There’s no reason we can’t double growth in next 4-5 years: Rajni Bector, Mrs Bectors

What a journey it has been for you. It started off in your backyard with an investment of Rs 20,000 and now it has grown many folds from that level. How has the journey been so far?
It is really a great career for me because the main thing is when I started the company, I never thought that I am going to do it in a big way. I just thought it was my passion and my hobby and is nothing more than that. I never felt like I would be doing a business and it was demand which really created me and made me go ahead with my passion. I basically started from my kitchen as a hobby and used to supply people. Then I felt like I should do it in a bigger way. I started with ice creams, puddings, cakes and biscuits. Then came salads. I was supplying the marriage parties and slowly the demand became very high and I started making bread. After bread, I started biscuits, then sauces and then the buns.

I started in 1978 in a small city like Ludhiana. Ladies of good families did not go and work anywhere. I faced much criticism and rejections from everybody. They will say, why are you doing it? But it was my passion and my husband supported me. He said do whatever you feel like, just go ahead with everything. That is the main thing which matters quite a bit in my life.

Coming from Ludhiana, the land of chhola bhaturas and kulchas and lassi, how did you get into baking?
I was creative with all my ideas but I used to attend some classes. I did a dairy technology course in PAU and I did some other courses also. But I just learnt the basics of everything but I made new kinds of ice creams. The head of the department was Dr SC Jain. He was a triple doctorate in ice creams from Harvard America and then Germany, Switzerland and all. He was a very big name in dairy technology. He used to ask me “how are you doing it, Mrs Bector”? I said this is my only passion. I just keep on thinking if I will add this thing, it will be like this and if I add this other thing, it will be like this. I started making all the toppings myself.

I was basically the first person in Punjab, you can say, who created the puddings, cakes and salads and ice creams of these types because nobody else was there, nobody knew what the salads are, what the puddings are and what everything because basically in Ludhiana, mostly in Punjab and Haryana, people were only used to basically Indian items. They were not used to western puddings and other stuff. For them it was a very big surprise and the salads were also a very big surprise. People used to tell me that I have created a taste for all these things.

So, I started supplying to all over Punjab — Jalandhar, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Ambala and even Delhi. In UP I was supplying everywhere even Dehradun, Banaras, mostly for marriage parties. That was giving me a push because I was appreciated everywhere. Initially, I used to have just a helper or two and I used to work for 18 hours a day. My children were in the hostel and I could take advantage of that.

Whenever my children were back at my place during the holidays, I used to look after them and work at night. I wanted to give my children full attention as a mother.

I started making bread in a small way in 1978 and in 1990 we put up a biscuit plant in a big way followed by a bread plant.

Yours is a tall legacy and I am sure your family is very proud of you. What is that one advice that you would like to give to home or hobby bakers?
I feel everybody wants to spend some time and do something good but now the times have changed. In my time, there was not much provision. I used to do everything with my own hands. Now so many things have come up in the market. There are so many different kinds of ovens, different types of kneaders, moulds, everything is different. In those days, all the decorations on the cakes used to be made by my own hands. Now one can get everything from the market and they have good machineries.

The home bakers have a passion and that is a very good thing. They should go ahead with it but there is a lot of competition everywhere. All of them should know that whatever they are making should be made in such a way that they get a market for that and then they should be appreciated for that. If one is appreciated, one can go ahead with everything.

If you are going there and doing it, do it in a nice way and put in the proper ingredients. The market is there for you. I just believe that. It is very good that they are not wasting their time. They are still at home with their family and are doing business from their home.

Back in 78 like I said earlier there were no digital platforms, there were no marketing strategies. You could not hire a manager for your businesses. How did you go about marketing your products?
I never had anything. It was only word of mouth which made me go high. I have never advertised. I have never gone to any channel, nothing. Till today, you must have seen that Cremica has not much in the way of advertisements. It is the product which is being sold by taste and ingredients. Sometimes you feel that when you are doing these things, you are advertising in a small way. When you start advertising, your budgets go high. For a small business it is difficult. In my days it was not there at all. One could not go to Google and find out what is available, who is the supplier. It was a very difficult time. But now, things are available everywhere and one can do Google search and find out everything.

You can do it in a very big way and there are so many people who are there to help you. I used to even make food and cater to 200 people at my home without any caterer. In Ludhiana, there was no caterer at that time. There were halwai type people which I never wanted to do. So I used to do everything on my own without any help, not even proper servants because my father-in-law never wanted any servant to be in the kitchen. The woman of the house had to make food.

I always believed that I really should work at home. My friends pushed and I started with Fate’s ice cream. They compelled me to do it.

How are you going to take the business forward from here? Are you going to focus on premiumisation in the next five years? How will you grow from here?
We are trying our level best to go ahead with all the new things in the market and to improve sales and expand because we are not all over India. We want to introduce ourselves in newer areas and we want to increase our business in a big way.

I have just told my children as well as my grandchildren, never compromise on ingredients. Less profits are better than the wrong ingredients. We really like to go in a very big way. My children are really working hard. I am always there with them for any help because till today, anything new is introduced in the market after I taste it and pass it.

How do you see consumer trends changing when it comes to biscuits, bakery and other products?
Yes there is a change and we want to give the market whatever it wants. There are more working people now. Ladies are also working now. They want something very fast. We are just trying to be in frozen foods also. We are going to start frozen foods very soon in the market. People really want to have less sugar, less everything and we are also working on those lines.

Some youngsters want to eat out quite a bit. There are some youngsters who are very health conscious. We are working on something for all. The frozen foods, vegetables can help there.

Prices of sugar, milk, which are basic raw materials for you, are increasing. Will that impact your margins in the near term at least?
Yes that is bothering us quite a bit. All the ingredients are costly now, everything and that is really making the difference. And whenever you are making any product, you want to use the best thing. You cannot compromise on anything because if we will compromise on the wheat, flour or anything, the base will be wrong. When you increase your product prices a bit, then the customer says why are you increasing?

Do you think you will be able to double your growth in the next four to five years?
Why not, we will do it and I am a positive person. When you think positive, you become positive and everything turns out like that. I am a very big believer of God and I just believe in it and I work like it is worship and tell my children also to do so.

You have to be very cautious about everything because now in every business we have, the professionals are working. So, going ahead it will be fine.

Which is your own favourite pudding?
I have a sweet tooth and that is why I started making all the sweet things. I love all puddings to be very frank but basically my Tiramisu is really very, very good and very different. The reason being whatever is used in Tiramisu was not available in Ludhiana at all. So I developed my own cream cheese and everything else and I used that.

I will not give this recipe to anybody. But Tiramisu is my favourite. But I love Indian food quite a bit. I love the halwas and all. I really love them to be very frank. I do not like everybody’s halwas or anything. I do not like it. I really like the way I make it.