How did India’s MTR Foods overcome all the economic downturns in the past 97yrs & make 1000Crores?

In 1975, when the government declared the National Emergency, India was facing something that would go on to be known as the darkest hours of Indian history that put the livelihood of 621million Indians at stake. On top of that, India, at that time was already witnessing the national socio-economic crises. In those tough times, one such company turned this crisis into a business opportunity and built a business empire that now has a revenue of 1000crores. The company is Mavalli Tiffin Room(MTR) and the businessman is Mr. Sadanand Maiyya.

How MTR came to existence and what followed:

The rich history of MTR dates back to 1924. This is when the Maiyya family started the MTR restaurant. The vision of this family serves the most authentic, hygienic, and tastiest south Indian food to people. The MTR stood strong even during the time of National Independence when the world was facing a socio-political crisis. After that MTR become famous across India for its authentic, hygienic, and tasty south Indian food. But when the socio-economic crisis hit India amidst the National Emergency, by then India had already seen 2 bad agricultural years, and due to the formation of OPEC, the oil prices quadrupled and the inflation in the country had skyrocketed to 15%.

In such times where sanctions are also posed upon the restaurants to sell food according to the government’s price cap, it becomes almost impossible for the restaurants to make a profit.

So, to meet the expenditure they had only 3 options:

1. Fire half their staff;

2. Downgrade the quality of food;

3. And lastly, close their restaurants altogether.

But, Mr. Sadanand Maiyya had something different planned.

He couldn’t fire half of his half since they were all loyal employees for decades and he didn’t want to close the chain either. So he shut down the restaurant altogether and made 3 strategic business changes:

1. He recognized that the restaurant was incurring losses not because people were not hungry anymore, but because they couldn’t afford it altogether & the supply chain of the restaurant was too costly to cater to their demands. So to reduce the cost he shifted from cooked food to packed food. Because of this the heavy cost and loss due to perishable items were eliminated.

2. instead of adulterating the costly ingredients, he changes the ingredients altogether. For example, they moved from rice idlis to Rawa idlis. The Rawa idlis were so much of a success that till this day it is one of the signature dishes of MTR.

3. Last and most importantly, he trained the entire staff to build an efficient supply chain to make packed food and sold it at affordable prices. In the corporate world, this is known as Re-skilling.

MTR was able to survive the emergency without compromising its business values because it knew how to recognize the problem and find a creative solution instead of going with a textbook approach. After the emergency was lifted not only did MTR made huge profits but they also had a ready-to-fire supply chain. Soon they started exporting packed authentic, hygienic, and tasty food to various other countries like the USA, UK, Japan, and Australia.

How can you implement this ingenious solution-driven approach to your business?

• When there is a market crisis you need to know that your competition is going through the same crisis as well. So now you can identify the opportunity the market holds and tweak your business in a way that serves the current demands.

• Just because something has worked in the past doesn’t mean it will contribute to work. Adapting to a different set of offerings while maintaining your quality standards is a better approach than compromising with it.

• You do not make money only by selling more or sourcing cheaper. Operational cost is something we must consider and re-skilling your current staff to adapt to the changing business generates loyalty and more efficiency in the longer run.

All in all, always aim for betterment and innovation. It’s up to you if you want to take the high road and just make money in the name of the company or you want to stick to your values, find a creative solution to the problem and deliver outstanding quality to build a brand that will resonate with your customers for years to come!