Business plan for frozen food: Frozen Momos

Abstract

Momo is a steamed bun with/without filling (meat/vegetables). It is traditionally prepared and eaten in parts of Tibet and is similar to Chinese Baozi and Jiaozi and Korean Mandu. Though it has its origin in Tibet, it is now a pretty well-known and an in-demand form of food in many parts of the world including India. The fact that it is steamed and has either meat or vegetables in it gives it a “health food” connotation. This has further aided in attracting the health-conscious target segment. Even though the demand for Momo has been increasing consistently, the relative supply has been fairly low. Lack of awareness of preparation methodology and fast paced life with lesser time to cook further creates barriers to prepare the commodity at home. Also, the pepcurrent market for Momos system has limitations on timing and the freshness of Momos delivered. There is also a lot of uncertainty in the availability of Momos at restaurants/stalls depending upon various times of the day. Under such conditions, it creates ample opportunities for growth for this product segment if some of the barriers are removed. Now, two of the barriers discussed above is limited availability and low shelf life. This business proposal seeks to tackle these two barriers with the help of an emerging product concept i.e. “Frozen Momos”. This not only saves time, space and effort for B2B customers; but also leads to saving time, effort and provides time utility for B2C customers. Customer only needs to open up the packet, steam the frozen Momos for 15 minutes and hot steamy Momos are ready for consumption. In addition we also propose to introduce a “sweet” variant of Momos, similar to “Modak” (a sweet delicacy famous in the central part of India made of jaggery and coconut) as a differentiation strategy from the existing competitors.