This Idli-Dosa Batter Maker Eyes North Indian Kitchens

iD Fresh Food, the maker of south Indian breakfast, plans to go north. Not just by selling its idli and dosa batters, but also launching the western Indian morning staple: poha.

The company, a household name in the southern kitchens, is looking to expand to Delhi-NCR, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. iD Fresh Food strongly believes in the basic marketing principle that supply creates demand, PC Musthafa, co-founder, told BloombergQuint in an interview. “It's a matter of availability, and there is a huge potential for us. We will also look at coming up with more of other favorites like poha and super foods range like red rice idli-dosa and multi-grain batter.”

Musthafa, son of a porter at a coffee plantation in Kerala's Wayanad region, started out with his cousins from a small kitchen in 2005 with Rs 50,000. In March 2017, the firm raised $25 million from PremjiInvest, Azim Premji's family office, valuing the company at about $100 million.

iD Fresh is looking to set up a small production unit closer to northern region, Musthafa said. It already has four facilities in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad, and one in Dubai, and is setting up a new one in Bengaluru. “The new factory is already in the works for which we spent Rs 55 crore.”

“Since these are not traditional breakfast items for north India, and the consumers can't make them easily at home, the opportunity could actually be very large,” said Kanwaljit Singh, founder of Fireside Venture. He had invested in iD Fresh when he was with Helion Ventures.

iD Fresh Food makes 1.4 million idlis a day, which contribute 40 percent to the overall business; 30 percent comes from parottas, 10 percent from paneer and the rest from other products.

The firm, which clocked Rs 186 crore revenue in 2017-18, targets Rs 286 crore this financial year and Rs 1,000 crore in four years.

Watch the full interview here: