MANAGEMENT

CASE Harvest Gold: Delhi’s No. 1 Bread

describes a real-life situation
faced, a decision or action Noria Farooqui
taken by an individual
manager or by an organiza-
tion at the strategic, func-
tional or operational level

I
t was 10 in the morning of a hot day in May 2010. The heat wave of Delhi was
driving people mad with no signs of rain, and adding fuel to the fire was a
terrible traffic jam ahead. Taab Siddiqui had to catch hold of her team to assign
some work to them as she would be away for a couple of weeks from May 24, 2010
onwards. She had planned a trip to South Africa, after having a really hectic closing
of the financial year.

While moving towards the corporate office at Mahipalpur (Extension), perhaps the
most congested area of South Delhi near the airport, her car crossed the BRT corri-
dor near Chirag Delhi flyover and stopped at the traffic signal. While crossing the
signal, fiddling with her blackberry phone, she looked out of the window and started
wondering what the green colour meant to her as a business woman and to Delhi as
a city.

During that time in Delhi, the government was giving a lot of emphasis on protect-
ing the environment and saving the ecosystem by planting trees and adopting prac-
tices to create a green atmosphere. The major reasons were the forthcoming
Commonwealth Games and the increasing pollution in the city. Small hoardings
were installed across the city with slogans such as “GREEN DELHI CLEAN DELHI”,
“GO GREEN” etc. Marketers were trying to sell green marketing concepts, finding
innovative ways to show their concern for the environment.

But for Taab Siddiqui, green colour answered many of her critics’ queries – there
were persistent mails from people who thought that her soft bread contained egg.
The fact was that egg was never used as an ingredient in the Harvest Gold bread and
to highlight the vegetarian character of its products, the company started printing a
green mark on the packing.
KEY WORDS
She had to reach the office by 11 am as she had invited Equus Red Cell, the Ad shop,
Indian Bakery Industry for launching their website. This was an important meeting for building the brand
image of the company. Moreover, she was planning to go national and hence to be on
Green Marketing
par with the other competitors, internet presence and social networking were a must.
Procurement As her car drove into the parking area, she heaved a sigh of relief that she could
Packaging escape from the peak traffic and was still running ahead of her schedule; she could
thus afford to spend a couple of minutes with her staff as she had to inform them
Quality Standards
about a new product. She walked in and called everybody in the Conference Room
Cost-cutting Measures to announce the ‘breaking news,’ particularly to the male employees. “I have a good

VIKALPA • VOLUME 37 • NO 2 • APRIL - JUNE 2012 117

piece of news to share with you; we are entering into a
challenging segment of semi-cooked rotis in certain parts
of Delhi to start with! Now all men should stop pester-
ing their mothers and wives to make garam rotis1 for
them,” she jokingly warned them. The launching of this
product was quite close to her heart because she per-
sonally hated making rotis during her earlier days. Af-
ter getting back from her tour, she had thought of giving
a green signal to this daring product of her company.
Piyush, the executive assistant to the lady, standing be-
hind her, was quite apprehensive about the product. “Is
this roti business really going to work? There can be other
ways of empowering the Delhi women. We all reach
home late and the least that we would want is a freshly
cooked meal with fresh chapatis,” he thought.
It was honestly a challenging step of experimenting with
the sensitive Indian consumer, and that too men. Previ-
ous records showed that this venture was quite popular
in the West but in India it was still a question of value
system for every household. But that was what Harvest
Gold was known for: “Challenging the Challenges.” If
the company failed then what would happen? Perhaps
they would stop this venture and move ahead with some
learning as this would not be the first time they were
failing. A couple of years ago, they had tried selling
mineral water but that had not gone well with the peo-
ple. The business was not a success and they had to
promptly shut it down. The problem lay in the logistics.
Another issue for the company was the implementation
of CNG norms2 — along with its other contemporaries,
it was constantly bugged by the Delhi Government offi-
cials who wanted them to have CNG fitted trucks to
carry their products, and these companies had no choice
but to follow rules. Their concern was that, how on earth
would their products reach the breakfast tables of the
customers on time if the trucks had to stand in long
queues for CNG refueling, which was inevitable due to
limited CNG stations. What would happen to the
Dilliwallahs”3 who wanted to have only Harvest Gold?
Managing the current distribution system was really a
1 Hot Indian breads made of wheat flour. Most Indian people prefer to
have them hot.
2 CNG(Compressed natural gas) is an alternative fuel and is widely ac-
cepted by vehicle owners because of low cost and clean burning
aspect.The government has made this option mandatory for trucks
and autorickshaws, i.e., they have to get their vehicles CNG fitted.
3 People belonging to Delhi.
118
hard task for them. For that matter it was a crucial issue
even for other food companies like Mother Dairy and
Perfect Bread because their business too depended on
good logistics.
The most important issue for the company was expand-
ing in other parts of the country and managing the dis-
tribution of fresh bread in such a way that her customers
got the product at the right time and were not attracted
to the alternate options offered by the retailers. Now the
task ahead was to develop a business model for gaining
national presence – it could be franchising or contract
manufacturing.
Harvesting gold in the Delhi market during the nine-
ties, but strapped by the investment ceiling of Rs 30 mil-
lion in the reserved sector of bread manufacturing,
Harvest Gold realized that the future lay in franchising
its brand and technology across the country.
Taab Siddiqui’s strong conviction for outstanding qual-
ity had brought laurels to the organization, which she
did not want to lose just by expanding the business. In
fact the organization faced a major challenge when it
started outsourcing the jobs. Their major objective was
to fulfill the need for a good quality product involving
low cost techniques that the customers could trust. (See
Appendix I for cost control methods). What differenti-
ated them from others was quality, and their endeav-
our was to follow it 365 days.
HARVEST GOLD: ORIGINS
Adil Hassan was a chemical engineer from IIT Delhi,
who switched to making bread with an investment of
Rs. 10 million. After his marriage with Taab Siddiqui,
an MBA from Aligarh Muslim University, in 1988, they
had shifted to Singapore but returned to India in 1992 to
make their living in Delhi. They hit upon the idea of
bread-making when they failed to find fresh and decent
bread in Delhi. So, they decided to make bread and the
rest, as they said, was history.
Adil Hassan and Taab Siddiqui commissioned their
plant as Harvest Gold Foods India Pvt. Ltd. and com-
menced production in June 1993, at its state-of-the-art
facility at Bhiwadi, Rajasthan (installed capacity: 75,000
loaves of 800 gm each a day) with a premium range of
Harvest Gold white bread in 400 gm (Price Rs 7 a loaf)
and 800 gm (Rs 13). The product was an instant hit with
HARVEST GOLD: DELHI’S NO. 1 BREAD
a Rs. 400 million turnover in just five years. They fur-
ther diversified into related products like hamburger
buns, pizza base, etc.
Earlier there was a domination of two manufacturers —
Modern and Britannia. Demand was high and supply
inadequate; hence whatever was produced was sold.
Bread was sold in wax papers. People used to stand in
queue for hours for delivery vans to get their loaves.
Such was the dominance of Britannia and Modern
breads. Other competitors like Taaza and Bakemans
were not so popular. Since the national players were Bri-
tannia and Modern (now limited to a few parts of the
country), every state had its own local brand. Short shelf-
life of bread made it difficult for big players to distrib-
ute bread at distant places. From 1995-96 up to 1998-99,
Britannia bread market share witnessed a fall due to the
stiff competition from Modern Foods. Still Britannia
could manage to regain its shape due to the takeover of
Modern Foods and the time spent in its restructuring.
Again that could not last long and Britannia faced some
problem in its distribution of bread. This particular cri-
sis was the reason behind Harvest Gold’s success as the
market leaders were fighting with their destinies.
Harvest Gold did not have any distributor for its bread
at that time; so, it approached the distributors of Britan-
nia and Modern. These distributors agreed to keep a
stock of Harvest Gold bread and sell it whenever there
was a demand for it. It also approached the Nirulas for
keeping its bread on their counters. But everything took
a turn when customer response turned out to be over-
whelming. Within a span of two years, there was no look-
ing back for them. Harvest Gold was 17 years old with a
turnover of more than Rs. 1.2 billion with one plant, one
city, and one product. Its only plant was in Bhiwadi from
where all its products were distributed. What was most
remarkable was the company’s distribution system – the
trucks were painted with Harvest Gold’s name and logo
— a true example of mobile branding. This was a case of
a local player taking on a big brand and emerging as
the market leader within a span of just one to two years
of launch. Other than the normal white bread, it also
made sandwich bread, Bombay pav, burger bun, brown
bread, kulcha, pizza base, sweet bun and milk rusk,
daliya (Porridge) bread, garlic bread, and multi-grain
bread and sold its own atta (wheat flour). Their label
accounted for 80 per cent of the bread consumed in Delhi
and NCR and headed a Rs. 1.2 billion (and growing)
VIKALPA • VOLUME 37 • NO 2 • APRIL - JUNE 2012
business that employed 800 people and supplied 2,50,000
loaves per day. Each 380 gm loaf was priced at Rs 11
and 800 gms at Rs 20 in Delhi. For other states, there
was an addition of Rs 1 or 2 per loaf.
INDUSTRY OVERVIEW
The Indian bakery market was valued at Rs. 32.95 bil-
lion in the year 2008 and was expected to reach Rs. 43.08
billion by 2012. The market was split into rural (22.5 %)
and urban (77.5%). The two major bakery products,
bread and biscuits, held about 82 per cent of the market
share.4 The per capita consumption of bread in India was
only around 1.5 kg to 1.75 kg in various zones.
The consumption pattern in the four zones of India was
27 per cent in the North, 32 per cent in the South, 23 per
cent in the East, and 18 per cent in the West.5
Size of the Indian Bread Industry
The four million tonne bread industry was growing at
the rate of 6 per cent and was expected to grow at the
same rate in the medium term. However, the organized
sector was growing at the rate of 8 per cent. In 2006-07,
the total production of the organized sector was esti-
mated at 1.8 million tonnes.6
The bread industry consisted of organized and unor-
ganized sectors, contributing around 45 per cent and 55
per cent of the total bread production respectively. The
organized sector consisted of around 1,800 small scale
bread manufactures around the country, besides 25
medium scale manufacturers and 2 large scale indus-
tries which were permitted to continue on the basis of
their installed capacity in 1976 when the Government
of India reserved bread industry for the small sector.7
The unorganized sector including the neighbourhood
bakeries, etc., consisted of an estimated 75,000 bread
bakers mostly located in the residential areas of cities
and towns. Thirty-five per cent of the total production
came from the small scale sector with about 1,500-1,800
units in operation.
4 Sourced from the website of business standard,http://www.business-
standard.com/india/news/kitindian-bakery-market-in-2008/333773/=,
May 28,2010
5 Sourced from the website of Ministry of Food Processing Industry,
India http://mofpi.nic.in/images/file/volume 2.pdf=, May 28, 2010.
6 Ibid
7 Ibid
119
Operations
Procurement at Harvest Gold
The flour was procured by the Purchase Department at
Bhiwadi through the millers and suppliers who first sent
the flour samples to the Quality Control (Standards)
Department, where these samples were tested on vari-
ous quality parameters. If a sample met the required
specification, it was accepted. The rates were then de-
cided by the Purchase Department and finally the order
was placed. The company maintained the suppliers’
profiles and the orders were placed only when required.
Price
The price of wheat flour (See Appendix 2) was deter-
mined on the basis of the price of wheat, atta, suji, and
bran prevailing in the market on a day-to-day basis.
Maida, atta, bran, and suji were made out of wheat in the
ratio of 55:15:25:5. At Harvest Gold, the formula used
for calculating wheat flour rate was:
Wheat flour = wheat rate/quintal – (atta rate/kg.*
rate/kg 0.15 + suji rate/kg. * 0.05 + bran
rate/kg. * 0.25)/55
The wheat flour was tested on various quality param-
eters before procurement. These parameters played a
very important role in deciding the products to be pre-
pared, e.g., bread-making required strong gluten, more
than 12 per cent protein, hard wheat, etc. Following
quality parameters were required to be satisfied:
Wheat Non-grade Data
Moisture content: The acceptable limit of moisture con-
tent was less than 12 per cent. This parameter was very
important for storing wheat in the godowns/silos. The
moisture content depended on the weather conditions
at the time of harvesting. Higher moisture content ad-
versely affected the keeping quality of wheat.
Protein content: This is an important parameter for
making different products of wheat. For making good
quality bread, chapati, and biscuits, the protein require-
ment was greater than 12, 10-12, and less than 11 per
cent respectively.
Sedimentation value: This parameter indicated gluten
strength. For making good quality bread, chapati and
biscuits, the requirements were strong, medium-strong,
and weak gluten respectively.
120
Hardness: This was an important parameter for prod-
uct development as soft, medium-hard, and hard wheat
was required for biscuits, chapatis, and bread respec-
tively.
Alkaline water retention capacity (AWRC): It was an
important parameter for evaluating the quality of bis-
cuit and had a negative correlation. A value of less than
60 per cent was considered ideal for making good qual-
ity biscuits.
Flour Data
Extraction rate: Milling industry was interested in
higher extraction rate (flour recovery). An extraction rate
of 55 per cent was generally preferred.
Dough Properties
Alveo graph parameters: The alveo graph was used
mainly to evaluate bread-making potential of wheat
flour. The four alveo graph parameters were:
P – Peak (mm)
L – Elasticity (mm)
P/L – Ratio of peak and elasticity
W – Overall resistance
The flour with high L and low P was generally weak
whereas the flour with low L and high P was over-sta-
ble and thus neither of them was considered suitable
for good bread-making.
Quality Evaluation
Loaf volume and bread quality: For the evaluation of
bread quality, parameters like loaf volume, stickiness,
appearance, crust colour, crum colour, texture, taste, and
aroma were considered and among all these parameters,
loaf volume was considered the most important and was
given maximum weightage while evaluating bread qual-
ity. The quality of flour for bread-making was tested not
only in the labs but also on the floor, by making bread
out of the various samples sent by the vendors. For gain-
ing national presence, the biggest challenge ahead for
them was to standardize the different flour quality avail-
able in different states of the country.
Biscuit quality: For evaluating the quality of biscuits,
spread factor was calculated by dividing the diameter
of the biscuit with its thickness. The quality was consid-
ered poor, average, good, very good, and excellent when
HARVEST GOLD: DELHI’S NO. 1 BREAD
the spread factors were <6.0, 6.1-7.0, 7.1-8.0, 8.1-9.0 and
>9 respectively. Like bread, there was scope of improve-
ment even in the quality of biscuits, which was required
for taking them to the international level. Soft wheat flour
with weak gluten strength and low protein content were
the basic quality requirements for making good quality
biscuits.
Quality Assurance
Quality had always been the central force for any busi-
ness proposition. Harvest Gold had adopted a strict
quality policy in its unit, which was well monitored by
the Quality Control & Assurance (QC&A) Department.
The quality was stringently checked at different levels
of production, which included:
• Primary inspection of raw materials
• Quality assurance during work-in-process
• Quality check of finished material.
Besides this, the Quality Assurance Department paid
meticulous attention to post-production handling and
packaging of their products to improve bread’s shelf-
life. Due to the company’s adherence to the quality of
products, it was accredited by the prestigious ISO cer-
tificate. Raw material was procured from various ven-
dors who had to follow strict norms and adhere to
various standards of quality. The company did random
sampling of raw materials and checked samples in its
own R&D lab and stored in dry cool and sanitized stores
in its own facility.
Commercial bread-making was held to strict govern-
ment guidelines regarding food production. Further,
consumer preferences compelled bread producers to
maintain a high quality standard of appearance, texture,
and flavour. Therefore, quality checks were performed
at each step of the production process (Appendix 3).
Producers employed a variety of taste tests, chemical
analyses, and visual observation to ensure quality.8
Moisture content was particularly critical. A ratio of 12
to 14 per cent was ideal for the prevention of bacteria
growth. However, freshly baked breads had moisture
content as high as 40 per cent. Therefore it was impera-
tive that the bakery plants be kept scrupulously clean.
The use of fungicides and ultraviolet light were two
8 10
Sourced from the website http://www.madehow.com/volume-2/
bread.html=, May 29, 2010.
VIKALPA • VOLUME 37 • NO 2 • APRIL - JUNE 2012
popular practices. Most of the commodities and raw
material had seasonal cycle of prices as they peaked and
fell in intervals. Hence they could book maximum
amount of their requirement when prices were low.9
PACKAGING AT HARVEST GOLD
Bread was generally a highly perishable item, having a
shelf-life of a maximum of 72 hours in a tropical coun-
try like India. The government had made it mandatory
to stamp the date and time of manufacture and expiry
on the packet. Therefore, once the bread was baked and
packed, any baker would make it a point to see that it
reached the market at the earliest.10 The people at Har-
vest Gold thought of grabbing the opportunity of intro-
ducing an innovative packaging mechanism for their
product. It thus pioneered in introducing transparent
sheets where consumer could have a look at the prod-
uct without opening the pack. At a time when the com-
petitors were using wax paper for packaging, Harvest
Gold started using a clear, cellophane wrap with a sig-
nature red base. Then, the expected happened — tangy
dollops of plagiarism pervaded the bread market. Soon,
shop shelves were stocked with cellophane-wrapped
bread-brands with logos, packaging, and even names
having the same touch and feel as Harvest Gold. Taab
Siddiqui and her team were confident that they still did
not taste like their bread. But they felt the need to create
a brand in the minds of the consumers. By the end of
1997, it became clear that to stand apart from the na-
tionwide bin of wannabes — Honey Dew Gold (Delhi),
Taaza Gold (Faridabad), Golden Harvest (Calcutta),
Spenser-Gold (Goa), Everest Gold (Chandigarh), etc. —
Harvest Gold would have to knead out a unique brand
strategy for generating consumer pull.
MARKETING
Some ad practitioners were of the view that wit must
come at a later stage, when the brand was already es-
tablished, and was seeking to build a connection with
the consumer. But in the case of Harvest Gold bread,
the company and the advertising agency, Equus Red
Cell, decided to go the funny route right from the start –
with a tone and language the consumer would under-
9 Sourced from the website http://www.shumaonline.com/html=, May
29, 2010.
Sourced from the website http://aibma.com/industry/html,=, May 29,
2010.
121
stand, and capturing the issues they could relate to.
Swapan Seth, co-CEO at Equus, who had handled the
account since 1997, was of the view that selling a bread
brand on the basis of milk content or preparation tech-
niques would be boring and silly.
The campaign comprised weekly 80cc and 60cc print ads
that were similar in look and feel, and used a limerick to
parody or comment on an everyday issue, be it Bill Gates
or the Delhi winter. The advertisement even made a dig
at itself: “Bakwaas Advertising. First Class Bread.”11 Hu-
mour worked in this case because it used the lowest com-
mon denominator; so, it was almost like the voice of the
consumer (See Annexure).
Using humour for a brand – even a low-cost, low-in-
volvement one – was risky. But, at the heart of great
brands lay the ability to take risks – and luck favours
only the brave. The brand had over 92 per cent share of
the organized market for bread in Delhi, and was a cult
brand. Still, it took great courage and tremendous trust
in the agency on the part of the client to back a cam-
paign that took a risk.12
In 1998, on a Friday, when the premium white bread
manufacturer Harvest Gold Foods India Private limited
unwrapped the first of its year-long, Rs. 2.7 million ad-
vertising campaign, its aim was clear: the Delhi-based
brand was determined to become the toast of the coun-
try’s bread basket. With the sales restricted to Delhi and
its environs, growth in the nineties had risen by a hearty
65 to 70 per cent a year, and the sales were projected to
touch a buttery Rs. 500 million in 1997-98.13
Realizing that it was often the domestic help who was
duped into buying the cheaper Harvest Gold duplicates,
the company had to ensure that the consumers began
demanding Harvest Gold by name.
With the company hoping to earn a good part of its
bread-and-butter from Harvest Gold franchisees across
the country, the brand needed to establish a communi-
cation platform which would spread smoothly from lo-
cal to national coverage. The media buying was inge-
nious too. During that time, the brand was distributed
only in Delhi and its environs. Therefore, the Harvest
11
Bakwaas is a hindi word which means worthless.
12
Sourced from the website http://www.thehindubusinessline.in/cata-
lyst/2002/12/26/stories/2002122600040100.html,= april 19,2012
13 http://www.expressindia.com/news/fe/daily/19980223/05455374.html
122
Gold advertisement appeared in a fixed position, on the
back page of Delhi Times, and only on Friday’s — when
the readership peaked — for a full 52 weeks (See An-
nexure).
Keeping in mind the cost-effectiveness of the advertise-
ment, Suhel Seth, CEO, Equus believed that in any par-
ity-driven commodity, communication was a key discri-
minator. Both the agency and the client wanted the bread
to come alive in a funny, exciting, smart, and sexy man-
ner. Behind their back, people used to comment on their
ads being very silly. Many, however, thought of taking
a clue from them and prepare funny ad content. They
would thus have ads such as “Milk content ki14 no infor-
mation, softness ka15 no mention, I said “Chaddo na, bread
khao.16 Why create tension?’’ But when you go to pick
up bread, ik gaal must be saaf17 and clear That Harvest
Gold is what you buy. Not just any bread, my dear.”
Harvest Gold was totally focused on quality. It men-
tioned the product details on each of its bread packets –
“Harvest Gold Industries Private Limited proudly
present, HARVEST GOLD, a fine quality white bread
baked in a state-of-the-art plant with quality testing con-
forming to the American Institute of Baking standards.
Harvest Gold is brought to you in an international qual-
ity pack to ensure freshness and hygiene.”(See Appen-
dix 4 for food safety and standards.) Even their customer
care number and email ID were mentioned on the pack-
ets of their product to entertain feedback from the cus-
tomers.
DISTRIBUTION
The marketing system in the bread industry was based
on a strong retail-wholesale distribution network and
being a highly price-sensitive low-margin food product
with very short shelf-life (about four days on an aver-
age) and the resultant return of more than 10 per cent of
dispatches, the industry was witnessing a very competi-
tive environment with the result that inter alia the con-
sumer’s choice and preferences played an important role
in the sales pattern of different brands of bread in the
market.18
14 ‘Ki’ here means has
15 ‘Ka’ also here means has
16 ‘Chaddo na’ bread ‘khao’ means leave it and have bread.
17 Ik ‘gaal’ must be ‘saaf’ means one thing should be clear.
HARVEST GOLD: DELHI’S NO. 1 BREAD
Harvest Gold’s success largely depended on its excel-
lent distribution system enabling fresh delivery of vari-
ous items. Its competitive advantage lay in owning the
distribution system and continuous upgrading with in-
novation and latest technologies. The best thing about
Harvest Gold was its small size which facilitated smooth
distribution of its products. However, for having natio-
nal presence, there was no option other than outsourcing
of the distribution.
The owners of Harvest Gold recalled the days when they
had to sell the breads on the traffic signals to generate
an awareness besides increasing sales. Those were the
toughest days of their lives – not in monetary terms but
in terms of having a burning desire to become a suc-
cessful entrepreneur.
The couple had recently returned from an extensive
world tour where they had been looking for the latest
professional practices in distribution of fast-moving con-
sumer goods with emphasis on bakeries. Many millions
of Rupees-worth of cost-saving opportunities and serv-
ice improvements were identified – e.g., attractive
schemes for big retailers, capturing the shelves of mod-
ern trade channels, improving on management infor-
mation system, excellent demand forecasting and special
delivery vehicles on different occasions, sticking with
the policy of cash on delivery (COD) for big retailers
and three to four days credit policy for small retailers.
A long-term strategy was created that affected every-
thing in the supply chain from the profitability of indi-
vidual products, through breadroom operations, even
to examining running costs of individual delivery vehi-
cles. There was a firm opinion in the industry that dis-
tribution was a major driver of manufacturing efficiency
and once a person understood its role in fresh food he
could not afford to get it wrong.
Generally there are two peak slots when bread is dis-
tributed, morning and evening. Harvest Gold used to
dispatch hundreds of thousands of loaves daily to hun-
dreds of sales outlet. One was the morning sales slot,
i.e., Harvest gold dispatched hundreds of thousands of
loaves daily to several thousand sales outlets with each
outlet having two sales peaks — one was the morning
sales slot from eight till ten and the other was the evening
18
Sourced from the website http://www.fnbnews.com/article/
detnews.asp?articleid=18007&sectionid=32, April 19, 2012.
VIKALPA • VOLUME 37 • NO 2 • APRIL - JUNE 2012
customers’ slot from four till seven. Breads were quickly
and safely loaded defective breads used to immediately
get either exchanged or returned.
While holding MDP’s and workshops, Harvest Gold
realized and identified various issues that could be ad-
dressed so as to make the strategy successful. They be-
gan by holding as well as participating in a couple of
supply-chain workshops to identify problems and is-
sues, e.g.,
• Stock item profitability
• Fleet maintenance approach
• Costs of transferring product between plants to con-
solidate orders
• Cost to serve various customers and channels
• Distribution channels such as retail, industrial, food
services
• Profitability of different customer types.
Analysis of the different customer types and the rela-
tive distribution issues associated with each helped them
articulate the cost-to-serve improvement opportunities.
So, while the supply chain of other products could plan
in terms of weeks and months, a big baker had to think
in terms of hours and minutes. This task was com-
pounded by the large reverse logistics effort required
due to the fact that bread was generally sold to major
supermarkets on a sale or return basis and because it
was sold in crates that stacked on to dollies requiring
return to the bakery. Empty shelves meant lower sales;
so, grocery category managers always aimed to have
their shelves fully stocked during peak demand peri-
ods – an interesting problem for merchandisers when
one remembered that bread demand was compressed
into these two daily time slots. So, supplying enough
bread to fill shelves was a critical tactic in the overall
strategy.19
Handling and Logistics
Logistics played a key role in the bread industry, as a
proper logistic support enabled the producer to trans-
port his products in the market at the right time. A pro-
ducer had to see that all the packs were stacked in solid
containers – steel or plastic crates – in order to avoid
compression of bread (reduction of volume) during
19 Sourced from the website http://www.logisticsbureau.com.au/archive/
Bread_Supply_Chain.htm =, April 22,2012.
123
transportation.20

In case of bulk transport, Harvest Gold made use of

trucks and tempos, and in case of smaller deliveries to
the retail shops, the producer used smaller tempos and
bicycles. A producer also had to make sure that all vehi-
cles were thermal proof so that the bread could be main-
tained at a lower temperature. All the products were
transported preferably in the night or early morning in
order to avoid heat and humidity and also traffic delays.
Even after the product reached the retail outlets, the pro-
ducer had to educate the retailer to keep the bread away
from direct sunlight. Otherwise the bread would start
sweating and result in fungus formation, reduction in
weight due to loss of moisture, change in the texture,
within 3-4 hours. Therefore, crates were handled
etc.21
roughly. They were stacked inside a truck and trans-
The Bhiwadi plant was the only plant and the product ported to various markets. Normally, no empty space
was distributed from there. What was most remarkable was left in the trucks. Usually one person on the truck
was the company’s distribution system where the trucks (3.5-4 ft. high) handed over the crates to two persons on
were painted with Harvest Gold’s name, thus also serv- the ground who carried them to the shops on the shoul-
ing the purpose of mobile branding. The products were der. These crates were dropped from the shoulders (4-
loaded in these trucks and unloaded at various depots 4.5 ft. high) usually on the concrete floor and hence the
in Delhi. From the depots, the products were carried by impact damaged the crates.
the outsourced trucks to the various corners of the city
The company organized a design competition among
as per the demand of the customers. The retailers of the
the students of the Indian Institute of Technology (Delhi)
suburbs in Delhi demanded 400 gms of the white bread
to develop a creative technology innovation so that the
the most whereas the retailers in the posh localities like
crate could be carried at a lower height thus reducing
Vasant Vihar, Vasant Kunj, Greater Kailash, Defence
the impact level, while not compromising on the quan-
Colony, and demanded different variants of Harvest
tities carried and also increase the trays’ resistance to
Gold bread. The mode of revenue collection was cash
cracking on falling on the ground. A presentation/video
on delivery from the retailers by these outsourced truck-
with reference to the design statement was shown to
men. In a very few instances, they gave the product on
the participants who were told that the original crate
credit and that too only for a couple of days.
must remain the same.
The breads were packed in plastic crates each of which
was around 1-2 kgs; each person carried 3-4 such crates COMPETITORS
on his shoulder. While unloading, the person freely re- Among major competitors of Harvest Gold was the com-
moved the load which on impact with the ground caused pany manufacturing Premium bread under the brand
serious cracks after several falls. One crate full of breads name “PERFECT” which figured in most of the Premium
weighed around 6-7 kgs; four crates weighed around stores and virtually all the 5 Star joints in Delhi. It had
24-28 kgs and would cost around Rs 200. Breakages were started its business in 1993 with a small plant, Seeta
common at the edges. Foods Pvt. Ltd., located in a small industrial town,
Hathin, Faridabad with a very minimal turnover. In a
Around 50,000-60,000 crates were circulated everyday
span of just a few years, by adding on two most modern
in the market in a cycle. Breads needed to be delivered
plants, LR Foods (established in 1997) and Harpreet
20 Sourced from the website http://www.fnbnews.com/article/
Foods Pvt. Ltd. (established in 2000) at Faridabad, and
detnews.asp?articleid=18007&sectionid=32, April 19, 2012. further coming up with Perfect Bake in 2006, LR Foods
21 Ibid. Pvt. Ltd. had garnered 45 per cent of the market share

124 HARVEST GOLD: DELHI’S NO. 1 BREAD

of Premium Bread in Delhi.22 They covered the National
Capital Region including Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida,
DLF and all other adjoining cities and were also opera-
tional in Agra, Ferozabad, Bharatpur, and Alwar dis-
trict in Rajasthan. Its competitor, Britannia, had its major
contribution to its revenue from biscuits. So, bread mar-
keting had taken a backseat; in fact there were lot of com-
plaints from people who were not able to get fresh bread
from Britannia.
Another competitor was Modern Foods. In West Del-
hi’s busy Lawrence Road industrial area lay the rem-
nants of a shattered divestment dream. Bleary-eyed
guards — there had been no power for the last two days
— opened the rusted iron gates of what was once the
Modern Food Industries Limited (MFIL), but just to say
that the leading bread manufacturer had downed its
shutters. Modern Foods, which once had a 40 per cent
share in India’s bread market, no longer dominated the
show. Inside, the factory doors remained sealed as pi-
geons fluttered in and out of empty dark halls that had
been stripped long ago — mute testimony to a well-pub-
licized takeover of the first public sector company in In-
dia in 2000 by the Hindustan Lever Limited (now
Hindustan Unilever Limited), also its only bread maker.
But if the plant was defunct, strangely enough, Modern
Breads was still present on breakfast tables across the
country. The companies MFIL, merged with Hindustan
Unilever Limited (HUL) in September 2006 and all MFIL
employees, now 392 from an initial strength of 2042,
were now HUL employees. In short, high costs and an
unmanageable work force in a low-margin business had
made MFIL an indigestible deal for HUL. What turned
HUL away from Modern Bread was that the brand had
no distribution network of its own; moreover, it lacked
quality standards and grappled with trade union trou-
bles and high production costs. Still worse was the work
ethic and culture which did not synchronize well with
that in HUL. Though HUL created a distribution net-
work and adopted a franchisee route to reach markets
with standardized quality norms and made an operat-
ing profit in 2002 (and a 19% growth in sales), it was
rocked in 2003 because of political reasons.
The Modern bread brand was available in a wide vari-
ety of white sandwich bread, brown bread, Atta (wheat
22
Sourced from the website http://www.perfectbread.com/company.php,
June 1,2010
VIKALPA • VOLUME 37 • NO 2 • APRIL - JUNE 2012
flour) Shakti Bread and Modern 7 Must Multigrain Bread
in more than 50 towns across the country, including
major metros. “Modern Foods is contributing to both
the top-line and bottomline of our foods business,” said
Prasad Pradhan, a spokesperson for HUL. Insiders say,
however, that HUL was struggling with the Modern
brand. From 13 units, including those in key markets of
Delhi, Jaipur, Indore, Ranchi, Kochi, Kanpur, Kolkata
and Chandigarh, it now had only six operational units
and brand franchisee arrangements with others across
the country.23
Major Brands
The two major players, Britannia and Modern Foods,
had a market share of 10-12 per cent and 7-8 per cent
respectively in 1998. Apart from these two, there were a
few large regional players such as Spencers in South
India, Vibbs in Maharashtra, Kitty and Bonn in Punjab,
365 days in Delhi NCR, Haryana, etc., and Harvest Gold
and Perfect Bread in Delhi and NCR.24
New Variants of Bread
For some time, bread was thought to be fattening, and
many people avoided it in their daily diet. Studies
showed, however, that it was toppings such as butter
that accounted for most of the fat-induced calories. In
fact, bread was an excellent source of low-fat, complex
carbohydrates. The renewed interest in bread had led
to consumers’ taste for a variety of bread types. No
longer was sliced white bread the norm. Grocery store
shelves now offered myriad wheat breads and multi-
grain breads.25
ISSUES AND FUTURE CHALLENGES
Harvest Gold was known in the city as well as in NCR
for its USP in smart marketing and quality control, its
responsiveness to changing market and high class ma-
chinery and its straight competition with Britannia,
Modern, and Perfect Bread in Delhi together with some
local players. Having its own distribution was a real
23 Sourced from the website of http://www.tehelka.com/
story_main39.asp?filename=Bu210608breakingbondwithbread.asp,
May 31,2010
24 Sourced from the website of http://www.divest.nic.in/comm-reports/
dereports1.pdf page 60=,May 28,2010
25 Sourced from the website http://www.madehow.com/volume-2/
bread.html=, May 29, 2010.
125
value addition and its success wholly depended on it.
In this way the company was accountable to its custom-
ers in addition to keeping strict control on the channel
members. The customer base was also wide and carried
names like Reliance, IIT Delhi, and Private Hospitals,
etc. The company was quite sure of making the product
available in the morning on the breakfast tables of its
customers. The future task ahead however was to de-
velop a business model for national presence (market
expansion) and it could involve franchising and contract
manufacturing and stringent cost-cutting measures
without diluting the quality and compromising on stand-
ards.
The companies which had greater geographical presence
or were multinationals could achieve better price by buy-
ing bigger volumes instead of buying for individual
units. Central buying policies were recommended for
such units. Bulk buying resulted in annual contracts for
a period of twelve months with prices being finalized
for the entire period.26
Even a company like HUL known for excellent distri-
bution could not help Modern bread. This was the chal-
lenge Harvest Gold faced in going national. Also it had
to be very careful in designing its business models be-
Appendix 1: Cost Cutting Measures27
The competitive world corporate houses and businesses
were struggling to maintain profits and healthy bottom lines.
The costs of production, fuel, raw material, and human re-
sources were rising each year. These developments have
prompted people to look for cost reduction ideas and meth-
ods.
Those who had opted for focused cost reduction strategies
survived; those who could not manage perished. During eco-
nomic downturn, it became more important to make cost
reduction programme a major initiative in the industry.
Companies were finding it difficult to retain people and were
laying people off which was unprecedented in the recent
history of industrial recession. Companies had to develop
their own cost reduction programme for saving without
cutting jobs.28
Economic slowdown and low spending by consumer had
forced big bakery manufacturers to implement cost reduc-
26 Sourced from the website http://www.shumaonline.com/html=, May 29, 2010.
27 Sourced fro the website http://bakerybazar.blogspot.in/2009/06/cost-reduction-strategies-for-bakeries.html=, June1,2010
28 Sourced from the website http://www.shumaonline.com/ on June1,2010
126
fore launching the bread in the country with different
cultures and languages and above all different tastes.
Bread-making was its core competency which it did not
want to deviate from. They were totally focused on
making good quality bread and increasing their size by
going national only by selling bread and its variants.
The promotion gathered lot of attention from the peo-
ple as many waited for the advertisement in Delhi Times
Magazine on every Friday. Even kids in the age group of
3-4 years could very well recognize the bread advertise-
ment because of its vibrant colour and style. Harvest
Gold had become a generic name for bread in almost
every household of Delhi and NCR. Moreover, they were
holding meetings with their advertising agency, Equus
Red Cell, for launching their website, a common plat-
form used for communication these days. Just the other
day, one of her vendors had asked for the business card
and was taken aback when he did not see any website
address on the card. They had to launch a creative fresh
looking website as this was the trend and need of the
hour. As far as CNG fitted trucks were concerned, there
was still some time in the implementation of the stric-
tures. So, they could rest for a while. It was possible that
it might not even happen. So, they had to sit with their
fingers crossed.
tion strategies in their plants and operations. They were
ongoing rather than knee-jerk programmes. One had to con-
tinuously strive for innovation, modification, or automation
for savings in factory operations
Substantial cost savings could be achieved in the following
areas:
Procurement or Purchasing
Procurement involved acquiring products, services, and
works from vendors or internal source. Sourcing was the
process of identifying, evaluating, and negotiating with sup-
pliers and service providers. This included the entire ven-
dor selection process as well as contract management. It
opened doors to a rich supply of raw materials, facilities,
and labours at lower prices, thus reducing costs and increas-
ing competitiveness in markets around the world. The pres-
ence of foreign-produced finished manufactures compels
HARVEST GOLD: DELHI’S NO. 1 BREAD
 domestic industries to be innovative and efficient, both of
which are keys to profitability and longevity.
Raw material comprises around 60-65 per cent of the prod-
uct cost. Hence savings in raw material purchase can add
on to profits. The main raw materials are flour, fat, sugar,
additives. Apart from these, engineering items and packag-
ing materials are also required. Some of the cost-saving ideas
include bulk buying, forward buying, sales tax exemption,
excise duty free procurement, reverse auction, imports or
sourcing from across the globe.
Logistics
The cost of transportation both inbound and outbound was
very high. Efficient logistics management in the following
areas definitely helped reduce cost:
• Freight or transport management
• Inventory management
• Warehouse design and location
• Type of transportation
Energy
Energy also contributed to the cost of manufacturing; hence
reduction of cost of energy should be a priority for manu-
facturers. Following are some ideas for reducing energy cost:
• Getting an energy audit done and implementing the au-
ditors’ suggestions
• Saving fuel through energy efficient burners
• Saving power energy through energy-efficient motors
Appendix 2: Factors Affecting Wheat Flour Prices in India
Production and consumption of wheat: India was the sec-
ond largest producer of wheat in the world, averaging an
annual production of 65,856 TMT. On average, India con-
sumed 65,283 TMT of wheat, and was ranked as the second
largest consumer of wheat in the world. India did not pro-
duce enough wheat to be self-sufficient. So, to make up the
difference, it imported.29 Therefore, when production was
not sufficient and the demand was more, prices would au-
tomatically rise.
Yield of wheat: It was the yield of wheat which was a decid-
ing factor for the good production of wheat. How efficient
would be the farm to produce maximum output of wheat
with minimum input decided the overall wheat production
and finally the price. Generally, the yield of wheat had been
fairly good in several regions, e.g., Punjab and Uttar Pradesh,
thereby controlling the wheat prices.
29 Sourced from the website of spectrum commodities, http://www.spectrumcommodities.com/education.commodity/statistics/wheat.html, August
8,2011
VIKALPA • VOLUME 37 • NO 2 • APRIL - JUNE 2012
• Installing screw compressors
• Using alternate fuels by sourcing cheaper fuel like CNG,
LPG, RFO, LDO, etc.
• Recovering heat from ovens
• Using FRP fans for cooling tower
Packaging
Packaging material was also a major factor in the cost of
manufacturing; hence selection of packaging material had
to be done with care . Few ideas were:
• Reducing or modifying shape and size of the product
• Reducing packaging waste through thickness or gauge
reduction
Automation to Increase Productivity and Reduce Manpower
Automating bakery processes can result in substantial sav-
ings in cost. Areas where we can go for automation are:
• Raw material and finished product handling and stor-
age
• Adding radio frequency dryer to increase the oven pro-
ductivity
• Automating packaging processes from feeding to
cartoning and palletizing.
Outsourcing
Few of the processes – like sugar grinding, promotion, pack-
aging and distribution – could be outsourced.
Seasonal variation: The monthly price of wheat flour usu-
ally went up in the rainy season because the demand of
wheat bran would go down due to green pastures avail-
able. The millers in this situation would increase the price
of wheat flour to recover the total cost of wheat.
Stock of wheat (procurement and minimum support prices):
The government’s policy was to have a buffer stock of food
grains for emergency situation, and it procured wheat ac-
cordingly through the Food Corporation of India (FCI)
godowns. This not only increased the maintenance cost of
the government but also created artificial shortage in the
open market. Again, when the government tried to dispose
off the stock, the price was fixed in such a way that the open
market price was less than the FCI price. On the other side,
India was unable to export wheat because of poor quality
and price difference in the world market. Thus the stock was
127
 spoiled in the godown. The government was also selling that
stock at higher prices to the exporters. That also discour-
aged the processing industry leaving the stock in the
godown. The government was thus not in a cozy situation:
the stock was piling up, the hoarding cost was going up, the
quality was deteriorating. So, it had no other option but to
sell it at a price, which was affordable to the millers. That
lowered the price of wheat flour in the country and it could
be exported at a competitive price.
Price of by-product of wheat: Out of wheat, maida30, atta31,
bran32 and suji33 were made in the ratio of 55:15:25:5.To re-
cover the price of wheat purchased, the miller also depended
on those by-products. If the price of by-products like bran
and atta went down, the price of flour went up.
Export-import of wheat: India was a significant importer of
wheat prior to the 1990s. During the 1990s, India had be-
come a marginal importer and even an exporter on occa-
sions. However, since India had a large demand, these
marginal quantities could often be significant for the world
market. Wheat trade had been under government control in
the past, and the export import quantities reflected Govern-
ment decisions over each year as well as across the years in
managing the supply, demand, stocks and the food prices
in the country. If the production was less than the consump-
tion, India had to import.34
On average, India imported 990 TMT of wheat, and, for vari-
ous reasons, exported an average of 767 TMT of wheat. The
ending stocks in India averaged 9,900 TMT, giving India the
third largest ending stocks in the world.35
Effects of WTO: Under the WTO, the quantitative restric-
tions from wheat import and export were removed in India.
The trader would have greater freedom to trade the wheat
and wheat products and hence the wheat market would
become more dynamic. Moreover, under the WTO regime,
the provision of export subsidy had to be reduced as these
kind of subsidies were very much present in the developed
countries especially in the US and EU, while in India and
other developing countries, the export subsidy was already
nominal or nil, so, we would have advantage in wheat ex-
port. So, it was predicted that exports were going to increase
30 Atta is the Hindi word which means wheat flour, out of which indian bread like roti/chapati is made.
31 Maida is the Hindi word for refined flour.
32 Bran is the outer layer of cereal grain which has high dietry fibre.
33 Suji is the Hindi word for Semolina
34 Sorced from the website http://www.jstor.org/stable/4415713 =, on april 20,2012
35 Sourced from the website of spectrum commodities, http://www.spectrumcommodities.com/education.commodity/statistics/wheat.html, August
8,2011
36 Sourced from the website http://www.fao.org/sd/eidirect/EIan0008.html,= on april 20,2012
37 Sourced from the website of Indiamart, http://finance.indiamart.com/markets/commodity/wheat.html, August 8,201
128
in India and accordingly, wheat price and wheat flour price
might also go up.
Effect of El-Nino: El Nino was the local warming of surface
water, which would take place in the entire equatorial zone
of central and eastern Pacific Ocean off the Peruvian coast
and affect the atmospheric circulation worldwide. It usu-
ally would peak around Christmas hence the name of the
phenomenon El Nino which was the Spanish name for Christ
child.36 El Nino would occur every 4-5 years sometimes less
(2-3 years) and sometimes more (8-11 years). If the tempera-
ture increased by 2 degrees in the equatorial region, it might
cause serious damage to the crops in that region. So, it was
better to keep an eye on this event. This could decrease the
total production in several countries including the US and
thus lead to the rise in the wheat price.
World wheat production and consumption: The world wheat
production was very important for the price of wheat and
wheat flour. When the production of wheat in wheat pro-
ducing nations fell, the prices automatically went up and
vice versa.
The world wheat production in the recent years has hov-
ered between 560-580 million tonnes a year. The biggest cul-
tivators of wheat were EU-25, China, India, USA, Russia,
Australia, Canada, Pakistan, Turkey, and Argentina. EU-25,
China, India and USA, the four largest producers account
for around 58% of the total global production. World wheat
consumption was consistently growing with growth in
population, as it was one of the major staple foods across
the world. The major consuming countries of wheat were
EU, China, India, Russia, USA, and Pakistan. Around 16-
19% of the world wheat production was traded annually
between countries. The annual world trade in wheat was to
the extent of 102-106 million tonnes. USA, Australia, Canada,
EU-25, and Argentina were the five largest exporters of
wheat in the world. Major importing countries that topped
in the figures were China, Egypt, Japan, Brazil, and the Eu-
ropean Union. Other importing nations were Mexico, Indo-
nesia, Algeria, Philippines, and Iraq. However, the import
amount varied year to year depending upon the domestic
production.37
HARVEST GOLD: DELHI’S NO. 1 BREAD
 Appendix 3: Bread Production Process
Bread Manufacturing Process
Bread was made with three basic ingredients: grain, water,
and bakers’ yeast. The harvested grain was ground accord-
ing to the type of bread being made. All grains were com-
posed of three parts: bran (the hard outer layer), germ (the
reproductive component), and endosperm (the soft inner
core). All three parts were ground together to make whole
wheat and rye breads. To make wheat flour, the bran and
the germ had to be removed. Since bran and germ contained
most of the nutrients in grain, the wheat flour was often “en-
riched” with vitamins and minerals and some wheat flour
was fortified with fibre and calcium.
The grains were ground in the grain mills and then sold in
bulk to Harvest Gold which kept the grains in storage sacks
until they were ready to be used. In the baking factory, wa-
ter and yeast were mixed with the flour to make a dough.
Additional ingredients such as salt, fat, sugar, honey, rai-
sins, and nuts were also added in the factory.
Raw materials used in bread manufacturing were flour, fat,
sugar, salt, yeast, sodium stearoyl lactylate, smp solution,
bread improvers, ascorbic acid, potassium bromate, calcium
propionate, acetic acid and other additives. Plant and ma-
chinery required for bread were spiral mixers, silos, sifters,
conveyors, bowls, dividers, hander up, interproover,
moulder, final proovers, baking ovens, depanners, cooling
racks, cooling tunnels, slicers and sealers, and plastic trays.
Utilities like chilling plants, air compressors, boilers, and
cold storage rooms were required for different applications.
Mixing and Kneading the Dough
The sifted flour was poured into an industrial mixer. Tem-
perature-controlled water was piped into the mixer. This
mixture was called “gluten” and gave bread its elasticity. A
pre-measured amount of yeast was added. Yeast was actu-
ally a tiny organism which fed off the sugars in the grain
and emitted carbon dioxide. The growth of the yeast pro-
duced gas bubbles, which leavened the bread. Depending
on the type of bread to be made, other ingredients were also
poured into the mixer.
The mixer was essentially an enclosed drum that rotated at
speeds between 35 to 75 revolutions per minute. Inside the
drum, mechanical arms kneaded the dough to the desired
consistency in a matter of seconds. Although modern bread
production was highly computerized, the ability of the mix-
ing staff to judge the elasticity and appearance of the dough
was critical. Experienced personnel were able to determine
the consistency by the sound of the dough as it rolled around
the mixer. The mixing process took about 12 minutes.
38 Sourced from the website http://www.madehow.com/volume-2/bread.html=,May 29, 2010.
VIKALPA • VOLUME 37 • NO 2 • APRIL - JUNE 2012
Fermentation
Three methods were used to ferment the dough. In some
plants, the high-speed machinery was designed to manipu-
late the dough at a very high speed and with great force,
which forced the yeast cells to rapidly multiply. Fermenta-
tion could also be induced by the addition of chemical addi-
tives such as 1-cysteine (a naturally occurring amino acid)
and vitamin C. A certain portion of the bread was allowed
to ferment naturally. In this instance, the dough was placed
in covered metal bowls and stored in a temperature-con-
trolled room until it rose.
Division and Gas Reproduction
After the dough fermented, it was loaded into a divider with
rotating blades that cut the dough into pre-determined
weights. A conveyer belt then moved the pieces of dough to
a moulding machine. The moulding machine shaped the
dough into balls and dropped them onto a layered conveyer
belt that was enclosed in a warm, humid cabinet called a
“prover.” The dough moved slowly through the prover so
that it could “rest” and thus allow the gas reproduction to
progress.
Moulding and Baking
When the dough emerged from the prover, it was conveyed
to a second moulding machine which re-shaped the dough
into loaves and dropped them into pans. The pans travelled
to another prover that was set at a high temperature and
with a high level of humidity. Here the dough regained the
elasticity lost during fermentation and the resting period.
From the prover, the pans entered a tunnel oven. The tem-
perature and speed were carefully calculated so that when
the loaves emerged from the tunnel, they were completely
baked and partially cooled. While inside the tunnel, the
loaves were mechanically dumped from the pans onto
shelves. The baking and cooling process lasted approxi-
mately 30 minutes.
Slicing and Packaging
The bread continued to cool as it moved from the oven to
the slicing machine. Here vertical serrated blades moved up
and down at great speeds, slicing the bread into consistently
sized pieces.
Eight metal plates held the slices together while picking up
each loaf and passing it to the wrapping machine. Pre-
printed plastic bags were mechanically slipped over each
loaf. The bags were closed with wire twists or sealed with
heat.38
129
130 HARVEST GOLD: DELHI’S NO. 1 BREAD
 Mixing Mixing Dough Rounding up
ingredients 1 dough 2 dividing 3 4

Prooving Moulding Final prooving Baking

5 6 7 8

Depanning Packing
9 10

MIXING INGREDIENTS 5-10 MINUTES

FROM MIXING DOUGH TO FINAL PROOVER 15 MINUTES

FINAL PROOVING 75 MINUTES

BAKING 30 MINUTES

COOLING 60-90 MINUTES

PACKING 15 MINUTES

Appendix 4: Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI)39

Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) had
been established under the Food Safety and Standards Act,
2006 which consolidated various acts and orders that have
hitherto handled food-related issues in various Ministries
and Departments. FSSAI had been created for laying down
science-based standards for articles of food and to regulate
their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import to
ensure availability of safe and wholesome food for human
consumption.
Highlights of the Food Safety and Standard Act, 2006
Various central Acts were repealed after commencement of
FSS Act, 2006:
• Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954
• Fruit Products Order, 1955,
• Meat Food Products Order, 1973,
• Vegetable Oil Products (Control) Order, 1947
• Edible Oils Packaging (Regulation) Order 1988,
• Solvent Extracted Oil,
• De- oiled Meal and Edible Flour (Control) Order,1967
• Milk and Milk Products Order, 1992
The Act also aimed to establish a single reference point for
all matters relating to food safety and standards, by moving
from multi-level, multi-departmental control to a single line
of command. To this effect, the Act established an independ-
ent statutory authority – the Food Safety and Standard Au-
thority of India with its head office at Delhi. The Food Safety
and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and the State Food
Safety Authorities enforced various provisions of the Act.
Duties and Functions of the Authority
FSSAI had been mandated by the FSS Act, 2006 for perform-

39 Sourced from the website http://foodsafetyhelpline.in/FSSAI/AboutFssai.asp?GL=2, on April 20,2012

VIKALPA • VOLUME 37 • NO 2 • APRIL - JUNE 2012 131

 ing the following functions:
• Framing of Regulations to lay down the Standards and
guidelines in relation to articles of food and specifying
appropriate system of enforcing various standards thus
notified.
• Laying down mechanisms and guidelines for accredita-
tion of certification bodies engaged in certification of food
safety management system for food businesses.
• Laying down procedure and guidelines for accreditation
of laboratories and notification of the accredited labora-
tories.
• Providing scientific advice and technical support to Cen-
tral Government and State Governments in the matters
of framing the policy and rules in areas which have a
direct or indirect bearing of food safety and nutrition.
• Collecting and collating date regarding food consump-
tion, incidence and prevalence of biological risk, contami-
ANNEXURE: Sample Advertisements
132
nants in food, residues of various, contaminants in foods
products, identification of emerging risks and introduc-
tion of rapid alert system.
• Creating an information network across the country so
that the public, consumers, Panchayats, etc., receive
rapid, reliable and objective information about food
safety and issues of concern.
• Providing training programmes for persons who are in-
volved or intend to get involved in food businesses.
• Contributing to the development of international tech-
nical standards for food, sanitary and phyto-sanitary
standards.
• Promoting general awareness about food safety and food
standards.
Bakery manufacturers needed to follow up with the Food
Authority for labelling, adultrants, additives, and their
permissible levels, etc.
HARVEST GOLD: DELHI’S NO. 1 BREAD
 If one has worked in an ad agency, he would know that
creating a big idea is painfully slow. An unusual product
should have an unusual campaign. Every Friday, one can
enjoy while reading ‘Just like Harvest Gold’ which is not
just another bread.
Ultimately, the idea was to make Harvest Gold a generic
name for the premium quality bread. To make the edible
brand indelible, the Delhi ad-shop of Equus Advertising
Company cooked up a high-value, high-impact campaign
which used a different nonsense verse each week, in half-
Punjabi (Punjab is a state in North-West of India and Punjabi
Noria Farooqui has been an Assistant Professor in the Depart-
ment of Management at Hamdard University, Delhi since 2006.
She was earlier associated with the Institute of Clinical Re-
search, India as a management faculty. She has been in the
teaching profession for the last eight years and teaches Strate-
gic management, Advertising, and Strategic retail management
for post-graduate students of management. Her research ar-
eas are agriculture and rural management, the thrust areas be-
40 Sourced from the website http://www.expressindia.com/news/fe/daily/19980223/05455374.html=, June 1,2010
VIKALPA • VOLUME 37 • NO 2 • APRIL - JUNE 2012
is the language spoken there and very commonly spoken in
Delhi too as it is the easiest language to learn), half-English,
to hook the consumer.
The last line always drives home the core concept: “Harvest
Gold: Not Just Another Bread” and while the rhy-mes have
little reason, they do have tonnes of topical interest. Here is
one sample:
“Election time is coming. There is obviously lot of stress.
Political scene te twanu pata hai Bilkul disgusting mess,”40
ing food security and qualitative and quantitative indicators.
She is an Alumnus of Aligarh Muslim University where she
completed her Masters in Agricultural Economics and Busi-
ness Management. She has received Dr Zakir Hussain Medal
for consistent good academic record in graduation.
e-mail: noriafarooqui@gmail.com
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