PRESS RELEASE: Holy Cow
Written: Friday 8th May, 2009
CURRY FAVOUR
NEWS COPY
A 63-year-old mum-of-five is celebrating landing a recession-busting #300,000 contract - to sell her home-made curry sauces to supermarket giant Asda.
Kiran Bhandari began mass-producing her Indian chutneys after pupils at her weekly evening cooking classes hailed them as the best they'd ever tasted.
Now Delhi-born Kiran is working full-time with her daughter Anu to keep up with demand as the tasty side sauces are snapped up by curry-mad Brits around the country.
Yesterday (???) Kiran of Oxford said: ''Given the current climate you would think this would be the worst time to launch a new brand but we've found the range is already selling extremely well.
''I realised there was a gap in the market when the pupils started telling how much they enjoyed it.
''I thought a few people might enjoy them but I didn't think it would take off in the way it has. It's been amazing.
''But I couldn't have done it without the help of my daughter.''
Kiran grew up in Indian and cooked for her family with her sisters from the age of just eight years old.
She moved to the UK in 1970 and began running the evening classes at church halls around Oxford in 1998.
But it was only when dozens of her pupils began complementing on her recipes, some of which have been passed down through her family for over nine decades, that she hit upon the idea of selling them.
Kiran, whose husband Sarjit, a former local councillor, died in 1997 persuaded Anu, 34, to give up her job working in the IT department of a city bank to join her little venture.
Anu set about getting in touch with big supermarket chains to gauge interest in dishes such as Himalayan Hot Garlic Sauce, Goan Extra Hot Lime, Madras Hot Mint and Spicy Monsoon Mango.
Within weeks she had secured a deal with Asda to stock all seven lines.
As the orders boomed mum and daughter were forced to move production from the family home to a small industrial unit in the town.
Now Kiran is hopeful others stores will begin stocking the sauces. Yesterday Anu said: ''We first brain-stormed and came up with the name Holy Cow!
''We wanted to hint at the Indian origin of the product without the range being overtly ethnic, no paisley leaves and the like.
''We thought this would help us to reach a wider audience. i.e. not just people looking for Indian food.
''We narrowed down the flavours we wanted to make from mum's vast array of recipes and designed the packaging.''
ENDS
