Sandeep Ghosh is a well-known professional with expertise in strategic interventions, especially in the FMCG space, driving orbital growth and deep P&L matrices. He has contributed in his career span of 3 decades driving the growth story of many organisations, including illustrious names such as Kansai Nerolac, Dabur, Ozone, Mother dairy etc. He has also worked as a Vertical Head (VP) for India's largest media house – Dainik Bhaskar, driving circulation and response teams in the company. He is known for conceptualising & monitoring many of today's well-known brands, such as No Marks, Mother Dairy Cow Milk, Dabur, etc. The combined turnover of the brands today contributes more than 3000+ crores. His experience spans many countries in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, the European Union and the African continent. Currently holding the position of Business Head, Ghosh is redefining the strategic imperatives to reposition Catch Salts & Spices, DS Group, as the fastest-growing masala brand in the country. Revisiting the brand positioning, the promotion strategy and the distribution imperatives is the current brief on which Ghosh is assisting the organisation to deliver. He is an avid reader and has a deep interest in the linguistic field. Bal Krishna Sah of The Himalayan Times sat with Ghosh to discuss DS Group's newest launch, Catch Spices. Excerpts:

DS Group has a rich legacy in India's FMCG sector. Can you tell us briefly about DS Group and its journey so far in the FMCG sector?

FMCGs are our flagship business, but we also do hospitality, agribusiness, retail chains, and a variety of other things, such as single-brand distribution in India. It includes brands such as Tom Ford and Berluti, among others. We recently partnered with Läderach, the world's premium handmade chocolate from Switzerland. So that is also part of our role; we are the distributor in India. So we currently have two stores. As a result, the company is very large and diverse. However, FMCG is our flagship-we earn approximately INR 10,000 from it alone. But retail, like he rightly mentioned, has two parts: fashion and food.

What makes the brand relevant for Nepal today, and why did DS Group choose this moment to enter the market?

There is always a good time to enter, and right now is most likely the best time. As for Nepal, as I mentioned in my previous interaction, the subcontinent as a whole has very similar or assimilated food habits, correct? The spices used in the seven provinces are very similar. The basic spices stay the same. Of course, there are cultural nuances and idiosyncrasies, as well as a few dishes that appear here and there. As I previously stated, we are curating all of them, and we have already done so with a few. Nepal provides an excellent opportunity to ensure that the Nepalese consumer matures significantly. So their current requirement is not only a simple spice but one that is healthy, hygienic, and pure; these are the characteristics they are looking for. They are also considering the premiumisation of the product. They want to consume. As a result, the aspirations of Nepalese consumers have increased dramatically. They're looking for very exquisite spices, and Katch happens to be a natural provider of those.

How come it is exclusive, including the healthy and hygienic?

Exclusive comes from the sourcing of the material. Where do you get them, and where are the highest-quality products available? For example, haldi may be available in various countries around the world, but where can you find the best quality and amount of curcumin in haldi? Curcumin is the key ingredient. Where can you get this? We source from those locations. It could be in India or anywhere in the world. We only source from those; the quality aspect of ingredients is already taken care of. The next question is: how do we handle them? We handle them with cutting-edge machinery. We handle, manufacture, or process them in all of our manufacturing facilities. From a health standpoint, spices, like any other food product, have a tendency to be adulterated by unscrupulous individuals. That is a major issue; whether it is milk, spices, or grains, you will find it everywhere. With our own checks and balances, we have major checks and balances in place to ensure that the product that we are finally packing up and processing is 100 per cent pure, so there is no adulteration per se of the product, so that gives you – and because there is no adulteration, these are all healthy products, so by extension, they are healthy because of whatever the right purity of the product we are offering is.

LTG (Low Temperature Grinding) is a key highlight of Catch spices. Can you explain its impact on product quality and consumer experience?

Any food or spice should include four critical variables. Taste, aroma, colour, and flavour. When you look at a spice, as if it is being ground in a mixer. What happens is that the spice contains a volatile oil, so when you try to grind it in a mixer at high temperatures, it is already a volatile substance. The aroma will fade, the taste will change, the flavour will change, and the colour may be affected by the heat. It's as simple as that. So what lpg does is freeze the product. If it is Turmeric, we freeze it at 0 degrees. And now you are grinding it. Because you are grinding at such a low temperature, the oils cannot escape. This is what LTGene technology is all about. It's a very simple concept. We used to do Shilbatta (Silauto in Nepali) cooking, which involved putting water in mixes. Many households actually add ice to ensure that the aroma and flavours are correct. We made it on an industrial scale, so LTG cooking does the entire thing on an industrial scale and even better because everything is now in a controlled environment that you are grinding in.

Is this scientifically proven?

Yeah, of course, it's only the science that you said you could do, so it's not proven. However, I believe that other companies have also used this technology. Other companies are also venturing into LTG. It is not exclusive to us. So, people all over the world are becoming interested in LTG technology because of the taste, flavour, consistency, aroma consistency, and colour consistency that we offer. It is not something that is unique to us. We were the first to adopt it, so it is a different story.

How does Catch ensure consistency in taste, aroma, and safety when entering a new market like Nepal?

The only differentiation that we do is continuous and constant quality control and providing you with the best; we are not saying that others are not doing it; we are saying that if we ensure consistency of our product right there and there is no compromise at all, that is a differentiator. Of course, there are other ways to communicate; the communication may differ. The distribution could be different, which will differentiate from, for example, those who are looking at mass consumption of the product, so the distribution would be a key lever for ensuring that we differentiate from the other competitors.

What made you choose Nepal as a market for Catch Spices?

The cultural heritage, the cuisine heritage, and the legacy of what we use are very similar, and it is a very natural fit; what we offer is exactly what you offer. I mentioned this even in my speech right so from a taste, flavour, colour, and aroma consistency, that is what you are looking at, and that's exactly what 'catch' stands for. In addition to having technological innovation and other innovation thrown in, that's what we stand for, and thus Nepal is a very natural

What did you find regarding the diversity of spices in Nepal? And how is your company addressing them?

If you look at your cuisine, I'd rather divide it into three quick big buckets. One is the higher Himalayas, followed by Newari cuisine, Terai cuisine, and other cuisines, such as Mithila cuisine. Janakpur is in Mithila, which has a very different cuisine; however, if you look at it, 70 to 80 per cent of the spices are common. You can see some places where the spice usage is very low; for example, in the high Himalayas, spice usage is much lower, whereas in the terai places, spice usage is much higher, but overall, the ingredient list, at least 70 to 80 per cent, is common, and the requirement for good quality spices is the same regardless of where the cuisine is from, so we provide that.

How are you going to make sure that your spices reach the high Himalayas from the plains?

We'll put it like this. Some amount of a grey market would have existed, but those are very informal; you can only do so much with the grey market, and in the end, the consumers were always short-circuited. The consumer would benefit only when there is a legal channel of distribution, which we provide; we pay the – we follow the rules of the land, the law of the land is complied with, and the taxes are fully paid, whatever the tax structures may be.

When we do distribution, we do it very, very scientifically; we don't just go to a wholesaler and throw some product there and hope and pray that some of it reaches the higher manager here; it's a conscious effort to get to the last outlet in the country, so it's driven by a very aggressive conscious effort to ensure that the products are available to the majority of the country's population.

What products will be available in the Nepalese market?

We have the majority of our products available here. First and foremost, the blends are curated products. Then you have straight spices, such as haldi, dhaniya, mircha, and jeera. In addition to the whole spices, we will also have hing available, and I will ask you to provide a list, which we will provide to you, but we believe that 90 of our products will be available here within the next six months.

What else is there in your product basket?

We only have this much, but we could have or are working on a wide range of innovative products, demonstrating that this is also true for India. For example, we have ready-made gravy mixes so you can just add the gravy and your protein or vegetable and cook it in about 10 minutes, so we have white gravy, butter gravy, spinach gravy – all of these are already there; we have just run. Given the population's changing lifestyle, we expect to see many more innovative products. Today, you know, people's cooking time in the kitchen is decreasing; tikanite is decreasing significantly. So the nuclear families are present, and both the husband and wife are working. How can you spend more time cooking? We are looking at all of those conveniences being built in.

So what is the spice market size and importance in Nepal? What does your research indicate?

There is currently no syndicated data available. But, from what I understand, Nepal imports about 11 million US dollars and exports 15, implying that we export, but these are data available on the internet, so I'm not sure. Our data will, of course, be provided to you because my marketing team is the best people to contact because they conducted the entire market scan; we will provide that.

What are your messages to Nepali people, and why should they go for your spices because they have multiple options?

See, it's a little difficult because I don't want to end up giving a message, but I can always put up a request, right? So the request would be to please try what other countries have been preferring for so many years because of its high-quality offering, which I said would result in elevating the dish that they are making right in terms of taste, aroma, colour, and flavour, and we provide the unbelievable service in terms of making it available to the friendly neighbours. That is the only request that will satisfy; try it. Once you try it, you'll understand why we're different and why this is unique.