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'People are more aware of the quality of products after Covid': Ashish Khandelwal

Ashish Khandelwal joined NewsX for an exclusive conversation this week for its special segment NewsX India A-List. Speaking about the company, Mr. Ashish spoke about how the company was formed in 1999 and was made by his forefathers. Having been the business for the past 75 years, Bl Agro Industries Limited has created a niche for […]

Ashish Khandelwal joined NewsX for an exclusive conversation this week for its special segment NewsX India A-List. Speaking about the company, Mr. Ashish spoke about how the company was formed in 1999 and was made by his forefathers. Having been the business for the past 75 years, Bl Agro Industries Limited has created a niche for itself. 

When asked about the reason behind the entry into kitchen ready products, he said, “Basically for diversification, we started it. We are doing distribution and all the customers and retailers ask for quality products. So we decided why not move forward with diversification and move into food products.”

Talking about the response gained for the product, he said, “Just after the launch, Covid-19 started. It started in January, 2020. The journey has not been very long. We faced lockdown. Moving forward, we will hit our targets.” After Covid hit, kitchen ready products became one of the most searched productions and most of the people started exploring various option. Talking about this, he said,“We got a good push in delivery because of this. Otherwise, a new product introduction during lockdown would have been tough.”

When asked about the existing market and new markets in India, he said, “Right now, we are in northern parts like Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Uttaranchal, Bihar, etc. and we are permanent here. In a couple of months, we are moving to the South.” Stressing on the company’s new marketing strategy, he added, “We are always after distribution. We try to maintain relations with distributors. So, companies provide all sales staff and everything. The sales staff gathers all the market reports and demands and then we work on it. The more prominent and convenient strategy is retailing nowadays because nobody is moving out and going to market and all. Today, Covid problem is for retailers to move out. So we are trying to maintain our market. We recently started our online portal. Soon it will be fully functional.”

Most people are used to bigger platforms like Amazon but small companies have also curated their apps, which shows whatever product available. Bl Agro Industries Limited has the same plan. He says, “Definitely, we are launching an app. We will be available side-by-side with the sites and all. From the first of July, we are trying to fulfil the desire of the customers.”

“We are thinking about expansion typically in pulses, flowers and all. In India, it has not been innovated. There are not many innovations and all. So we have tried to introduce some machines and all. Right now, we are grinding it with the stone mill which was modernized and from Austria. We have started vacuum packaging of pulses and food items. Nobody in India does vacuum packs for pulses. Similarly, we try to procure more specific machines and all and try to give more flavours and more specific aromas and the best quality we can provide,” he added.

Ashish expressed, “After Covid, people are more aware of the quality of products. They are more concerned about the quality. So we are trying to produce good and better things today. We don’t have such competitions and we are focusing on Indian pulses.” When asked about organic chains, he said, “Right now, we are not planning for organic because organic has lost its quality as every brand is producing organic products. Specifically, we don’t have any tests for organic. That is the problem when we say organic, it needs a specific amount of time. It takes 7 years for an organic crop to come and is financially not feasible.” 

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