🆔 ID Fresh: From Rs. 25,000 to Rs. 500 Cr!
Creating a brand name in ready-to-eat segment is no easy feat. Here's how ID Fresh became staple in India's household!
Ghar ka khana.
Only people living away from their homes understand the real privilege that home-cooked food is.
After all, who has the time to cook all meals all day?
Thanks to the innovators who have given us the next best alternative: ready-to-eat food packets.
And one of the major players of the ready-to-cook market is ID Fresh.
From an initial investment of Rs. 25,000 to a revenue of Rs. 530 Crore, from a 50 square feet room in Bangalore to capturing international markets of UAE, UK, US, Saudi, Oman, and Qatar, ID Fresh has come a long long way.
From Humble Beginnings to A Culinary Empire
Back in 2005, PC Musthafa, together with his cousins Shamsudeen TK, Abdul Nazer, Jafar TK, and Noushad TA, identified a problem.
Back then, idli and dosa batter came in plastic bags with only a rubber band as a feeble safety measure against germs and dirt.
Clearly, it was unhygienic.
But consumers chose convenience over health and continued using such plastic bags.
Musthafa saw an opportunity to solve this problem.
And ID Fresh was born.
Their mission?
To ensure that busy working professionals had access to healthy and good quality idli-dosa batter.
Sounds simple?
Well, not quite.
The Journey: Challenges, Setbacks, Triumphs
It took them 9 months to get 20 customers, selling 100 packets a day.
But this small achievement gave them confidence.
However, this was only a short-lived celebration.
In 2006, they had supplied a few batter packets to a kirana store in Bangalore. Now, this store did not have a refrigerator. So what?
The batter over-fermented.
Result? A small blast.
The founders went back to their drawing boards, as they realised that they had to improve their manufacturing and packaging process.
And in no time, they were back on their feet.
By 2009, the company was charting its expansion plan.
Among the expansion cities, was Chennai.
Little did they know, Chennai was no easy field to play in.
Local idli-dosa batter was sold here at Rs. 10, a price that ID Fresh could not offer.
What now?
The founders wrapped up the business in Chennai and went back to their drawing board.
And it was during this time that they realised the need for more products.
Soon, they launched different products like parottas, curd, paneer, chapatis and vada.
And boy, were these products a hit in Chennai!
Once it established the brand, it relaunched the batter.
Today, the brand sells 55,000 kg batter every day, via 35,000 outlets across 45 cities, and over 5+ countries.
The brand has been growing 40-45% year-on-year.
Secret Ingredient Behind the Growth Recipe?
A quality product will sell.
With or without marketing.
And that's what ID Fresh did.
For the first decade, it focused on launching its best selling product, the idli dosa batter in locations with high demand.
It focused on building a strong brand presence in tier-1 cities rather than spending loads on marketing.
Once established, it adopted a 360-degree marketing approach.
It went all in.
Bus shelter campaigns, newspaper and magazine ads, digital screens at metro stations and airports, radio, social media, PR, and whatnot.
The company has completed three rounds of funding, raising over $99Mn.
Helion Ventures led the initial round in 2014.
Premji Invest joined in 2016–17, and in January 2023, the brand received Series D funding from NewQuest Capital Partner for Rs 507 crore.
Ready-to-Cook Market
According to Statista, revenue in the ready-to-eat segment was $56.93 Bn in 2022, and is expected to grow at a 9.59% CAGR between 2022-2027.
Brands like MTR Foods and Gits are giving tough competition to ID Fresh.
The company, being the first mover has created a competitive advantage by obtaining patents for its batter, vada packaging, Parotta machine and other grinding methods.
It is now eyeing an IPO in the next 4-5 years.
Will ID Fresh continue to rise like its perfectly fermented batter, or will the market's heat prove too much? What do you think?
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