The Ethnic Gourmet Foods line of frozen food includes chicken pad thai,
chicken tikka masala and chicken tandoori with spinach. The company is
based in Framingham, Mass.
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Issue Date: 10/1/2002, Posted On: 10/1/2002
Frozen treats
Former waiter now manages $20 million food enterprise
John Pike
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FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — A Sikh, he came to the United States in 1985 after he lost a brother in the turmoil following the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. With a master’s degree in business from St. Joseph College in Bangalore, India, he worked as a waiter in his brother’s Oh Calcutta restaurant in Cambridge. “It was a big, big adjustment,” said Paul Jaggi, commenting on his coming to America and waiting on tables. He had grown up in New Delhi and previously owned a 14-employee Indian company that sold machine tools. After a few months serving food, he was managing the restaurant. In 1987 he and his brother opened a second restaurant in downtown Framingham, again called Oh Calcutta. Now Jaggi, 44, commands Ethnic Gourmet Foods, a frozen-food manufacturer whose products are sold in upwards of 4,000 American stores. It is a $20 million-per-year business with 75 employees, he said. Last year, Jaggi sold his company to the Heinz Frozen Foods Co., headquartered in Pittsburgh. He has a three-year contract to run the Ethnic Gourmet show, which expires in two years. “Ethnic Gourmet Foods had grown to the point where I needed big marketing muscle to penetrate the mainstream supermarkets,” said Jaggi. Heinz will also start manufacturing the products. For Jaggi, the problems brought on by recession at the end of the 1980s would push him to find his true goldmine. With the downturn in the economy affecting his restaurant and others nationwide, Jaggi faced a tough situation. “I had employees on salary that had nothing to do,” said Jaggi. “And I had a big kitchen.” Jaggi said he approached Bread & Circus, then a small, independent natural-food retailer. “I told them I could make all-natural, ready-to-eat vegetarian meals,” said Jaggi. The whole concept was geared to creating a healthy ethnic-food product. And that inspiration was just the beginning. Starting in 1991 Bread & Circus gave him orders of 40 to 50 cases weekly. Jaggi said he labored until midnight packaging meals. He delivered the frozen meals in his personal car, said Jaggi. “Bread & Circus had a store one and a half hours away in Hadley and I would turn the air-conditioning up full blast,” he said. “It takes three or four hours for the frozen meals to melt,” he added. After engaging a food-distributor three months later, Jaggi said, Ethnic Gourmet began selling 100 cases weekly along most of the East Coast. One year into his new enterprise, his products were appearing in natural-food stores nationwide. But now growing pains started to develop. “The making of these meals started taking up more and more of the dining space in the restaurant,” said Jaggi. It was time to start making these meals in a real manufacturing plant. So in 1995 Jaggi bought a building on Fountain Street in Framingham and closed the restaurant. And he has never looked back. Today Ethnic Gourmet’s products include Thai and Chinese dishes, and some include meat. Their full meals sell for between $3.49 and $3.99, and the appetizers between $1.99 and $2.69, he said. Starting about three years ago, mainstream grocers have been carrying its products. Local grocers include Stop & Shop and Shaw’s Supermarkets. In 2001 the company sold about 15,000 cases weekly, said Jaggi, a 45 percent increase from the previous year. By gross sales, it is the second-largest company in the American natural-frozen-food market, he said. Spins, a natural-foods tracking company, has ranked Ethnic Gourmet No. 1 in the meat entr�e category for such frozen foods. Jaggi attributes his success to his products meeting a few of the current trends in the grocery business, such as the increased popularity of gourmet, ethnic, and natural foods. Ethnic Gourmet products include a spinach and cheese dish called palak paneer, bean masala, dal Bahaar, and channa Bhaji. Jaggi said his meals are “restaurant quality. They do not taste like frozen food.” And he wants to make sure it stays that way. He said that, on occasions when he sees strangers buying his products at the grocery stores, he frequently buttonholes them and asks them questions — such as why are they buying it, and what they like, or do not like, about it. Alana Mahdalik Pilcher, a category manager at United Natural Foods, a Dayville, Conn., food distributor that has dealt with Jaggi for upwards of 10 years, said Ethnic Gourmet’s products taste closer to what people expect of Indian food. Compared to other manufacturers, she said, “the taste of the food is closer to the true Indian style.” She added that the company’s products tend to be a spicier than others. Ethnic Gourmet ships most of its products through distributors, but does some directly to the grocers, said Jaggi. With his business increasing, he hopes to sell 23,000 cases weekly by the end of 2002, he said. He is glad he started the company. “It is very exciting,” said Jaggi. “I have overcome a lot of challenges. I love cooking and being with food, and at the same time I get to use my managing skills and build a business.” And he said he enjoys it for another reason. “Indians are known in America for hi-tech,” said Jaggi. “It is interesting to not do hi-tech.” And those who enjoy his products are also glad he finds it interesting and chose this line of work. Unless Jaggi happens to see them in a supermarket.