iD Fresh Food may have established itself as the batter king of India, but MTR Foods, a giant for dosa and idli dry mixes, is making big plans. It is entering the wet batter with a cheeky campaign making a dig at the category leader for offering the same batter for the two different dishes. It described how its MTR Minute Fresh range has a separate dosa batter, idli batter and Signature (Red Rice) Dosa batter.
Sanjay Sharma, CEO, MTR Foods says the ongoing pandemic and resultant lockdown has heightened the demand for hyper-convenient food products. “We believe that we are entering the market at the right time when the demand for the wet batter category is building. We are certain of our growth in this category, which will be much faster than our peers or other existing local brands available in the market currently,” he said.
MTR Foods is starting from Bangalore, which is also the city with the biggest demand for batter in the country. “Before rushing into expansion, we want to standardize this business, understand the supply chain and learn from challenges. We would look at expanding in other cities in subsequent years. We are expecting the revenue to go up to Rs. 100 crore from MTR Minute Fresh in the next 3-4 years,” Sharma added.
According to industry estimates, annual consumption of idli-dosa batter is valued at over ₹4,000 crore though it is dominated by small, local players. The big brands have just a 5-10 per cent share though they are seeing growth with the category itself expanding.
Also Rahul Gandhi, Chief Marketing Officer, iD Fresh Food, which serves 35 cities in India as well as the UAE reflects that they expect to double their batter business in the next 18-24 months. On an average, they are seeing a growth of 50-60 per cent in this business. In markets, such as Delhi, where we were historically not present earlier, the growth rate is 100 per cent year-on-year.”
The company is doing business of about ₹1 crore a month just from e-commerce alone in Delhi and will be expanding to other channels in the city when restrictions ease. iD also sees very high adoption in North and West regions but its focus is growing the South which he describes as the mecca of idli and dosa.
Gandhi tells that the batter business can expand in many directions – either using the health route by changing ingredients or innovations. “We have products such as ragi batter, rice-rava batter and multi-grain batter and innovations such as a pakora batter,” he said.