– Sudharsana Raju
Chennai: Chennai based CK Angels, a company that ventures into various food and lifestyle business has recently organized a session for the Chennai start-up community with Mani Krishnan, Founder, Shastha Foods, San Jose, USA. Many emerging entrepreneurs from the food industry participated in the event.
Shastha food products had grown to a different level in the last decade and had innovated the method of producing idly and dosa batter through various methods. Every day, fresh batter for spongy idlis and crisp dosas makes its way across the West Coast of the US to homesick Indians and Americans. Along with my wife Anandhi, Mani experimented with most of the batter at home, sharing it with colleagues and friends for feedback, before going large scale. ” I delivered the first batch was delivered in my car. As the company grew, we acquired a refrigerated cargo van. Soon, we out-grew that and we invested in small refrigerated trucks. We now use three small refrigerated trucks and a cargo van because we need to drive through city roads and smaller neighborhoods and of course, we need a parking space”, he says further adding that delivery happens seven days a week
Shasthaonline.com (Shastha foods) has more than 15 years of experience in delivering authentic Indian groceries and food products all over the US. He also shared his experience on how he developed his brand from the initial stage to this success. They distribute more than 600 products Online, ranging from ready to use Rice, Millet Grains, Choice of South Indian Filter Coffee products, Organic lentils, Choice of Batters, Cooking Oil, Grand Sweets /Snacks, Papads, Pickles, Rice Mixes wheat flours. Shastha foods are synonymous with authentic Indian food and distribute products ranging from ready to use Rice/Lentil Batters, different varieties of Rice, Filter Coffee, Indian Sweets/Snacks, Papads, Pickles, Rice Mixes, Wheat
flour, and numerous other Pooja items. He added, “Every minute, four containers of Shastha idli or dosa batter are being sold across the US”.
“I contribute my success to dedication and customer satisfaction. We are providing idly and dosa batter to the stores. If any complaint arises, we replace them with good products without any issues. At the initial stages, the rate of complaints was more than 40 percent. However, in 2019 it was reduced to 1%.”, he said. Moving forward, Shasta Foods is planning to procure more from the Indian rural farmers.
