Just desserts from husband wife duo
Hathoon Sheriffdeen
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Vindya Ruberu |
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Manjula Bandara |
Being an ex-worker of Keells supermarkets it was very hard to change
Vindya Ruberu as a housewife. Soon after her marriage she had to leave
her job and take over affaires at home.
Since she was idling, she thought of starting a home business. She
chose a business, she was very familiar with. Cooking being her hobby,
she had enough knowledge on culinary businesses, too.
The Co-Partner of Dandy Food Products Limited, started her business
from home.
“We started our businesses six years ago with Rs 10,000. Cream
caramel was the first dessert we produced and marketed. It was only
eight cups of cream caramels we could market per day through one of the
Keells supermarkets.
“It was convenient to work for me and my husband on this business
from the start. He was also working for the Keells supermarket chains
and he helped me in the marketing and purchasing side, Ruberu said.
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Cutting the murukku dough |
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Frying the murukku |
Gradually our product was known to consumers of supermarkets. We
increased the number of cream caramel pudding cups. In the meantime, my
husband left his job and joined me, I had all his time on our business,
she said.
“I took over the marketing and the management part of the business.
We do not include any preservatives or any artificial taste makers to
our products.
We have increased our production to 400 desserts each per day and
market five dessert varieties at the moment.
Dandy and Home Style is the brand name of our company. Under the roof
we have murukku, cakes and desserts,” Co-partner, Dandy Food Products
Limited, Manjula Bandara said. Since we are a small company, we didn’t
have a big investment and manpower.
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Helpers pasting the brand name stickers on a pudding cup.
Pictures by Palitha Gunasena |
However, we formed it as a mobile business. We got a vehicle to
market our products and a few helpers to back in the production. A
computer and a telephone line helps us to run our business, Bandara
said.
The main reason for our products to catch the market very fast is the
quality of the product. We have not changed the taste and the
ingredients we use to produce Dandy and Home Style products. Our
products last for two weeks, if refrigerated, he said. Bandara said
their turnover was Rs. 30,000 per month initially. Now it has improved
to Rs. 1.5 million per month.
We have 10 people to help at our factory. We market through 62
branches of supermarkets and hope to move further and expand. |
