The year was 1962. Hukumichand Chordia had been written off as a serial failure. Every business he tried had been doomed. After a dozen attempts at entrepreneurship across multiple cities, he shifted base to Pune. And that is when he discovered the real entrepreneur in the family: his wife, Kamal. Like most housewives of the 1960s, Kamal would grind her own masalas. As the smells of the freshly ground masalas wafted from the window of their kitchen, folks on the street began asking about her masalas. That was the time, literally, when Pravin,  Hukumichand and Kamal’s son, and the eponymous masala company, was born. 

Dhor Gali, where the Chordias stayed, was for many years the only place where the masala were sold. Today the group has distribution in 9 states and 30 countries, They are present in Cosco and Patel Brothers in US retail. The group is now a beneficiary of the export based PLI scheme of the Government. Work is going on at a new 6.5 lakh square feet factory at Shirwal. Manufacturing is expected to start December 24. 

Over time, the next generation of the family also started getting involved in the business. Hukumichand was the raw material purchase specialist, R & D and recipes were handled by Kamal. Pravin Chordia, in an interesting twist of life, grew up to be a surgeon. He now runs https://medicinefreelife.com/, a naturopathy center in Pune’s Velhe taluka. Pradip, the younger son, runs the pickle part of the business, and is chairman of Chordia Food Products Ltd. 

Rajkumar, the eldest son, in 2000 created a new brand, Suhana. Rajkumar started working at the age of 10. Rajkumar’s sons – Vishal and Anand – now handle the day to day running of the Suhana business. Family businesses that can last even 5 generations are a rarity. So what goes wrong? The biggest is the lack of hunger. When you are already driving a Landcruiser Prado, then there is not much more you can aim for. Also, the bigger the business, the farther removed are the owners from the customer. And there is also a lack of empathy – unless you are in the luxury industry! 

Anand was asked about how it feels like to be a third generation entrepreneur? In a family business, decisions are faster. but being in sync with other family members is important. Anand feels that for the business to sustain, it is important for all members of the family to respect some core values. One value that got talked about was education. There are a lot of food technology graduates in the third generation of the Chordias. Anand, who looks after innovation and technology at Suhana, is one such food technologist. Another example of a Chordia value: you should sell what you can eat at home. Yet another value is trust. When the younger generation is given a free hand in decision making, there is a huge sense of responsibility that the next Gen has. This trust has also worked out for their relationships with their suppliers and dealers. These stakeholders also have had generation shifts happening around the same time. And the relationships between the next gen families continue to be nurtured on the same value of trust. 

I started my entrepreneurial career in the food industry. And realised very soon that India is a fresh food market. The Indian customer is packaging cost sensitive, which is why tetra packs and tins don’t sell too well here. Dairy and tea are the biggest volume churners in the industry, followed by pickles and papads. Most food spoils because of excess moisture. Pickles, the group mainstay, are intrinsically designed to present a lot of natural hurdles to moisture and bacterial growth: pH, salt, and oil. leaving very little for the packaging to defend. 

To the Chordia Gen 3’s credit, they have added on to pickles by being keen observers of Indian kitchens. With more womenfolk out to work, convenience has taken center stage. The first product to make the transition from the kitchen to the factory had been the pickle. It was followed by masalas. And then the move from generic masalas like onion-garlic to dish specific masalas like Suhana Shahi Paneer Butter Masala. The Chordias have their bases covered in Ready to Eat packaged food too. You can now have your poha, misal and upma – Top Ramen style, by just adding water. Another trend that the group has latched on to post pandemic – is health. You can buy Suhana Health Moringa powder. They also have a turmeric latte inspired by the Golden Latte of Starbucks. 

Being aware of changing preferences of customers is important, but the bigger challenges are on the supply side. The raywal kairi, which form the mainstay for the Maharashtra pickle industry, is losing its sourness, as the older generation of larger mango trees get replaced by dwarf hybrid varieties designed for fruit sweetness. Another major challenge for the group is agricultural chemicals. Everest and MDH masalas have been banned for import in a lot of countries after traces of ethylene oxide, a carcinogenic material, were found in the masalas. 

The pesticide solution lies in the supply chain. One of the solutions is natural farming. Anand’s definition of natural farming is a farm that grows the insecticide within the farm. The cost driver is labour cost in manual work like de-weeding. Organic farmers crib that reduced yields do not lead to better retail prices. Anand is doing some experiments – weekly eco-bazaars are organised by the Chordias at 4 locations in Pune.  Apart from their own farms, sourcing is also done from 27 organic farmers. Moot question – who certifies organic?

Interestingly, Gen 3 is more sensitive to environmental challenges than the earlier generations. 30% of global emissions are from the food industry. Anand has started https://theecofactoryfoundation.org/ to remedy some of the past sins.  As Anand likes to put it, intention is bigger than action. Some baby steps are being taken. The multilayer plastic packaging waste is being experimented with as a raw material to make paver blocks. 25 tons per day of onion and garlic is used for masala manufacturing at Suhana. Disposing of three tons of onion garlic peel per day was a problem. Anand has been working on making onion/garlic peel paper. The plan is to use this paper to make biodegradable cutlery. They have started selling charcoal made using raw mango seed. The Bhuleshwar warehouse plot was used earlier as a dumpyard for this waste. Today they have a net zero power and net zero water warehouse at the site. 

I feel that there is a lot more that needs to be done on recycling of packaging material. The challenge is not in the waste generated in the factory, but it is the waste that is generated in the households after the masalas get used. Segregation is a good starting point. Methinks that if discounts offered to customers when they present cleaned up used packaging material can give the nudge to complete the plastic packaging cycle. Some social experiments are required to understand the value chain and logistics of recycling. Will Anand be able to stand up to this challenge? Change is a slow process. I have my doubts whether Anand’s generation will be able to fix this. We probably will need to wait for his son Adi to find longer lasting solutions, which are not just about recycling, but more about reducing! 

Note: In 2012, When the company completed 50 years they made a film on the life of Hukmichand, Masala, Here is a link to the film: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4ukqnl