-Aishwarya Jayan Menon

When Bethany Frankel; the famous television icon, quoted‘Your diet is a bank account. Good food choices are good investments’, she was not kidding! While Indian breakfast options are numerous, foodies out there knew they never had to atop coming up with innovative ideas to satisfy their fuel to creativity and hunger for more! Hence, the concept was spreads was adapted into the Indian society not very long ago, to add bursts of flavour to mediocre foods!

Technically, a spread is a paste that is spread as a layer, onto foods such as bread and crackers. Spreads are added to food to enhance the flavour or texture of the food, which may be considered bland without it.The trend started when centuries back in a medieval time, butter was spread onto bread to add on to the flavour. Years later, toast and spread became one of the most popular breakfasts, followed by a variety of delicious inventions like peanut butter, jams, mayonnaise, marmalade, etc. Today, we can’t imagine a better thing to add to our bland breads to give it a burst of flavour!

To understand how the business thrived in the Indian market, we asked a couple established manufacturers about their journey.

Chahat Sharma, by profession, a microbiologist started ‘Medinatural’, a jam making brand. Based in Pune, their “Ve fruits” jams are made without the addition of modern preservatives has made them stand out in the market of competition and helps them be grounded right back to where it starts. Their jams are developed with no preserves, artificial colours, or essence, which is so visibly scrumptious, with chunks of tasty natural fruits in them.

She explains the super food component used in her products, called “Buckthorn”- a super food that is garnered from the womb of the Himalayas, which is well known for its nutritional and medicinal values.Sea Buckthorn is a berry that grows in extreme climate in Himalayas. Typically, it is known as “Life Oil”, in ancient folk medicine references. It has been used for centuries in the traditional medicinal system of Asia and Europe mainly for its nutritional value. The health benefits of Sea Buckthorn are immense and have been most aptly called Sanjeevani Booti in Indian Mythology.

Sea Buckthorn has an impressive nutritional profile that possesses an exclusive composition of vitamins, nutrients herb, rather mostly found separately in different plants and sources. Sea Buckthorn contains vitamins B1, B2, C, E, betacarotene (VitaminA) Omega’s 3, 6, 9.

It has been used for centuries in the traditional medicinal system of Asia and Europe mainly for its nutritional value. The health benefits of Sea Buckthorn are immense and have been most aptly called in Indian Mythology. The brand is also coming up with probiotic drinks, launching shortly!

Going from jams to peanut butter, the next most used spread, we have Zvatra spreads, who specialise in making peanut butter. Starting up from a tiny home kitchen and sold primarily in flea markets across Bengaluru. The lockdown gave them an opportunity to use platforms like YouTube to build the business into a bigger vicinity.

Karthik Bhaskara and Vasu Rajendran, co-partners of the brand, say that they realised that peanut butter is highly underrated with only sweet flavours, which they took up a potential opportunity to bring in savoury and many other variations of peanut butters. They have now come up with many creative bursts of flavours to something that was so mediocre and ordinary. Now, our bestselling nut butter is the spicy chilly garlic peanut butter. Their exploration did not just stop there but went on experimenting with ingredients from across the country, creating unique flavours with nut betters we well.

Figure 1:Left ( karthikBhaskara), Middle (ganesh) Right ( vasu rajendran)

Speaking on the same, the brands have faced their own set of threats and difficulties as well to stay afloat in the market.“Scaling up our brand has been difficult. Though we grew during the initial months, we haven’t been able to sustain our growth. We would suggest new entrants to thoroughly study the market before entering the space and to start small without making larger investments upfront” Says Zvatra.

On talking about persistent progress into becoming one of the top brands in this area, we have CREMICA. The company is owned by Mr. Akshay Bector, who is Chairman & Managing Director of Cremica Food. He holds an engineering degree in Industrial and Production. Akshay Bector started his career in 1987. Mr. Bector has been instrumental in the company’s exponential growth. Mr. Bector launched India’s first Vegetarian Mayonnaise, similarly he introduced Indian flavored sandwich Mayo like Tandoori and Mint.

Managing director: Akshay Bector

Cremica started since 1978 from Ludhiana,Punjab making Ice Cream, & then started making Mayonnaise & sauce for provide food service solution line in year 1992 for supply to mc Donald’s& rest major players in the industries.To dwell deeper into how they established their ground base, after successfully producing quality ketchup, Cremica is the first supplier of Mayonnaise in the country which is consumed by People. The North Indian farmers plays a major role in these achievements of Cremica as the quality of tomatoes is very rich used in the ketchup making. The Food scenario market and retail markets are the major consumers of the products of Cremica Foods. The innovation is brought in the rough times of COVID 19 when Cremica Foods Supplied its product in the times to need to middle east Countries.

Cremica came up with new marketing strategies and pricing strategies to be able to grab the market. Cremica timely arranging training to the framers how to build production in limited land and product sustainable, How to take advantage of technology for farming & produce the quality products. Premium prices are charged from the consumers as the quality of Cremica products is Unmatched. The use of 34.5% of tomato paste in the ketchup is the evidence for the same. The thickness and consistency of Cremica sauces offers quality in the consumption for consumers. The prices charged from consumers are as per the worth provided to them. Although Prices Charged by Cremica are not much as per the cost in making of the products.

In today’s foodie sector, we have the rising concern of leaning more into products which are more natural and purer, as people now have growing awareness about a healthier lifestyle. The pandemic itself, had left its share of anxiety as people now tend to consume food that saves their health and builds their immunity.

Respecting this, we have Karen Anand who started “K’s Kitchen” a brand with an emphasis on local, natural, and sustainable, Karen has handed over the legacy of her gourmet food business to her sons, Param and Sasha Anand. Back from their studies and experience overseas, the boys have re-launched the retail brand under Ks Kitchen and the B2B luxury hotel business under KA Gourmet to an overwhelming response across India. They came up with We came up with some unique spreads like Bombay Sandwich Spread which is an ode to the famous Bombay Masala Sandwich which is found on the streets. Our Spreads are unique because they are 100% vegan with real ingredients, no artificial flavours, or colours with a shelf life of 6months. So quality is kept in mind but still at a very affordable price. Their unique features of the products include No Added Colours or Flavours, Whole Fruit Conserves, Real Vegetables, Herbs and Fruit, Authentic Recipes, Innovative, Premium but Affordable, 100% Pure Vegetarian, Proudly Indian, All produce sourced locally, Long Shelf Life and No Monosodium glutamate added (MSG).

These brands continue to work persistently to make quality food for their consumers, restlessly. As much as their progress and determination speaks about their successes, the difficulties they faced must be noted as well, To understand the obstacles, they had crossed, to get to where they stand today, proudly.

‘Food is extremely subjective especially in today’s time and there are so many good brands out there today so yes, the market is very competitive. Our suggestion would be patience and be open to feedback as customer feedback is the best thing that can help you grow in this business’ Says K’s kitchen.

Vijay Zagade of Laazmi food innovation says that innovation is the need of the hour not just in breakfast but in lunch also. According to him, in this fast paced world, anything that consumes time and effort of chefs is not right. His company provides masala base for authentic Maharastrian cuisines. “We feel that the food consumption patter is changing. In India, every 30km, the culture, identity and taste changes. With that, we cannot provide same base used for a punjabi food for a kholapuri food”, he said. His company is planning for bringing more frozen base gravvies and introduce more products.Laazmi foods have created exquite blends of ready to get gravies and food varieties, providing restaurants a hassel-free, zero wastage, time saving and affordable kitchen solution.