Vijay Dosaja runs thriving food business after losing business in Westgate attack

Vijay Dosaja

Achaari foods co-founder Vijay Dosaja preparing achaari at his workplace in South C, Nairobi on November 24,2021.

Photo credit: Evans Habil | Nation Media Group

On a sunny Wednesday afternoon, we find Vijay Dosaja and his four employees hard at work at the Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute (KIRDI) Nairobi headquarters.

Donning lab coats, you could mistake them for scientists, but they are not. They are food merchants who specialise in the production of an ancient Indian recipe known as achaari, a kind of pickle.

Following the Westgate Mall terrorist attack of 2013, Vijay Dosaja and his mother had to close a retail business they ran inside the mall and start another business. They thought hard about what they could do with little capital.

His mother had inherited several recipes from Vijay’s grandmother and he had previously worked in the food industry with governmental organisations such as the Kenya Bureau of Standards and KIRDI, from where he acquired some knowledge on what it takes to run a food enterprise.

“I was also previously involved in another food business which involved drying of Moringa and Baobab powder, and it is here that I got to learn more about processes such as production, packaging, and getting the product to market,” explains Dosaja.

In 2015 he and his mother decided to combine their different skills and consolidated around Sh80,000 of their personal savings to launch Achaari Foods. Their market entry strategy was simple, start small and capitalise on product quality to grow a solid market base.

“We realised that in Kenya, most of the pickles sold in supermarkets were mass produced. Most mass-produced foods generally lack in authenticity of taste and quality,” he says, adding,

“Customers who want a certain caliber of product won’t buy those, so we decided that we’ll cover that gap by introducing our own recipe into the market,” says the entrepreneur.

Vijay Dosaja

Achaari foods co-founder Vijay Dosaja preparing achaari at his workplace in South C, Nairobi on November 24,2021.

Photo credit: Evans Habil | Nation Media Group

The recipes were catered for but they still had a challenge in finding workspace. Setting up a commercial kitchen was expensive, so they rented space at KIRDI headquarters where they would use some of the available equipment for production.

At this point, they were quite excited about the product, so they hadn’t even imagined how difficult it would be to get it to market. For starters, most of their target customers were unfamiliar with their products because they were of different cultures, therefore, selling through supermarkets or media was ineffective at first and they had to attend trade expos where they would offer customers samples to taste.

“Kenyans are willing to open up to new tastes but they have to be given those tastes. At times you have to be in their face and tell them, look, have a try of this, and when they do, their perceptions change and they’re like wow! I can see myself eating that every day – we now have many clients, Kenyan, European and Indian, who are consuming our products every day.”

Though they still face some challenges, such as access to small scale farmers who can give them reliable quality and quantity of the products they need at a fair price, Dosaja says the business is now stable, boasting of a wide customer base even in the export market.

“Many countries import the mass-produced pickles only because companies producing them are the ones with the capacity to access the markets and at better rates, but we found that customers are willing to pay a higher price point for a good product,” notes Dosaja.

“For example, I met a German lady at an expo we were exhibiting who tried our product. Upon flying back, she asked me to send her 20 pieces. The cost of the product was about Sh13,000, and shipping was about Sh17,000, but she had no problem paying that because she was determined to get the product,” he explains.

They started out with two recipes, but currently, they have about 17 product offerings. The Achaari pickles range from Sh450 to Sh700 for 250g to 400g jars. Dosaja says they are looking to start drying their own spices. He says that while they would like to broaden their reach within the Kenyan market, because customer education has proven to be a challenge, they are keener on the export market.

achaari

Achaari.

Photo credit: Evans Habil | Nation Media Group

“We are starting with the United Arab Emirates which we have identified as a good target market. Proximity to Kenya is one aspect and also the huge diaspora from Asia that lives there,” he notes.

He urges budding entrepreneurs to start small and to avoid over diversifying before they build a name for themselves in the market, as that is a mistake many SMEs make, only to end up developing mediocre products.