-aging and distribution – could be outsourced.

Appendix 2: Factors Affecting Wheat Flour Prices in India

Production and consumption of wheat: India was the sec-ond largest producer of wheat in the world, averaging anannual production of 65,856 TMT. On average, India con-sumed 65,283 TMT of wheat, and was ranked as the secondlargest consumer of wheat in the world. India did not pro-duce enough wheat to be self-sufficient. So, to make up thedifference, it imported.29 Therefore, when production wasnot sufficient and the demand was more, prices would au-tomatically rise.

Yield of wheat: It was the yield of wheat which was a decid-ing factor for the good production of wheat. How efficientwould be the farm to produce maximum output of wheatwith minimum input decided the overall wheat productionand finally the price. Generally, the yield of wheat had beenfairly good in several regions, e.g., Punjab and Uttar Pradesh,thereby controlling the wheat prices.

Seasonal variation: The monthly price of wheat flour usu-ally went up in the rainy season because the demand ofwheat bran would go down due to green pastures avail-able. The millers in this situation would increase the priceof wheat flour to recover the total cost of wheat.

Stock of wheat (procurement and minimum support prices):The government’s policy was to have a buffer stock of foodgrains for emergency situation, and it procured wheat ac-cordingly through the Food Corporation of India (FCI)godowns. This not only increased the maintenance cost ofthe government but also created artificial shortage in theopen market. Again, when the government tried to disposeoff the stock, the price was fixed in such a way that the openmarket price was less than the FCI price. On the other side,India was unable to export wheat because of poor qualityand price difference in the world market. Thus the stock was

29 Sourced from the website of spectrum commodities, http://www.spectrumcommodities.com/education.commodity/statistics/wheat.html, August8,2011

128

spoiled in the godown. The government was also selling thatstock at higher prices to the exporters. That also discour-aged the processing industry leaving the stock in thegodown. The government was thus not in a cozy situation:the stock was piling up, the hoarding cost was going up, thequality was deteriorating. So, it had no other option but tosell it at a price, which was affordable to the millers. Thatlowered the price of wheat flour in the country and it couldbe exported at a competitive price.

Price of by-product of wheat: Out of wheat, maida30, atta31,bran32 and suji33 were made in the ratio of 55:15:25:5.To re-cover the price of wheat purchased, the miller also dependedon those by-products. If the price of by-products like branand atta went down, the price of flour went up.

Export-import of wheat: India was a significant importer ofwheat prior to the 1990s. During the 1990s, India had be-come a marginal importer and even an exporter on occa-sions. However, since India had a large demand, thesemarginal quantities could often be significant for the worldmarket. Wheat trade had been under government control inthe past, and the export import quantities reflected Govern-ment decisions over each year as well as across the years inmanaging the supply, demand, stocks and the food pricesin the country. If the production was less than the consump-tion, India had to import.34

On average, India imported 990 TMT of wheat, and, for vari-ous reasons, exported an average of 767 TMT of wheat. Theending stocks in India averaged 9,900 TMT, giving India thethird largest ending stocks in the world.35

Effects of WTO: Under the WTO, the quantitative restric-tions from wheat import and export were removed in India.The trader would have greater freedom to trade the wheatand wheat products and hence the wheat market wouldbecome more dynamic. Moreover, under the WTO regime,the provision of export subsidy had to be reduced as thesekind of subsidies were very much present in the developedcountries especially in the US and EU, while in India andother developing countries, the export subsidy was alreadynominal or nil, so, we would have advantage in wheat ex-port. So, it was predicted that exports were going to increase

in India and accordingly, wheat price and wheat flour pricemight also go up.

Effect of El-Nino: El Nino was the local warming of surfacewater, which would take place in the entire equatorial zoneof central and eastern Pacific Ocean off the Peruvian coastand affect the atmospheric circulation worldwide. It usu-ally would peak around Christmas hence the name of thephenomenon El Nino which was the Spanish name for Christchild.36 El Nino would occur every 4-5 years sometimes less(2-3 years) and sometimes more (8-11 years). If the tempera-ture increased by 2 degrees in the equatorial region, it mightcause serious damage to the crops in that region. So, it wasbetter to keep an eye on this event. This could decrease thetotal production in several countries including the US andthus lead to the rise in the wheat price.

World wheat production and consumption: The world wheatproduction was very important for the price of wheat andwheat flour. When the production of wheat in wheat pro-ducing nations fell, the prices automatically went up andvice versa.

The world wheat production in the recent years has hov-ered between 560-580 million tonnes a year. The biggest cul-tivators of wheat were EU-25, China, India, USA, Russia,Australia, Canada, Pakistan, Turkey, and Argentina. EU-25,China, India and USA, the four largest producers accountfor around 58% of the total global production. World wheatconsumption was consistently growing with growth inpopulation, as it was one of the major staple foods acrossthe world. The major consuming countries of wheat wereEU, China, India, Russia, USA, and Pakistan. Around 16-19% of the world wheat production was traded annuallybetween countries. The annual world trade in wheat was tothe extent of 102-106 million tonnes. USA, Australia, Canada,EU-25, and Argentina were the five largest exporters ofwheat in the world. Major importing countries that toppedin the figures were China, Egypt, Japan, Brazil, and the Eu-ropean Union. Other importing nations were Mexico, Indo-nesia, Algeria, Philippines, and Iraq. However, the importamount varied year to year depending upon the domesticproduction.37


30 Atta is the Hindi word which means wheat flour, out of which indian bread like roti/chapati is made.31 Maida is the Hindi word for refined flour.32 Bran is the outer layer of cereal grain which has high dietry fibre.33 Suji is the Hindi word for Semolina34 Sorced from the website http://www.jstor.org/stable/4415713 =, on april 20,201235 Sourced from the website of spectrum commodities, http://www.spectrumcommodities.com/education.commodity/statistics/wheat.html, August

8,201136 Sourced from the website http://www.fao.org/sd/eidirect/EIan0008.html,= on april 20,201237 Sourced from the website of Indiamart, http://finance.indiamart.com/markets/commodity/wheat.html, August 8,201


Bread Manufacturing Process

Bread was made with three basic ingredients: grain, water,and bakers’ yeast. The harvested grain was ground accord-ing to the type of bread being made. All grains were com-posed of three parts: bran (the hard outer layer), germ (thereproductive component), and endosperm (the soft innercore). All three parts were ground together to make wholewheat and rye breads. To make wheat flour, the bran andthe germ had to be removed. Since bran and germ containedmost of the nutrients in grain, the wheat flour was often “en-riched” with vitamins and minerals and some wheat flourwas fortified with fibre and calcium.

The grains were ground in the grain mills and then sold inbulk to Harvest Gold which kept the grains in storage sacksuntil they were ready to be used. In the baking factory, wa-ter and yeast were mixed with the flour to make a dough.Additional ingredients such as salt, fat, sugar, honey, rai-sins, and nuts were also added in the factory.

Raw materials used in bread manufacturing were flour, fat,sugar, salt, yeast, sodium stearoyl lactylate, smp solution,bread improvers, ascorbic acid, potassium bromate, calciumpropionate, acetic acid and other additives. Plant and ma-chinery required for bread were spiral mixers, silos, sifters,conveyors, bowls, dividers, hander up, interproover,moulder, final proovers, baking ovens, depanners, coolingracks, cooling tunnels, slicers and sealers, and plastic trays.Utilities like chilling plants, air compressors, boilers, andcold storage rooms were required for different applications.

Mixing and Kneading the Dough

The sifted flour was poured into an industrial mixer. Tem-perature-controlled water was piped into the mixer. Thismixture was called “gluten” and gave bread its elasticity. Apre-measured amount of yeast was added. Yeast was actu-ally a tiny organism which fed off the sugars in the grainand emitted carbon dioxide. The growth of the yeast pro-duced gas bubbles, which leavened the bread. Dependingon the type of bread to be made, other ingredients were alsopoured into the mixer.

The mixer was essentially an enclosed drum that rotated atspeeds between 35 to 75 revolutions per minute. Inside thedrum, mechanical arms kneaded the dough to the desiredconsistency in a matter of seconds. Although modern breadproduction was highly computerized, the ability of the mix-ing staff to judge the elasticity and appearance of the doughwas critical. Experienced personnel were able to determinethe consistency by the sound of the dough as it rolled aroundthe mixer. The mixing process took about 12 minutes.

Fermentation

Three methods were used to ferment the dough. In someplants, the high-speed machinery was designed to manipu-late the dough at a very high speed and with great force,which forced the yeast cells to rapidly multiply. Fermenta-tion could also be induced by the addition of chemical addi-tives such as 1-cysteine (a naturally occurring amino acid)and vitamin C. A certain portion of the bread was allowedto ferment naturally. In this instance, the dough was placedin covered metal bowls and stored in a temperature-con-trolled room until it rose.

Division and Gas Reproduction

After the dough fermented, it was loaded into a divider withrotating blades that cut the dough into pre-determinedweights. A conveyer belt then moved the pieces of dough toa moulding machine. The moulding machine shaped thedough into balls and dropped them onto a layered conveyerbelt that was enclosed in a warm, humid cabinet called a“prover.” The dough moved slowly through the prover sothat it could “rest” and thus allow the gas reproduction toprogress.

Moulding and Baking

When the dough emerged from the prover, it was conveyedto a second moulding machine which re-shaped the doughinto loaves and dropped them into pans. The pans travelledto another prover that was set at a high temperature andwith a high level of humidity. Here the dough regained theelasticity lost during fermentation and the resting period.

From the prover, the pans entered a tunnel oven. The tem-perature and speed were carefully calculated so that whenthe loaves emerged from the tunnel, they were completelybaked and partially cooled. While inside the tunnel, theloaves were mechanically dumped from the pans ontoshelves. The baking and cooling process lasted approxi-mately 30 minutes.

Slicing and Packaging

The bread continued to cool as it moved from the oven tothe slicing machine. Here vertical serrated blades moved upand down at great speeds, slicing the bread into consistentlysized pieces.

Eight metal plates held the slices together while picking upeach loaf and passing it to the wrapping machine. Pre-printed plastic bags were mechanically slipped over eachloaf. The bags were closed with wire twists or sealed withheat.38

Appendix 3: Bread Production Process

38 Sourced from the website http://www.madehow.com/volume-2/bread.html=,May 29, 2010.

130 HARVEST GOLD: DELHI’S NO. 1 BREAD


Mixingingredients 1

Mixingdough 2

Doughdividing 3

Rounding up4

Prooving5

Moulding6

Final prooving7

Baking8

Depanning9

Packing10

MIXING INGREDIENTS 5-10 MINUTES

FROM MIXING DOUGH TO FINAL PROOVER 15 MINUTES

FINAL PROOVING 75 MINUTES

BAKING 30 MINUTES

COOLING 60-90 MINUTES

PACKING 15 MINUTES

Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) hadbeen established under the Food Safety and Standards Act,2006 which consolidated various acts and orders that havehitherto handled food-related issues in various Ministriesand Departments. FSSAI had been created for laying downscience-based standards for articles of food and to regulatetheir manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import toensure availability of safe and wholesome food for humanconsumption.

Highlights of the Food Safety and Standard Act, 2006

Various central Acts were repealed after commencement ofFSS Act, 2006:

• Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954• Fruit Products Order, 1955,• Meat Food Products Order, 1973,

Appendix 4: Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI)39

• Vegetable Oil Products (Control) Order, 1947• Edible Oils Packaging (Regulation) Order 1988,• Solvent Extracted Oil,• De- oiled Meal and Edible Flour (Control) Order,1967• Milk and Milk Products Order, 1992

The Act also aimed to establish a single reference point forall matters relating to food safety and standards, by movingfrom multi-level, multi-departmental control to a single lineof command. To this effect, the Act established an independ-ent statutory authority – the Food Safety and Standard Au-thority of India with its head office at Delhi. The Food Safetyand Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and the State FoodSafety Authorities enforced various provisions of the Act.

Duties and Functions of the Authority

FSSAI had been mandated by the FSS Act, 2006 for perform-

39 Sourced from the website http://foodsafetyhelpline.in/FSSAI/AboutFssai.asp?GL=2, on April 20,2012

132 HARVEST GOLD: DELHI’S NO. 1 BREAD

ing the following functions:

• Framing of Regulations to lay down the Standards andguidelines in relation to articles of food and specifyingappropriate system of enforcing various standards thusnotified.

• Laying down mechanisms and guidelines for accredita-tion of certification bodies engaged in certification of foodsafety management system for food businesses.

• Laying down procedure and guidelines for accreditationof laboratories and notification of the accredited labora-tories.

• Providing scientific advice and technical support to Cen-tral Government and State Governments in the mattersof framing the policy and rules in areas which have adirect or indirect bearing of food safety and nutrition.

• Collecting and collating date regarding food consump-tion, incidence and prevalence of biological risk, contami-

nants in food, residues of various, contaminants in foodsproducts, identification of emerging risks and introduc-tion of rapid alert system.

• Creating an information network across the country sothat the public, consumers, Panchayats, etc., receiverapid, reliable and objective information about foodsafety and issues of concern.

• Providing training programmes for persons who are in-volved or intend to get involved in food businesses.

• Contributing to the development of international tech-nical standards for food, sanitary and phyto-sanitarystandards.

• Promoting general awareness about food safety and foodstandards.

Bakery manufacturers needed to follow up with the FoodAuthority for labelling, adultrants, additives, and theirpermissible levels, etc.

ANNEXURE: Sample Advertisements


40 Sourced from the website http://www.expressindia.com/news/fe/daily/19980223/05455374.html=, June 1,2010

If one has worked in an ad agency, he would know thatcreating a big idea is painfully slow. An unusual productshould have an unusual campaign. Every Friday, one canenjoy while reading ‘Just like Harvest Gold’ which is notjust another bread.

Ultimately, the idea was to make Harvest Gold a genericname for the premium quality bread. To make the ediblebrand indelible, the Delhi ad-shop of Equus AdvertisingCompany cooked up a high-value, high-impact campaignwhich used a different nonsense verse each week, in half-Punjabi (Punjab is a state in North-West of India and Punjabi

is the language spoken there and very commonly spoken inDelhi too as it is the easiest language to learn), half-English,to hook the consumer.

The last line always drives home the core concept: “HarvestGold: Not Just Another Bread” and while the rhy-mes havelittle reason, they do have tonnes of topical interest. Here isone sample:

“Election time is coming. There is obviously lot of stress.Political scene te twanu pata hai Bilkul disgusting mess,”40

Noria Farooqui has been an Assistant Professor in the Depart-ment of Management at Hamdard University, Delhi since 2006.She was earlier associated with the Institute of Clinical Re-search, India as a management faculty. She has been in theteaching profession for the last eight years and teaches Strate-gic management, Advertising, and Strategic retail managementfor post-graduate students of management. Her research ar-eas are agriculture and rural management, the thrust areas be-

ing food security and qualitative and quantitative indicators.She is an Alumnus of Aligarh Muslim University where shecompleted her Masters in Agricultural Economics and Busi-ness Management. She has received Dr Zakir Hussain Medalfor consistent good academic record in graduation.

e-mail: [email protected]

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