“You have to find a unique idea and be a disrupter in the marketplace to succeed,” Kishore Matta, Times NOW & ICICI Bank NRI of the Year winner in Entrepreneur category across Asia-Pacific

By Shashikanth  Narasimhiah and Nidhi Kumari

Managing Director of Jewel Fine Foods, Kishore Matta, the proud recipient of the Times NOW & ICICI Bank NRI of the Year winner in entrepreneur category across Asia-Pacific talks about his firm’s focus, the secrets behind his food being fresh and healthy, local and global food trends and a lot more in an Indus Age exclusive. Read on:

 

First many congratulations to you on winning the coveted Times Now ICICI NRI of the year 2018 as an entrepreneur, making both the Indo-Aussie Population proud; though this sounds cliché but tell us about your feelings on that.

It is very humbling and really an honour to be recognised amongst the successful thousands of other NRIs around the globe. It was a proud moment for me and I am extremely delighted. I couldn’t have achieved this without the support of my wife and two lovely kids.

Jewel Fine Foods (JFF) has been in the food industry for more than 30 years now. It’s your baby and you have seen it grow successfully right in front of your eyes. What do you have to say?

Our focus has been to continue doing what we do best, by growing an extending our capabilities in food to deliver outstanding, superior quality convenience meals in a range of cuisines.

In spite of turbulent times, the faith, focus and self-confidence wasn’t lost. I looked at ways in which I could diversify and keep the company afloat.

In hindsight, these early set backs were the very catalyst that allowed the business to develop into the diverse company it is today.

Fast forward to today, Jewel Fine Foods is the market leader of fresh, ready to eat, premium restaurant quality, prepared meals, manufactured daily for the convenience market.

I had a vision many years ago that one day I would like to captain a world class, state of art food factory which will not only enable to service the whole of Australia but people overseas too. It is very satisfying to see us reaching that goal and what we have achieved to date.

 

Jewel Fine Foods tagline, “Part of the Family”; enlighten us about the main idea behind it?

We live by the motto that a business is simply an idea to make other people’s lives better. This is the motivation behind our ever-evolving range of healthy ready meals. We love food and our purpose is to make it easy for everyone to enjoy affordable, high-quality meals that are as close to homemade as possible. Flexibility and agility are at the heart of the way we work. This allows our talented team to constantly innovate, responding quickly to customer needs and capturing hearts in all of

our markets and allowing us to bring fresh, restaurant quality ready meals to consumers around the world. At Jewel Fine Foods, we’re not just making food, we’re making culture. We believe that by sharing our meals with others, we share who we are. For us, creating meals is about celebrating both tradition and innovation. Food is one thing which we all love and is what brings people together.

Our philosophy is that convenience food purchased from a supermarket for feeding the family must be as good as restaurant quality if not better without the addition of any additives, preservatives, artificial colours and the like at an affordable price.

Our vision is to see that every household in Australia has JFF products in their fridge within the next 5 years.

 

The focus today is on prevention of obesity and reduction of salt, sugar carbohydrates and increase in fibre and protein in our food especially amongst children. Tell us about JFFs initiatives and achievements in this area?

Prevention of obesity and intake of fibre and protein.

• An important subject for myself and the team at Jewel
• Considerations we have are:
  • How can we improve our current range?
  • How do we move the market forward with product development?
  • How do we work with other brands to deliver a step change?
• Current range
  • At Jewel we are always pushing ourselves to nutritionally improve our meals
    • One way we are currently improving is to gradually remove all free salt from our products over a 12month period
    • Another way is we are currently trialling lower in fat cream replacements in our meals to help lower saturated fat
  • Product development
    • A lot of our New Product development is based upon introducing grains, good carbs, legumes and increasing dietary fibre
    • We recently launched a range of products in Australia which included the traditional curries but had sweet potato, broccoli, spinach, cauliflower, beans, quinoa, red, brown and wild rice included. This was in the aim to have your favourite meal but with increased vegetables and fibre. Our meals are already high in protein.
    • In respect to Kids meals we are currently working with 2 new entrants to the kids meals market. This takes a lot of time and resource for our business as it means a great deal focus on every ingredient. Such as pesticide testing on all the vegetables, sourcing of clean declaration protein and using additive free ways to flavour the meals. The focus is on providing a range of nutritionally balanced meals.

 

 What are some of the secrets behind your food being fresh and health over a period of 21 days without using preservatives? What is your advice to your customers/consumers on pre-packed food?

All of our dishes are based on authentic recipes and remain faithful to their cultural origins. They’re all made with ‘no nasties’ – we don’t use preservatives, artificial flavours, colourings or additives. Fresh and healthy, our meals are stocked daily at major supermarkets, with a shelf life of up to 21 days.

 

Over the years we have invested in the latest technologies to improve our shelf life of the products. By lowering the pH level of the products, using the freshest ingredients and following certain packing and chilling processes we have been able to achieve this extended shelf life.

Our advice to customers is that, always eat fresh with no preservatives or additives. Always look for clean label foods with locally grown produce and hormone free meats. We always say if you are what you eat, then you might as well eat something good!

 

With the recent campaign in favour of sustainability and against usage of plastics, could you please provide some specific details about the containers, cutlery, dinner ware and packaging you use.

Sustainability is a key pillar of our strategy and we work hard to reduce waste for landfill by minimising packaging. We try to use as much recycled sleeves and materials as possible to support reduction in landfill. In addition, film scraps which are left over from sealing trays are sent for recycling.

 

In addition to this, Jewel is continually looking for opportunities to make a positive difference with a focus on waste and recycling, resource efficiency and responsible and ethical sourcing. We also continue to procure produce from sustainable sources, supporting the environment.

 

Tell us about your initiatives and achievements in the areas of recycling and waste management? Also, tell us about how JFF comply with sustainability standards in relation to wastage handling.

Recyclable packaging – This an enormous trend across all industries. However in our world it is enormous. We are working with key global partners to find 100% recyclable packaging for all products we produce. Some of it relies on the Australian government and/or businesses to invest in ability to recycle some material.  This is a large focus at Jewel on how we move packaging forward in ready to heat/eat meals.

 

 

What is the source of these raw materials and what controls have you put in place to ensure the quality of these?

Quality is paramount at Jewel. But most important is the consistency of that quality. We work hard to ensure consumers have the same great experience each time they eat our meals. We aim to create meals that are as close to homemade as possible. That means using exactly the same ingredients as you’d find in your kitchen cupboard or fridge at home, most of them sourced fresh locally.

Source of Raw Materials

• All our meat and vegetables are sourced in Australia

 

• To ensure quality of our raw materials we have a well-structured auditing program whereby we audit all our key suppliers once a year to ensure their standards meet our quality criteria. This means we go to their businesses to audit their facility and processes.

 

• On top of this we visually check every delivery of raw materials that our sent to us. This is checked via the specification and agrees visual standard. Anything not achieving is rejected and sent back to the supplier. We do not even accept it into the factory.

 

 

With regards to vegetarian and vegan diets, how do you ensure that the discerning vegetarian or vegan customers are getting the level of exclusiveness that they look for in their food? (e.g. some argue that cheese which uses animal based rennet is not vegetarian). Could you provide some specific details?

Vegetarian and Vegan

• A growing area and one we are looking at many alternatives and recipe design is to bring to life Vegetarian and Vegan food. We have done an incredible amount of work on plant based protein for the meals working with key suppliers in Australia and NZ. We believe this is an area of the market that will deliver exceptional new products in the next 2 years which is great news for Vegetarians, Vegans or people who just want meat-free alternatives.

 

• We actually produce a few Italian lines which are vegetarian – and we spent a great deal of time sourcing parmesan cheese made with vegetarian and not animal rennet.

 

Tell us about some of the current and emerging local and global food trends and how your enterprise has adapted to and/or created these trends?

Domestic and Global trends

• Domestic and Internationally

 

• Domestic Convenience retail is in high growth and major players are all making a significant play – Woolworths Metro, Coles, Caltex, 7/11. Many new store formats and investment. All concentrating on convenience food – this means having a wider range of ready to eat meal solutions – either with some form of cooking interaction or completely ready to heat and eat. Jewel are working with their partners to find food and packaging solutions that best fit the customer requirements

 

• Gluten Free, Vegetarian, Vegan and meat replacement are all growing rapidly internationally. At Jewel, as stated above, are passionate about Vegetarian and Vegan meals and we are focusing on bringing this to life.

 

• Consumers will purchase ready-made meals but a frequently changing and exciting products are required – at Jewel we are developing new food products or meals 365 days a year. It drives our passion but is also the life blood of our business and how we grow in the future.

 

• Plant based protein – Huge trend internationally. Jewel investigating how we best include work with Australian and NZ partners to deliver a true meal experience using plant based protein

 

 

Do you have plans to expand your business on an international scale? Especially Indian subcontinent and Asia? Do you have any further expansion plans such as branching out to other types of recipes?

There is significant opportunity still available in the Australian market with certain channels still not being fully leveraged.  Changing demands and product requirements will enable JFF to capture further market share domestically.

Internationally there is increasing scope for JFF to play a role.  Our products have been exceptionally received in major food expos around the world.  In Foodex Japan they could not have enough of the curries, so too was the NRA and Fine Food trade shows in USA. JFF continues to explore the possibilities of finding the right partners in those countries in order to expand and begin exports.

Our shelf life capability is a key enabler to meeting demands of export markets without compromising quality and customer satisfaction.  Although India exports similar products JFF has the Australian Made, clean, green image that many find more appealing and acceptable. This is to JFF’s advantage.

The medium term plan sees JOI establishing presence in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore.  In the longer term, the Middle East is also a potential target market as well as China, Europe and USA.

 

Acquaint us about some of your social and community initiatives. What are some of your milestones and successes that you are really proud of?

JFF supports a number of causes both locally and internationally.

In Australia, JFF not only employs over 250 staff but also has training programs in place to improve and educate its work force. By offering job opportunities to the community locally and to new immigrants and students to Australia, JFF is well respected in Indian circles for providing huge employment opportunities to people from the sub-continent.

Jewel continues to support employment for older aged and also disabled people in Australia and also staff with vision and hearing impairments as well as disabled staff where possible.

JFF not only supports local businesses but also businesses in India.  By identifying and partnering with companies in India and getting some of the product bases manufactured and exported to Australia, JFF is assisting in growing Indian exports abroad while improving its own efficiencies in large scale bulk production as well as creating jobs for Indian workers.

Jewel supports the charity NRNA which helps new migrants, to get settled in Australia by way of helping them finding schools, homes and medical assistance etc. Once these migrants are settled, they repay the funds to support future incoming migrants.

More recently, JFF has generated employment for the underprivileged in poor areas of Rajasthan having recently set up a food manufacturing facility in Didwana, 170km from Jaipur, currently employing 35 staff. Where jobs are totally impossible, we are trying to improve the lives and wellbeing of these workers and their families.

 

Finally, what is your message to the aspiring entrepreneurs who look up to you as an inspiration?

Be focussed and never take no for an answer. Failures should not deter you from your vision or end goal. You have to find a unique idea and be a disrupter in the marketplace to succeed.

Remember, “Nothing is Impossible in this world!”