HUMBLE BEGINNING AND SPECTACULAR GROWTH

Ramdev Food Products Private Limited- ‘Valuing Person in Personnel’

HUMBLE BEGINNING AND SPECTACULAR GROWTH

Late ShriRambhai Patel left his village in 1959 and came to Ahmedabad with only Rs.4000 in
his pocket with a goal to start his own business. He started with opening a grinding mill of his
own, where he would grind the, cereals, etc for the local customers. At that time there were
no brands in spices, it was simply a commodity. In 1965, after having analyzed, the customers’
buying patterns, their expectations and requirements, Shri. Rambhai Patel established a brand
which was named “RAMDEV”. The goal of which was to give quality products to the
customers. The journey began with opening depots inSaraspur and Madhupura areas of
Ahmedabad and selected cities of North Gujarat.In 1989, his son Shree HasmukhbhaiRambhai
Patel laid the stone ofRamdev Food Products Pvt.Ltd (RFPL). Under the stewardship of Shree
Hasmukhbhai Patel who is presently the CMD of RFPL, the company took giant leaps towards
success. They came up with various spices’ packets including chilli powder, turmeric powder
and coriander-cumin powder with taste, colour and packaging according to the different
tastes and affordability of the people of India. In the same year, they also launched ‘garam
masalas’ which is currently giving them a growth of 60%. In 1991, they entered exports
business which is giving them 25-30% growth every year. In 1992, they gave Indian
customers a new product- powdered asfoetida (hing) which was and is one of the highest
selling product in their product basket. They also entered the instant mixes market in in the
same year, constructed a special kitchen in the factory premises to blend all the required
ingredients. All efforts oriented towards giving customers the best quality, purity and
freshness.

RFPL today:

From a small room of 8’ x 10’, they now have a Plant located on 56000 square yard land. This
Plant has a production capacity of 60 tons per day and is called the ‘Spice World’. From a
small machine that would pack 25 packets in one minute, they now have equipments that
pack 100 packets per minute. The same holds true for Asfoetida and Garam masala packaging.

Spice World has an in-House Research & Development Micro Laboratory, which works
in line with a standard set of research methodologies adopted by research institutes of
repute in India and abroad to carry out analysis of various products.From
procurement to processing to packing, stringent quality measures are taken by their
quality control experts, using the best of technology accepted worldwide.

As on March 2013, they have 17 C & F agents, 950 + distributors and 87000 + retailers in
India. They sell about 50 + products in India and 300 product variants in the export market.

VISION

To maximize the product placement and expand the range of spice products. The focus is to
become No.1 in Pure Powder Spices and Asafoetida (Hing) in India.

MISSION

To set and constantly maintain our own standard of quality spices and food products for
consumers who value purity, taste & health.

RFPL PIONEERED:

      The concept of powdered form of asfoetida (hing) rather than the granular form which
       was previously used.
      The packaging of Hingwhich created history. Today, if any Company wishes to launch
       Hing powder then the Company has to launch the product in an orange colored
       container which they conceptualized.
      Production and distribution of ‘Achar masala’, (pickle powder) directly to the retailers.

Certificates - The Recognition
    Spices Board, Cochin, India
    Apeda, New Delhi, India.
    Export Promotional Council for Handicraft, New Delhi, India.
    U K A S Food Safety Management, Denmark.
    Ministry Of Commerce, Government Of India-One Star Export House.

 FDA- U.S. Food and Drug Administration
    P.F.A. Licence
    Agmark
    ISO: 22000 HACCAP

ENVIRONMENT RESPONSIBILITY
RFPL considers preservation of environment as its utmost important responsibility. They
consciously comply with relevant laws and regulations as well as take additional care to
preserve the green cover. They plant invaluable saplings, develop garden and promote lush
green surroundings at their manufacturing location to work in harmony with nature. The
stretch of 2.5 km highway beautification project close to their plant is one of their major
contributions towards Green Gujarat.

Their target for the year 2013-14 is 244 crores.

A PEOPLE-CENTRIC COMPANY

RFPL excels in people management. While its employee strength has skyrocketed to over
1500 in 2012-2013 from inception, the intense focus on people and their skills has only
increased over the years. RFPL’s focus on employees is a natural corollary of its growing
business, with their clients identifying this as a quality that differentiates it from the
competitors in this sector. As RFPL has transformed into a global enterprise, it has learnt that
its employees have to be the best!

Recruitment& Selection

While the recruitment process is not very stringent, the focus is always on basic skills and
competencies benchmarked for their employees. They give advertisements in regional
newspapers, use job portals like naukri.com & timesjob.com for executives’ andfreshers’
position. However, they prefer to employ candidates through references of their current
employees or business circle. Unlike most of the companies, RFPL reappoints employees who
left them earlier if the need be. Though for managerial positions, they use the services of third
party consultants.

Training & Development

The company deputes its officials and employees to participate in various management
programmes organized by Management Associations, CII, AC Neilsen, AMA and many such top
level organizations in India. Employees are constantly encouraged to update their knowledge
and sharpen their skills by taking up short term courses.

RFPL provides extensive ‘product training’. Pre-launch training comprises of class room
coaching to sales staff to elucidate features of the new product whereas, Post- launch training
comprises of field work in the respective regions of sales staff. After completion of induction
and orientation programme, new joinees in the sales department are made to do a field study;
the focus of this is to familiarize them with their respective sales regions. The field study
includes, surveying the prevailing trends in market, dealing with whole-sellers and retailers,
and apprehend their preferences for RFPL products.

Employee Engagement Activities

The Management of RFPL truly believes in the fact and propagates that ‘human capital’ is one
of the most important and constant source of competitive advantage. In their endeavor of
promoting and following the same, various activities are planned and carried out throughout
the year. All the major Indian festivals are celebrated at ‘Spice World’; specially a festival
called “Ramdevpirnanorta”. It is festival which is celebrated with great fanfare by all the
members of the RFPL family. They take out a procession from the factory to the temple which
is followed by dinner for all the employees and their respective family members. Not only
festivals; RFPL members also celebrate various seasons. On the onset of monsoon/during
monsoon, ‘bhajiya party’ is organized in the canteen, during winters, they have dinner with
campfire, Every year they have a new year’s party at the plant office where the employees and
their respective family members get a platform to exhibit their talent, during March/April
every year, all the managers of RFPL are given ‘ramdev spices’ worth rs. 2500. To sum up, the
employees of RFPL have various occasions to celebrate and they are always made to believe
that their contribution to the organization is imperative and is valued by the top management.

Performance Management & Performance Appraisal

At RFPL, performance management and constant monitoring of the same is an important
aspect taken care of by the HR department. There has been a great shift from 180 0 appraisal
to 3600 appraisal. With effect 2012, they have started a very unique practice of performance
appraisal. The appraisal of all the employees is exhibited on the notice board. All the
employees are aware of their as well as their peers’ appraisal along with the criteria of rating.
Traditionalists may not stand by this concept but this move has given a great impetus to the
employee performance and has in fact strengthened the ties between the employees and the
management.

Industrial Relations

RFPL strongly believes in “People First” approach. They give high emphasis on welfare and
safety of employee. To give maximum benefits to the labourers, they revise their minimum
wages in every six months, in accordance with the increase in inflation rate.

They provide Bonus to the workers whose basic salary is less than Rs. 3500. RFPL pays 20%
increment every year, in which 8.33% is provided as bonus and rest of the amount is provided
as ex-gratia. Female employee gets 180 days as maternity leave and male employee gets 15
days of paternity leave.

If any worker works more than 5 yrs, he/she is liable for gratuity. If any employee meets with
any accident or passes away during accident, it is assumed that worker has worked for 50 yrs,
and the amount of gratuity is counted accordingly.

Employees whose basic salary is more than Rs. 15,000 have to contribute 1.75% of their basic
salary and employer has to contribute 4.75% of their basic salary as a premium for state
insurance. RFPL has taken a unique initiative of taking voluntary life insurance along with
worker’s accident insurance. Every year RFPL pays 50 lacs as insurance premium. If any
worker meets with an accident or loses his/ her life, family members get 3 times of annual
income & office employees get 5 times of annual salary. Ms. Anita Sodha (Administrative
Executive) quoted one of the incidents which highlights the virtues of RFPL as a company.. A
labourer had joined RFPL in the latter half of 2012. After completion of just 2 months of
service, he met with an accident and lost his life. In-spite of the fact that the labourer had not
completed the stipulated tenure to claim any benefit from the company, RFPL paid his family
3 times of his annual income.

It is indeed a matter of pride for RFPL that since inception, they have not found the need of
any grievance redressal committee nor there is any existence of trade unions.

RFPL’s role towards employees’ growth and development

The Management believes in flexibility and values the talent and capability of their employees.
Promotions and increments are strictly based on performance rather than experience;
however, basic salary of an employee is purely based on his tenure in the company. There
have been instances that employees with an aptitude for learning and dedication have
climbed the ladder of success faster than their peers.

Employees who joined the company as sales representatives were promoted as managers in a
short span of time.

   Mr. Harish Goplani had joined the company as a sales representative way back in 1989
       and today he is the deputy Marketing Manager and is a respectable and looked upon
       employee of RFPL. According to him, various factors played an important role in
       making him a highly satisfied employee of RFPL; first and foremost is the attitude of
       the top management towards the employees, the environment of the company is
       employee oriented and every individual working with them is respected and is also
       given constant growth and learning opportunities. On being asked about his future
       plans; ‘I want to retire from RFPL’ was a prompt response.

Female employees at the plant office level have reached top most positions in various
departments.

      Mrs. ChetnaTeli had joined the company as a clerk and is currently the ‘New Product
       Development Manager’. According to Mrs. Chetna, along with her commitment,
       sincerity and zeal to achieve something; management also played a critical role in her
       climbing the success ladder. She was given constant support and motivation in terms
       of additional training,constant monitoring of her progress and systematic performance
       management and appraisal initiatives. She owes her success to the trailblazers of RFPL.

Peons with talent and knowledge were promoted as Computer operators & clerks; where, the
basic training costs for the same were borne by the company.

      Hitesh Thakore- a peon working with RFPL had left his education to support his family
       financially. The management saw a bright future for this boy and supported his
       education. He passed his 10th board exam with flying colours in 2013 and is pursuing
       arts stream for further studies.

Mr. Vijay Dodiya (CEO) who is associated with RFPL from the last 22 years, considers ‘homely
office environment, progressive company and job security’ as few of the most important
reasons that RFPL has more than 40% of the employees (as on March 2013) employed with
them from more than 10 years. According to him; ‘top management’s belief in
decentralization and delegation of authority has enabled him to work with ownership and has
aided him to reach one of the topmost position in the company’.

Few of unique initiatives at RFPL:

      RFPL has its own newsletter by the name, ‘Ramdev News’ which is a quarterly in-
       house journal. This journal is by and for the employees, it focuses not only the on the
       company events and achievements but also covers the employees’ and their respective
       family members’ accomplishments.
          o Mr. ChetanRathod is an area sales executive of RFPL in Surat. His wife’s name
              was published in the newsletter on successful completion of her double PhD.
      Employees’ children who appear for any board/professional examination are always
       wished luck through personalized letters and given a gift befitting the exam. After
       result declaration they are given books suitable to the courses they intend to join or
       simple books on motivation, encouragement, etc.
      They have a library in the plant office having books of all genres. It is compulsory for
       all the employees, even the lower management staff to read one book of their interest
       every 3 months.
      All the employees of RFPL get their bonus on Dussera. This is distinctas most of the
       companies tend to give bonus during Diwali.
          o The sole purpose of the same is to enable them to preplan their Diwali
              expenditures.
      In first half of 2013, a visit was organized for plant staff including the labourers to the
       corporate office. This initiative imbibed the feeling of internal equity amongst the
       employees of RFPL.

Technology and RFPL:

They have noteworthy presence on the social media websites including facebook, twitter,
linkedin , etc. They have acquainted themselves with online marketing tools via the usage of
Google Adwords and Facebook Ads, have designed an exclusive blog (blog.ramdevfood.com)
that gives valuable and nutritional information about health facts related to foods and spices
that they offer, have also created their exclusive websites (www.chilli.in, www.turmeric.co.in)
to educate the customers /society about the values of the above mentioned essential herbs.As
on July 2013, they have 93,949 followers on facebook!

Future Plan: They plan to come up with an e-commerce website which will serve the needs of
the online buyers.

CONCLUSION

The detailed study of Ramdev Foods Private Limited clearly reveals the fact that the company
has been growing exponentially and that it has been true to the vision of its founder, Late
ShriRambhai Patel, “to create and deliver innovative packaged spices at an affordable cost”
and to have a global presence in spices industry. At the same time, RFPL has also shown an
unwavering commitment to its stakeholders and social responsibility. Following factors can
be considered as their key to success:

      Strong adherence to fair business ethics and corporate governance practices. Doing
       business the ‘right way’
      Giving employees a world-class environment to work and learn
      Enabling employees to maintain a fair work life balance along with wealth creation
       opportunities
      Emphasizing constantly on quality by benchmarking against the best practices in the
       world
      Adapting to cutting edge technology, for marketing and expansion of their products
       world wide