BANGALORE: Lunch Dabba is a unique initiative aimed at delivering machine made chapatis for eateries in the city. This concept, one of the firsts in the state, is the brain child of three young entrepreneurs Aradhana Bhat, Nataraj Kundapur and Raghavendra Prasad. Anuradha Bhat is the MD of Lunch Dabba while the other two are directors of the Lunch Dabba.
"The name Lunch Dabba conjures up an image of what the mother has cooked", says Bhat. But what made them start this venture? "We realised that chapatis were fast moving out from the menus of eateries in the city, this was solely due to lack of labour to prepare chapatis in hotels and also that it is time consuming", she feels.
Bhat and Kundapur are excolleagues and Prasad and Kundapur were classmates in engineering. "We discussed this among ourselves and I always wanted to begin something on my own and this was different," explains Bhat, narrating how they came together to start Lunch Dabba.
Beginning
Kundapur did a survey by visiting hotels for two months and realised that chapatis were fast disappearing from their menus. At the same time, he found that there was a high demand for chapatis by customers. He also saw that chapatis were prepared in an unhygienic method and they were unhealthy too. Lunch Dabba came into being in February 2009 with an initial investment of Rs 35 Lakh. "Actually, people were hesitant when we approached them with our proposal, as this is a machine made product", Bhat quips.
"It took close to a yearandhalf to chart it out and we started production on November 2010", Kundapur says. They presently have seven members as part of their team. Their main clients are hotels, corporate houses and caterers. Currently they have 50 clients in their kitty. The chapatis are priced between Rs 1.50 to 2 depending on the quantity of the order.
"We prepare chappatis from natural products like whole wheat flour, oil, salt and purified water, all natural products and no preservaties whatsover", assures Bhat. The chapatis are fully cooked and readytoeat chappatis have a shelf life of seven days and if people are keen on heating them, Bhat advises that they should steam, as it would be much softer, instead of heating it on the tava or in the microwave that makes it hard. One can place orders for oil or oiless chappatis.
Chapati making machine
The chapati making machine is designed by Central Food Technological Research Institute of Mysore (CFTRI) and it can make 2,0003,000 chapatis per hour.
The machine can produce varied sizes of chappatis between 77 1/2 in diameter. On an average, Lunch Dabba supplies 8,000 chappatis to its customers everyday. Bulk orders need to be booked in advance, at lease a day before.
Future plans
Lunch Dabba plans to approach college canteens, paying guest houses (PGs) and more corporate houses. They also have plans to go retail this year. Flavoured chapatis like methi, tomato, pudina, and soya are also on their to do things list. Lunch Dabba is looking out for dealers in different locations in the city as a contact point for their consumers.
When asked if they want to take Lunch Dabba to different states, Bhat tells us that there are enough and more commercial activities in the city. To enable the customers to avail their service more effectively, they have started a website of the same name.