18 November 2018, Bengaluru, FRESH PHULKA:
Power couple compromise with food at nights and eat what is available, after hectic schedules. The wife is tired to cook and the hubby tries to order something from a nearby hotel or eats leftovers in the fridge. This is the normal scene at home when both are working.
On the other hand, food habits have changed diversely in south India as well. People are now opting for Phulkas, rotis or chappathis for dinner due to various health reasons. However cooking is a good pastime when there is ample time, but in this busy life it is only on Sundays that we get a chance to eat delicious homemade food, none to be blamed. We are running against time to scale greater heights, especially in the metros.
As we always say, every pain felt by many, turns into an opportunity to the innovative and that is what happened in Bengaluru. An housewife who was tired of working for someone else kicked her high profile job and put a Whatsapp message in her apartments group…’If you want hot and Fresh phulkas, call me’.
The response was small yet gave birth to ‘FRESH PHULKA’. The Saga of MANASMITHA, started with seventeen phulkas on that day, in September 2017 has grown into an enterprise that supplies 12000 pieces per day every day. With 15 varieties on hand, the consumer is never tired of having the same stuff daily.
So what was her aim while starting this venture, in an exclusive chat with Way2World, She revealed, ‘Initially I decided to help women who were busy with their professional commitments, by saving their cooking time and energy. We wanted to serve healthy fresh Phulkas.’ However, we supply around 11500 pieces to institutional buyers for lunch and approximately 500 pieces to direct customers for dinner. Through Zomato we serve the customer at their doorsteps, home milled multigrain phulkas.’
Health and Women were two priorities that we tried our best to upkeep, in spite of commercial trends. Today they employ 27 people of which 13 are women being led by a woman founder. Her dream is what has transpired into branding of ‘FRESH PHULKA’. They have become a reckoning gourmets in their area of origin and plan to expand across the Bangalore city and then spread across the nation and global too.
For hot n fresh Phulkas: call: +91-8881700700 (now in Bengaluru)
What did MANASMITHA feels that made the huge difference in her corporate imaging: She recalls her association with SALMA MOOSA, Founder of STARTUPS CLUB, Bengaluru made a difference in her business approach. She informed, with the assistance of her lead mentor she was able to visualize FRESH PHULKA going national and global with ready to serve range of foods.
What is FRESH PHULKA’s USP, ‘we serve nutritious food as we buy quality grains and mill them in house. All the items are cooked in regular kitchen style (on Tawa and hand rolled) and no machinery is involved. We do not use Maida or oils for phulkas.’ In addition we also serve many varieties of roti spiked with different flavors. This makes the consumer ask for more. Quality and taste have been our watch words for success.’
Concluding the chat she informed, ‘We, Indian bread manufacturers (Roti/Phulkas), are taking an effort to experiment the possibilities of entrepreneurship with the idea of good health & taste by providing a self-reliant opportunity to underprivileged women in the city. On the other hand, FRESH PHULKA offers’ a wide range of verities on Indian platter, no matter if its lunch or dinner.’
Way2World admires this women entrepreneur who is dedicated in her assignment while achieving phenomenal growth with consumer friendly initiatives. With inputs from internet – RajKishan