FGF Brands

Traditional food for the massesKeith Regan learns how the passion of FGF BrandsÔÇÖ founders is being carried into the future by two generations who share the same philosophies. When Sam Ajmera and Jim White co-founded FGF Brands in mid-2004, the duo was bringing decades of experience in the food industry to bear on their new venture. After buying a small Toronto bakery, they set out to bring to life their shared philosophy: that consumers would choose to buy unique and nutritious foods as an alternative to the preservative-laden fare that dominates grocery store shelves.ÔÇ£We wanted to bring authenticity and traditional foods to people who hadnÔÇÖt tried them before, keep tradition alive, put it out on a mass scale and give access to things that didnÔÇÖt exist but that people would enjoy,ÔÇØ says Ajmera. ÔÇ£The world is getting smaller, and people are being exposed to different foods more and more. Food should be enjoyable.ÔÇØFGFÔÇÖs first product was a line of trans-fat-free muffins sold in grocery stores across the US and Canada, which White says the company believed it could bring to market quickly and start generating the cash flow needed to realize the longer-term goal of bringing a line of traditional flatbreads to market. At the time, AjmeraÔÇÖs pitch to grocery stores, which were increasingly losing money on their in-store bakeries, was to encourage them to build ÔÇ£fakeriesÔÇØ instead, offering near-fresh products such as FGFÔÇÖsÔÇöwhich are shipped frozen and then thawed for sale, an approach that extends their freshness for several days.The first of FGFÔÇÖs flatbread products, sold under the International Fabulous Flats brand, was a naan, a traditional Indian flatbread usually baked in small clay ovens capable of producing only a couple of flatbreads at a time.ÔÇ£We believe that food has become entertainment and can also be a nutrient force,ÔÇØ says White, who is a food and wine critic and writer as well as a longtime product developer. ÔÇ£We set out to give everybody a chance to vote at the cash register.ÔÇØ From the outset, the long-range plan called for FGF to bring to market a variety of flatbreads, which White notes are often more versatile than traditional sliced bread, able to be used in a variety of meal settings.To produce the flatbreads on a mass scale while keeping their traditional tastes and nutrition in place, the company invested heavily in research and development and created a large-scale process capable of duplicating the small-scale tandoor oven process. ÔÇ£For hundreds and thousands of years, naan have been made on a one- or two- or three-at-a-time basis,ÔÇØ notes Ajmera. FGF developed a process and baking technology that uses a continuous tandoor-style oven and temperatures of 1,200 to 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit, to produce as many as 1 million flatbreads per week.Today, FGFÔÇÖs daily operations are overseen by AjmeraÔÇÖs two sons, Tejus, who oversees internal operations, and Ojus, who handles sales and distribution and business development activities.As it has grown, FGF has found it necessary to help educate retailers along the way, with the marketplace sometimes validating the firmÔÇÖs efforts. For instance, says Ojus Ajmera, when it first started offering trans-fat-free muffins, retailers didnÔÇÖt see the need for such a product. A year later, when major food outlets began banning trans-fats, ÔÇ£everybody was beating down the door for trans-fat-free products,ÔÇØ he says. ÔÇ£There are companies that spent $20 million to $30 million to get trans-fats out of their products and out of their plants, but we never had them in our bakery to start with.ÔÇØSimilarly, when it introduced naan, FGF knew it was attempting to appeal to more than just the two percent of the population that frequents Indian restaurants, says Ojus Ajmera. ÔÇ£People didnÔÇÖt know what naan was. So we positioned it as a product that tastes good, is versatile and is made from natural, clean ingredients. ThatÔÇÖs the way we got it out there in front of the consumer.ÔÇØThe bakery that FGF purchased and first operated out of in 2004 (when FGF took over, the bakery had a single customer) was about 4,000 square feet. Since then, the company has moved twice and now operates out of an 85,000-square-foot facility that has the capacity to handle its current product lines and planned additional innovations. International Fabulous Flats are now available in about 8,000 grocery and discount stores across North America.As it grows, FGF will have to decide whether to make changes in the way it produces and distributes its products. The changing economic environment, especially with respect to fuel costs, may dictate which approach is embraced.Keeping the authentic elements in its products poses its share of operational challenges. For instance, the new line of stone-baked pizza crusts are hand tossed, while the vast majority of low-cost crusts they share shelf space with are machine made. Tejus Ajmera says the company automates wherever it can without giving up the authentic aspects of the products. ÔÇ£YouÔÇÖll find us relying on labor where we need to have hands touch the product, but then weÔÇÖll be using automation in other areas such as conveying or packaging,ÔÇØ he notes. Expect more International Fabulous Flats flatbreads to hit shelves in coming months. Tejus Ajmera says the company has completed research and development on its next two years of rollouts, which will be spaced out to give each one time to be absorbed by the market and distribution channels.As each new flatbread rolls out, it will continue the trend of adhering to tradition, preserving as much nutrition as possible, and will be developed and test-marketed without the benefit of a focus group, an approach the company strongly eschews.