In Delhi's Vasant Kunj area, Mother Dairy is using its ice cream carts for an interesting experiment - distributing its Safal peas. If it's successful, soon housewives in the Capital and other cities where Mother Dairy has an ice cream presence can pick up Safal frozen vegetables from the neighbourhood vendor.

The Rs 4,400-crore dairy and vegetables company will also soon move beyond peas, corn and mixed vegetables and offer a whole basket of frozen snacks, including buttered and salted corn cobs, cheese cutlets and French fries.

Mother Dairy is not the only one deep-freezing new snacking menus. From Godrej Tyson Foods' Yummiez brand to Canadian French fries giant McCain to India Equity Partners' newly-acquired Sumeru brand, a whole host of players are cooking up new offerings such as aloo chaat and frozen idlis .

After years of being in cold storage, the category is now showing growth riding on new products, better infrastructure, joint promotions with modern retail and higher consumer acceptance. Convenience is a trigger. So is the out-of-home experience. “More Indians eating out and wanting to try the same food at home - is driving consumers to pick up products like ours,” says Mr Sushil Sawant, Associate Vice-President – India Operations, Godrej Tyson Foods Ltd. He points to the two new Yummiez offerings, Dilli Aloo Chaat and Seekh Kabab, launched last month. “These are typical restaurant or street food items that are very difficult to make at home, as the potatoes need to be coated with chutneys and seasonings,” he says.

At its Bangalore R&D Lab, Mr Sawant says, the company is innovating on 5-6 frozen products that should be launched by this year-end.

Closer home

Meanwhile, McCain, after wooing Indians with its frozen potato offerings has gone in for a local twist by recently launching frozen idlis in the Delhi market. “Localisation is the cornerstone of McCain's strategy,” says Mr K. S. Narayanan, Managing Director, McCain Foods India.

He says that in the last few years, consumers in India have gone through a dramatic transformation in lifestyle by moving from traditional spending on food and groceries to lifestyle and convenience foods driving home consumption of frozen items.

Of course, penetration into tier 2 and 3 towns remains a challenge given the power cuts. “This is a barrier and we fear going to smaller towns,” admits Mr Sawant.

But solutions for that too are coming up. Mr Munish Soni, Deputy General Manager (Marketing), Mother Dairy, says the company is looking at launching single-use packs - 100 gm sachets of peas, for instance, to address the power issue. Mother Dairy sells 10,000 tonnes of Safal peas yearly and says it is the market leader in consumer packs.

The branded frozen foods category is estimated at Rs 1,000 crore, and industry players say it is now clipping along at 20-25 per cent per annum.

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