Founded in 1891 in northern Germany, Dr. Oetker is a family enterprise that manufactures frozen pizzas, cakes, yogurts and other products. In India since 2007, the company first introduced frozen pizzas and muesli in the country. However, the were unsuccessful in this venture since “the home baking division was not a huge market, the concept of frozen pizza was far too early for the consumers and the chilled dessert market was at a nascent stage in India,” reports the Economic Times.
In 2008, Dr Oetker bought Delhi-based Fun Foods, that manufactured packaged food products such as mayonnaise and sandwich spreads, and revenues jumped: from $5 million in 2008, to $35 million last year. Sales of eggless mayonnaise account for almost 80 percent of the overall mayonnaise volume in India.
“It’s important to understand India with its local needs,” he says, adding that mayonnaise in India is creamy unlike in the U.S. and the U.K. where it’s starchy.
