At a time when startups are chasing investors and raising millions in funding, one Kerala-based bakery is proving that a successful business can be built without venture capital. Founded in 1986, Elite Foods Pvt. Ltd. began with a simple idea inspired by its founder’s experience abroad: to bring home the quality of bread he couldn’t find in India. After a long stint in the US, TR Raghulal came back home and found that everyone loved and enjoyed bread. However, the quality he was used to abroad was missing in Kerala.
This made him venture into the bread market and start Elite Foods by importing machinery and bringing in technology which was not prevalent in India during that time. Talking about their brand’s journey, TN Raghulal’s daughter Danesa Raghulal told Her Startup Story, “When we got into bread, we realised we needed good quality flour, so we integrated backwards and set up a mill. We got into cakes and other vertical and horizontal categories, and as of now, we have 212 SKUs as part of the Elite brand of food products.”
According to Danesa, one of the major reasons for their brand’s success is that her father focused on keeping systems and processes in place. She also revealed that when she first entered the business, she felt that the team was lacking energy. At first, she set about getting that in place and then focused on innovating and marketing the product, making it more interesting for the younger generation.
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For generations of South Indians, Elite’s Plum Cake was the gold standard for a festive cake. But Danesa felt it was too dense, and this led to the pudding cake range. These are much lighter, healthier, and fluffier, and also available in several flavours. “My father’s motto was that every Elite product should be safe for children to consume every day. We are ensuring our product is safe for everyone to consume. When we launched the pudding cakes, older people came back and told me they preferred this on a day-to-day basis over the plum cake and the latter was more about a celebratory kind of cake,” she told the outlet.
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As the executive director, Danesa oversees strategy and development, marketing, and financing. Since its launch, the brand has further expanded into Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana. Beyond India, it also has a market presence in the Middle East, USA, UK, Europe, Canada, Australia, Singapore, South Africa, and Southeast Asia.
Today, the brand has nine factories across India, sells more than 150 products and reported Rs 822 crore in operating income for FY2023, according to its own credit rating filings.
