Ahmed Foods

The company was started by Al Haj Shaikh in the year 1952. Mr. Zameeruddin initiated his
journey from altering the sweet business portfolio to his first food company in Asian
Subcontinent and introducing packaging methodology. He introduced the concept of packing,
canning, preserved food, shrink foods. In 1969, Ahmed Fruits. By the year 1969, Ahmed Foods
became multinational as Ahmed Foods including manufacturing of spices that was started by
the mid-’80s. A milestone was achieved when in 2013, it became the number one choice of
Pakistan, and it received the “Brand of the Year Award” with completion of 68 years in 2020.

Global Presence (Strength)

Ahmed foods spices were traditional and unique in taste that it was catered in countries like
UK, USA, and Canada. And they had distribution partnership with companies such as Tesco,
Shaklan, Gulf Mart, Carrefour, RG, Grand etc.

Drawbacks
Labor Union Formation
When Mr. Zameeruddin was running the whole operations of the company. He looked after
each and every department and kept everything centralized and controlled. But soon after his
death in 1988, his sons took over the place and slowly started to lose control as they could not
stand the pressure of the workers. Management became very stagnant and the labor union
started to gain power which formed in failure of several upcoming planning and operations.
Split of Nauras & Ahmed Foods

Both the sons of Mr. Zameeruddin wanted complete authority on the organization. And because of this
many of the business got shrink. Zia took charge of Nauras and separated the company from Zafar who
took the authority of Ahmed Foods.
Investing on Marketing, Quality & Employees Retention

Slowly and gradually the motivation to work was reduced to nil as the company was not going in any
positive directions. They were not investing on marketing promotions, employee’s retention policies and
quality hallmark was lost over time.

Competition between Qarshi & Nauras

NAURUS FOODS have fared better as compared to Ahmed. To begin with they had only one product
(NAURUS RED SYRUP). When Naurus separated from Ahmed they only had ROOHAFZA in competition. In
the next few years Qarshi launched their red syrup JAM-E-SHIRIN in the market with a bang. JAM-E-
SHIRIN incurred heavily on promotion and their TV commercial was aired at prime time slot of PTV 9PM
news daily as there were no private TV channels till than in Pakistan. Since then Jam-e Shirin has
captured a big slice of the market.

Recipe Spices

 Achar Gosht Masala

1. Bombay Biryani Masala

2. Bihari Kabab Masala

 Chef’s Pride

The brand is in the business from last 75 years serving mainly in United States and then the rest of the
parts of world. Chef’s Pride are the original distributors of holiday gift boxes that includes turkeys, hams,
steaks and other food items from a long time in the US.

In Pakistan named as Munaf International it is serving since 1992 which deals in traditional food spices,
dry fruits and related products. From Single Powder spices to BBQ and Rice cuisine, Chef’s pride had
placed the benchmark in early years since its inception in Pakistan.

Product Line
Rice Cuisine

 Deggi Biryani
 Bombay Biryani

BBQ Cuisine

 Behari Kabab
 Lahori Chargha
Curry Cuisine

 Delhi Nehari
 Achar Gosht

Market Segmentation

Chef’s Pride has followed the steps of pioneers like Shan & National foods in determining Market
Segmentation.

With regards to demographic factor CP has majorly targeted the house wives who are looking after their
homes. They majorly play a vital share in home cooking. So traditional recipes are quite well known to
them. With this they have introduced their traditional recipes such as BBQ Cuisine (Behari Kabab, Lahori
Chargha) Rice Cuisine (Deggi Biryani, Bombay Biryani)

CP has promoted its products such as Masala like Achar Gosht , Chicken Nuggets , BBQ , etc through
media channel such as television and radio. But could not match the capability of giants like Shan &
National, as it is not easy to enter in this market.
Weakness
Less Market Potential

The major problem in the competition was that although CP was present in major cities but did not have
a proper manufacturing. They were in a market share of less than 20% in the market which also included
unnamed brands as well. So manufacturing at a larger horizon was not possible to them. Apart from that
the company did not really invest much in advertisement and brand promotion as the company
forecasted that it could not penetrate the minds of local individuals.