Here’s a story of a humble beginning that continued with grit and determination, seeing failures at times but rising from the ashes, to create a super brand that would go a long way in India’s pudding market. A first-generation entrepreneur Viraj Hede shares his journey as the founder of India’s first pudding brand that found its way on the Indian supermarket shelves – Toffee Doodle!
BHARATI PAWASKAR
Toffee Doodle’ sounds and tastes familiar, especially if you are holidaying out in Goa and have a sweet tooth. It’s India’s first pudding brand from Goa, the only pudding brand in the retail market.
“We are India’s first pudding brand! There is not a single pudding brand across India that’s sold in the supermarkets,” boasts Viraj Hede, founder of Toffee Doodle and a first-generation entrepreneur who took the lessons of marketing in the canteens of Goa Institute of Management (GIM) while
he was an MBA student there.
The brand is in the news as it has hit the market one more time, this time with a new avatar and an extended shelf life. The brand underwent a transformation and was re-launched recently, choosing the same month of birth when the pilot project of Toffee Doodle took off six years ago in April 2017.
It was a conscious call to take a pause, for the betterment of the product, improve it and then re-launch with lots of upgrades.
“In April 2023, we re-launched Toffee Doodle with holistic upgrades across all areas. Toffee Doodle now has a better, stronger packaging, sturdy, reusable cups, improved taste and longer shelf life. We are dreaming big, looking to scale up pan India. Along with Goa, we have soft launched in Mumbai’s 12 supermarkets. In the coming months, we will be available across Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Gurugram, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Pune,” shared Hede whose dream vision is to create a pudding category in the retail market and pioneer in that.
Currently, Toffee Doodle is available in two flavours – Creme Caramel and Brigadeiro – one is soft vanilla milk cream pudding with toffee caramel and the other silky smooth Brazilian chocolate pudding. “More flavours are in the pipeline, with the likes of vegan pudding and fruit-based pudding,” promises Hede.
This Goan brand was first launched on April 12, 2017. Viraj Hede and his (life) partner Adv Sameera Bhat founded the start-up Toffee Doodle with family blessings.
“The first pudding we tabled then was ‘Toffee Serradura’ sold across 15 supermarkets in Goa,” recalls Hede.
Initially, the team manufactured with a manual process with limited technology and basic approach. The product shelf life was just seven days and required continuous refrigeration. “This limitation in our product pulled us back in scaling up to other cities across India,” recalls Hede.
He then worked to upgrade the shelf life to six months and make shelf-stable (can be stored in ambient room temperature but are meant to be served chilled).
These upgrades are made without any addition of preservatives, artificial sweeteners, food colours or any chemicals, keeping the goal to retain the same recipe and USP of being a simple ingredient, 100% vegetarian with no egg or gelatine. This non-aerated pudding is manufactured under ISO and HACCP certified standards.
Hede’s journey dates to 2010 to his graduation days at IHM Hyderabad College where he was pursuing Hotel Management and specialising in food production and technology. Finally, the dream materialised in 2017. The rest is history.
Hede recalls, “The only hurdle to our dream of catering our puddings across India was the product shelf life and the challenge to keep the puddings continuously refrigerated. We got a tremendous response from customers. Everyone loved the puddings. One of our Toffee Doodle fans who loved our puddings is noted Goan industrialist Auduthbab Timblo, who decided to support us to set up our factory; backed us morally and financially to chase our dreams.”
With an objective to retain the same recipe, USPs but to increase the shelf life, the team worked with numerous dairies and manufacturers to try and test their machinery. But there was not a single factory in India that was manufacturing a pudding with a shelf life; it became difficult to set the process. It took Hede almost 2.5 years with limited funds, to do his research and development.
“Finally, we entered into a contract partnership with a manufacturer, developed our dream product with six months of shelf life and even made it shelf stable (no refrigeration needed during storage and logistics) and here we are... on the shelves again!”
The young entrepreneur is now building supply chains across all metro cities and states, hiring distributors to make his brand available across India along with his
own online store (www.toffeedoodle.com).
