Donuts! The sweet and round mouth-watering indulgence! Who doesn’t like them?? The world prefers them sweet. But in India, there is a savory option for donut available as well. The credit for this innovation goes to Singapore based F&B company \u2013 Pragati Ventures who introduced their brand Mad Over Donuts in India in 2008.Since inception, the brand has managed to carve an unbeatable niche for itself in the\u00a0 country with not only its concept of having an exclusive gourmet outlet for donuts but also innovation in the varieties offered.<\/p>\n
<\/a>The story started in 2008 in Singapore. Lokesh Bharwani, a resident of Singapore who owns Pragati Foods thought of launching something niche in the F&B sector. Brainstorming with friends, family and team led him to narrow down on opening specialty stores for Donuts. The first plan was to have a Research and Development centre in Singapore and the first outlet in Thailand but destiny had some other plans for them as their first specialty donut store was launched in India! \u201cWe had started putting a team in place somewhere in 2008 to open a store in Thailand followed by entering the UAE and then launching ourselves in India. But it so happened that there were sudden change in plans by the directors who were greatly influenced by the growing potential India presented and hence decided to launch our first donut store in India in Noida. Since day one we saw a great response and our journey thus began,\u201d shares Tarak Bhattacharya, chief operating officer, Mad Over Donuts.<\/p>\n Though Bharwani and his team had done good homework before the launch of their maiden store, there were some interesting facts that came before them. Shares Bhattacharya, \u201cEarlier we had decided to go in for non-eggless donuts but post receiving feedback from our customers, we went in for eggless donuts. Keeping the Indian palette in mind, we introduced savory donuts. A very interesting finding that we came across was that where across the world, donuts are preferred cold, in India, we had to offer the option of serving the donuts warm.\u201d Initial apprehension for the team was restricted with regards to its expansion. The group decided to take it easy when it came to expanding their footprint beyond the initial 5-7 stores in the country. Explains Bhattacharya, \u201cWe preferred staying still for the first two years. We wanted to be sure of our product acceptance and let our product do all the talking for us. We wanted to innovate keeping in mind the feedback we were receiving. We took on to expansion only when we were confident that we had managed to carve an incomparable niche for ourselves in the market. From the market feedback, we realized the potential donuts as a gourmet food had and that added to our confidence to expand\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/a>Mad Over Donuts positioned themselves as ‘affordable niche gourmet delicacy’ and that helped them create a market for themselves in India considering India is an extremely price sensitive market and averse to experimenting a lot with its food habit. Since last three years, they have kept the pricing of their donut consistent at\u00a0 ` 50 per donut.<\/p>\n Says Bhattacharya, \u201cAll our ingredients including sugar comes from Singapore. It is only the serving spoons, containers and boxes that we purchase from India. The team is sent to the R&D centre at Singapore for a thorough training and the training programme is an extensive process which spreads across 6 months carried forth in India as well as Singapore.\u201d The group has joined hands with Meera Hospitality to tackle various nuances of the Indian market and their earlier association was with Pan India. A challenge that they face in India is related to the shortage of cold storage and supply chain but over the last three years, they have integrated their back-end to tackle all the challenges in-house.<\/p>\n Talking about their mode of operation, Bhattacharya explains, \u201cAs of date, we have 45 stores across India which also includes having our presence at the various food courts in the country. We have the concept of mother kitchen and satellite stores. Mother Kitchens where we prepare donuts live before our customers also serve as our distribution point for satellite stores. We call our Mother Kitchens as Donut Theatre as you can literally view the entire donuts making process right before your eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n