Apurva Purohit's Aazol looks to get the best out of traditional Maharashtrian cuisine

After a long innings in the media, Apurva Purohit has turned entrepreneur. Purohit, the former president of Jagran Prakashan and a well-known name in the business, has launched a food and beverages company with a specific focus on the ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook segments. The journey has had more than its share of serendipity, right on the top being a chance interaction with self-help groups across rural Maharashtra and their ability to serve very tasty home food.

The venture is called Aazol, meaning the home of maternal grandparents in Marathi, and serves 32 products across categories, such as chutneys, masalas, peeths, and papads, sourced from 15 self-help groups in the state. Joining Purohit is her son, Siddharth, who found his calling here given his serious interest in the environment.

"Our USP is simple and that is to serve the best home-grown food in Maharashtra," says Purohit, who spent over three decades as a professional across media planning, print, radio, television and digital. The interesting part is that she, by her own admission, comes with "zero background" in food.

So far, the venture has been funded by her own money and Purohit speaks of the intricacies in the Maharashtrian cuisine as being the big opportunity. "You have the red chilli in Solapur or the sugarcane in Shrirampur. As an entrepreneur, this is a great opportunity to go back to from where it all originated in the state," she says. The business model is simple -- Aazol sources authentic food products from communities across the state and curates them before it is ready to be sold.

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Aazol got off the ground last September and was out with its complete range from Day 1, with the team having spent time during the pandemic to get to the basics of the cuisine. It is commonly acknowledged that the food from Maharashtra has not gained a fair representation nationally or at a global level. This presents an interesting story to Purohit and also an opportunity to bring in a user base that has never been exposed to it.

In a market flooded by new products, especially in food, the need to get it right on everything from pricing to distribution to taste can hardly be exaggerated. In that scenario, Aazol has its own website, aazol.in, apart from the range being sold on Amazon and a couple of niche sites.

"We are a premium offering and for now, it is completely online. There are interesting ways to get more relevant reach and protect one's margins," says Purohit. That is not to take away the offline model, which to her mind, helps in visibility but also brings forth many challenges, such as getting shelf space.

The plan is to move deeper into Maharashtra and at some point, other states as well. "We are clearly an ethnic offering and not artisanal. The differentiator is that the taste is as good as what you would have enjoyed in the kitchen of your grandmother," explains Purohit.

Of course, getting the best ethnic food in each state is not easy, but she believes that there is enough to do just with the Maharashtrian cuisine. "We would like the food that we serve to be environmentally conscious and sustainable, apart from being very healthy," she sums up.

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