Vora and Company

Entrepreneurship Development

Lesson 9 : Commencement of Business/ Enterprise

Vora and Company

In December 1963, Mr.P.K.Vora, proprietor of Vora and Company, manufacturers of Blossom quick – cooking oats, located at Lucknow, sought counsel from the Small Industries Service Institute at Locknow regarding steps that should be taken to increase the sale of his country. The company had been organized 1961; but even by December 1963 it had failed to attain a profitable volume of sales.

Mr.Vora’s family had been in the grain business for several generations. In 1959, some four years after, the government of India had stopped the import of package cereals. Mr.Vora and his family decided to enter the business of processing and selling a product similar to the Quaker brand of quick – cooking rolled oats, a product of the Quaker Oats Company of the United State. For some years previous to the Government’s embargo, this product had been imported into India by the firm of Muller and Phipps, which acted as sole selling agents. The firm had advertised the product in many Indian cities and reportedly had attained at least a moderate volume of sales, particularly in India, in the states of Kerala and Madras.

In 1956, shortly after the embargo on Quaker Oats, the Ganesh Flour Mills of Delhi started developing and marketing quick – cooking white oats under the trade mark Champion. After some three years of experimental marketing in nearby areas, the Ganesh Mill extended its distribution nationally, devoting a moderate amount to advertising in city markets throughout India.

The management of Vora and Company developed the machinery and method of processing its product on a trial and error basis. The first product offered was not deemed satisfactory by the management and was withdrawn from the market. Not until 1961 was the company satisfied with the product’s quality and with its processing equipment, which, when perfected, could produce on a one- shift basis 500 cases a month, each case consisting of 36 tons of 550 grams each. White oats of the finest quality were imported from Australia under Government license. Since Indian grown oats of required characteristics were not available.

The perfected product was submitted to test among consumers and was rated by them as equal to or better than the competing product. The management had made and application for permission to use the mark of the Indian Standards Institution and learned that the product and its processing measured up to the required standard. Mr. Vora anticipated and early arrival of the papers, which could permit the company to place the ISI certification mark on its packages and to refer to the mark as a valuable aid towards building a reputation in trade and among consumers as to the quality and purity of a product. The competitive product, champion, bore the ISI certification mark on its packages.

When entering the business, Mr.Vora had no definite data regarding he volume of sales that have been obtained by Muller and Phipps for Quaker oats before the embargo, nor did he know the sales figures of champion oats. He did know that oatmeal porridge was the leading hot breakfast cereal in the United States and some European countries. He had been informed that the cost of the imported product had restricted its sale, in India, to families with upper middle to high income. Moreover its use had gained wider acceptance in South India than in other parts of the country. From his discussion with agents, Mr. Vora listed the demands for Quick – cooked oats, in order of quantitative importance, by regions, as follow: (i) Kerala, (ii) Mysore, (iii) Madras, (iv) Bombay, (v) Calcutta, and (vi) the northern region consisting of Delhi, UP, and Rajasthan.

Apart from the high nutritive value of oatmeal porridge, many people liked its taste when eaten with milk and sugar or with butter and syrup. The quick – cooking oats appealed to many housewives because they had to be boiled for only four to five minutes to be ready to serve, whereas the older variety of rolled oats required about thirty minutes of cooking. Moreover, since the housewife had to exercise to care to prevent the porridge from sticking to the pan and scorching, by stirring frequently, or cooking over a low fire, or cooking in a double boiler, the long cooking oats were less appealing than the new quick – cooking had been split and rolled.


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