25 years is a long time for anyone to be the Chairman of a public company. So, I thought I’d use this opportunity to briefly look at the rearview mirror, then do a quick sitrep of the present and then spend a bit of time on global forces that will shape our business in the years to come. As always, this Chairman’s note will be a कल, आज और कल (yesterday, today, tomorrow) piece!
Let us look back 25 years ago to the first Annual Report (1998-99) after the company was acquired by US based company Preferred Brands International, which Meera Vasudevan & I co-founded in 1994. It was simply titled “The Turnaround”. Some may recall TBEL was a tired, debt-ridden company whose net worth had been wiped out with accumulated losses multiple times its equity capital & had been declared sick by the then regulator BIFR (Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction). This was the annual report published a year after the acquisition.
Meera & I were soon joined by a remarkable leadership team that included Ravi Nigam, Sohel Shikari and Hans Taparia. This five-person team that came to be known as the E-Com (Executive Committee) worked with a highly motivated work force and a dedicated management team to build a purpose-driven business around the consumer and the community creating a trajectory of sustained growth for 20+ years.
I am struck by the purpose, energy and optimism reflected in that first Annual Report. We triumphantly announced the turnaround of the company, predicted megatrends of natural, convenient & specialty foods in the US that still drives our growth 25 years later and we hoped to be perceived as India’s most respected food company! We also promised ourselves to make Tasty Bite without using any preservatives or chemical additives, a tall claim to have made in 1998 but still relevant today
We remained committed to that simple oath that we will not put into Tasty Bite what we will not put into our mouths. The annual reports over the next 2 decades continued to reflect those values & energy even as the business grew from sometimes making just 2,000 meals a day in the mid 90s to much more than 300,000 meals a day today. Not to mention more than 10,000 tons of sauces and frozen products catering to the Food Service industry.
Last year’s Annual Report titled Necessarily Natural, Preferably Organic embodies that very principle.
Our long journey was never easy. We caught no step change breaks or inflections. But our growth was steady and consistent. In that context, your support as shareholders, your patience, fortitude, and unwavering commitment to the mission of your company is nothing short of exceptional in the world of listed entities. At no stage in these 25 years, did we feel pressured by you to choose revenues & profits over the purpose of the company. We never came to that fork in the road.
It is with this feeling of gratitude that I will be stepping down as Chairman of Tasty Bite during this fiscal year.
Mars has been a terrific partner and shareholder in this journey, and I have committed to stay till they appoint a new Chairperson that will be approved by the board and the general body. My stepping aside does not mean that I will be retiring from work or turning my back on the business. On the contrary, I will be available to assist in both, the leadership and board transition for as long as it takes.
Let me now move to the आज and review the performance very briefly.
In the last Annual Report, I mentioned we came out of a difficult period but the landing into this fiscal year has not been smooth either. While the financials are significantly better than the Covid quarters, we have work to do on many fronts. Particularly on revenues, material costs, capex management and fulfillment. Let’s take a quick look:
Now, dear shareholders, let me present the flip side and you will quickly see why I am feeling energized despite the financial outcome this year.
Let me strike a note of caution though. Covid triggered global supply chain disruptions, energy insecurity and inflation pressures of the Russo Ukraine war are still dark clouds, but we must believe they will soon represent the end of a difficult period.
Fiona Dawson recently awarded the CBE retired as the Global Head of Mars Foods. She remains a friend of Tasty Bite and our cheerleader. She was replaced by Shaid Shah a 15-year Mars veteran and a reputed corporate leader who has worked globallyacross the various businesses of Mars, in Foods, Confectionery and Pet Nutrition. He has set ambitious goals for the Food business globally and is deeply committed both to Tasty Bite and to the potential the Indian market offers.
Dawn Allen who was on the Tasty Bite Board since the acquisition in 2017 left Mars a few months ago to pursue a new career. She was very dedicated and brought high standards of governance to our Board. She stepped down from the TBEL Board recently and subject to the shareholders’ approval will be replaced by Emmanuelle Orth. Emma, as she is known to her friends, comes to our Board as a talented CFO in the Mars system. You will get to meet her at the Annual General Meeting in September.
It has been my practice over the years to periodically speak of social, economic and technology megatrends, how they may affect our business, how we may ride them and indeed even drive them. The title of this year’s Annual Report is Tasty Bite 4.0. This to me represents a new beginning.
It has become obvious to all of us these last few years, that societies are not just divided but polarized. Borders, religions, cultures, rights, gender, climate, privacy are all under scrutiny by a new lens which itself is in dispute.
Equally, there is a unified understanding that our futures are deeply intertwined. We have more in common than we often think.
Here are 5 megatrends that will shape all of us despite our differences, provide business opportunities and separate winners from also-rans.
It is not enough for food companies to claim legitimacy by following GRAS (generally recognized as safe) standards. Nor is it OK to accept the Codex alimentaria as food pharmacopeia. We need to raise the bar. Companies and food scientists need to step up and keep both our food system and our microbiome clean. Herein lies the opportunity and the responsibility. Let’s pay the farmer, not the pharmacy.
Tasty Bite is well positioned.
The current hype however is not on plant-based foods but on “plant protein”. So, soybean, yellow peas and mushrooms are ascending, but the reality is not protein but the increasing realization of the importance of a plant-based diet.
This has always been a sweet spot for Tasty Bite and hence we are well positioned.
The metaverse is another work in progress. Think of it as a combination of the real and virtual worlds, of augmented and virtual realities or an internet landscape where millions of consumers can interact not just with each other but with objects. Food companies for instance can create unique experiences for their consumers from health tips to recipe ideas, offer a virtual tour of the farms they buy the produce from, the factories they manufacture the food in and even meet the employees who work there.
Tasty Bite has been increasingly adopting these technologies and today can trace produce to at least the district and in some cases to the taluka level. Soon this will extend to the village and ultimately the farm. It is not inconceivable that we will one day know which specific farmer harvested the greens that go into our Kashmir Spinach for instance.
You have heard me say this before, but I believe it is worth repeating. We don’t follow sustainable practices merely because they make business sense. It is our responsibility to make business sense out of sustainable practices.
At Tasty Bite we remain committed to our organic farm, a renewable energy program, water recycling, biogas through vegetable waste, rainwater harvesting and steam generation through sugarcane briquettes. Over the years, each of these projects has brought our teams immense joy, our consumers closer and not surprisingly our margins higher.
It is for all these reasons that at the end of 25 years, I feel a sense of a new beginning. Hence this Annual Report is titled Tasty Bite 4.0
Ashok Vasudevan
Chairman, Tasty Bite Eatables Ltd.