ASHISH KHANDELWAL: NOURISHING THE BRAND FIRST PERSON
ASHISH KHANDELWAL, Managing Director, BL Agro, is at the helm of a company that has emerged from the heartland of India – Bareilly, to be precise - and is competing with the giants in the FMCG business. Here, he talks of the company started by his father
(AS TOLD TO SRABANA LAHIRI) HOW BAIL KOLHU WAS BORN…
The story of BL Agro Industries goes back to the time of my forefathers and when my grandfather set up a small shop to sell mustard oil in Bareilly. In the 70s, he looked to expand the business a little. When he passed away in 1981, his brother took over the business and gave my father, Ghanshyam Khandelwal, Rs 10 lakh as his share. My father studied the mustard oil business minutely, and found major issues relating to quality and adulteration. He then started his own company in 1986, and launched cold pressed mustard oil, in which quality can be controlled, under the brand name ‘Bail Kolhu’. It made a huge profit in its very first year, and grew steadily year on year. In 1998, the company faced a crisis when the Government banned mustard oil on the basis of rumours that it was causing dropsy, and that it was not good for human consumption. That crisis was overcome, and we were the only company that the Government eventually allowed to sell packaged mustard oil. For the very first time, we launched the one litre PET bottle of packaged oil. The same year, the family business transformed into BL Agro Oils Private Limited. Much later, it went public.
I BROUGHT IN COMPUTERS…
I joined the company in 1999, as the refrain in the family was that if I wasn’t brought into the business and taught to take responsibility early, I would go astray! So began my training and entry into the business. My father was very particular that I learnt it from the bottom up, just as he had done. I used to sit in the shop post college, and learn about accounts, customer handling, products… in fact getting tea for customers was my job! My immediate contribution to the business when I finally came in was to get the accounting computerised. Until then, we had been following the old bookkeeping system. Even when computers came in, my father and uncle used to tally the numbers physically, and compare the results, lest mistakes were made by the new system! Meanwhile, I also contributed to modernising the operations. We moved from semi-automatic to a fullyautomated packaging plant. I am passionate
about emerging technologies. So, I looked around and imported technology from other countries as much as I could, while I set my eyes on taking our company to the next level. When I joined the company in 1999, the turnover was around Rs 300-400 crore. In 2010, the company touched the Rs 1,000 crore annual turnover mark. In the last fiscal, our turnover was in the vicinity of ₹3,400 crore.
THE NOURISH SAGA…
I had been thinking along the lines of diversifying our offerings and in 2018, we launched the Nourish brand, with a wide range of food products under it, effectively turning into a full-fledged food products company. Nourish offers a complete food cycle, right from chakki fresh atta, pulses, rice, ghee, papad, pickles, murabba to ready-to-cook foods, etc. Our big accent is on hygiene and with the latest technology and innovation, we have been able to improve shelf life of our products. We have 17 Nourish Exclusive Brand Outlets and aim to open more going forward. The new brand contributes about 20% of our revenues so far. After North India, we have been expanding to the Southern states, especially Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. I am very happy with its progress. We are upbeat about achieving 10X sales next year and developing the e-commerce channel for our business.
"I am very happy with the progress of Brand Nourish. We are upbeat about achieving 10X sales next year." ASHISH KHANDELWAL