Safety tops the food chain at Indoguna

ONE of life's simple pleasures is to enjoy good food and wine and this is what Indoguna is all about. For the past 21 years, the company has been at the forefront of the food and beverage industry, dedicated to serving the best to its customers.

It is precisely this strong devotion to the guiding philosophy of "only the best is good enough" that has earned Indoguna two consecutive Enterprise 50 awards since 2012.

Over the years, Indoguna has undergone a significant transformation. Since 1993, its staff strength has quadrupled to reach almost 180 and it now occupies 5,500 square metres across three buildings in Senoko Drive. More significantly, it has progressed from being a supplier of merely a single product - premium meats - to one that offers a wide array of items that include seafood, cheese and boutique wine.

In fact, its sheer range of quality produce allows it to easily cover up to 80 per cent of a typical restaurant's menu needs. Indoguna now serves a strong portfolio of customers that includes five-star hotels such as the Raffles Hotel and Swissotel, as well as renowned restaurants in Resorts World Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands. This diversification did not occur by chance. It was a conscious decision by a key player: managing director Helene Raudaschl, who came on board at Indoguna in 1997.

In that same year, Indoguna began to diversify into other product categories. Besides her passion for fine food and wine, Ms Raudaschl also brought to Indoguna her business acumen honed from being involved in her family-owned fine foods business in Hong Kong. In particular, the onset of the mad cow disease in the mid-1990s made Ms Raudaschl realise the risk in specialising in only one product category.

Soon enough, Indoguna recognised the merits of having control over the entire value chain, and went down the unconventional path by venturing into food manufacturing. Its first house brand, Ocean Gems, was launched in 2003 to offer consumers premium-quality seafood choices.

Subsequently, its second house brand, Carne Meats, was established to provide consumers an alternative for premium high-quality charcuterie products. By building brand value through manufacturing its own products, Indoguna is looking to shape its own destiny in the food and beverage industry.

Despite its rapid expansion, Indoguna stands firm in its three core beliefs: food safety, quality and customer satisfaction. Of the three, Ms Raudaschl is always quick to emphasise that food safety is Indoguna's top priority. In addition to basic safety requirements, Indoguna is proudly accredited with ISO 22000 certification throughout its warehouse, delivery system and production room.

Emphasis on quality

This means that Indoguna has in place a systematic approach to minimise hazards to food safety. It also boasts an "A" certification from the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) year after year. This underscores the importance that Indoguna places on food safety, as even the slightest mistake could threaten its established reputation.

With regard to quality as the second core belief, Indoguna, being in the premium-food business, competes on non-price factors. Instead of slashing prices to gain a bigger market share, it stresses on quality of its food items.

As noted by Ms Raudaschl, "People will come back to you because of a quality product, not because your products are cheap. There will always be someone with products cheaper than yours tomorrow."

Indoguna's commitment to quality is evident in the way it chooses new product lines to launch. Quality, and not profit margin, is the primary basis on which Indoguna brings in new products.

Each new product also goes through stringent product evaluations before its official launch. In 2008, Indoguna was one of the few industry players to attain the HACCP and ISO 9001:2000 certification, affirming its high quality standards. Such commitment to the highest food safety and quality standards has allowed Indoguna to build up a reputation of reliability with its customers. The company is constantly on the search for new and quality produce for its customers.

Recognising that its customers are busy people with too many product samples to try, Indoguna ensures that the food samples it puts out in the market are of high standards. This ensures that customers are willing to take the time to try Indoguna's products.

Not one to rest on its laurels, Indoguna's current focus is the development of a highly automated manufacturing plant in Dubai which is due for completion by the end of this year. This new manufacturing plant will measure up to 6,000 sq m in size, costing close to S$8 million.

The new plant will not only allow Indoguna to better serve its growing overseas clientele, but will also serve as a new export base to reach out to the international market. The new Dubai plant will manufacture mainly an Asian range of products to meet the growing appetite for Asian cuisine outside of the Asia-Pacific region.

The surge in the number of Asian visitors in these regions in recent years, coupled with the lack of high-quality manufacturers of Asian foods, means that it is an opportune moment for Indoguna to establish itself as an industry leader for high-quality ready-to-eat Asian produce.

A piece of good news for consumers who are Muslims is that Indoguna intends to get the new plant halal-certified. By importing the halal products from Dubai, to Singapore, this development will raise the quality of such items in the Republic. In its quest for expansion, Indoguna remains committed to operating its business in a sustainable and environmentally responsible manner. There is a great cause for concern, particularly in seafood sustainability as many of the prevailing fishing practices, especially in Asia, are not sustainable.

In a bid to combat this worrying trend, Indoguna has in recent years started procuring sustainable seafood which is either fished or farmed in ways that can maintain or increase the species' production in the long term.

New phase

Furthermore, Indoguna has actively been trying to promote the cause by garnering buy-in from its customers; educating and getting them interested in purchasing sustainable seafood. This is in tandem with the efforts of the Worldwide Fund for Nature in promoting sustainability in food consumption in the interests of the future generations.

With the opening of the new plant in Dubai in end-2014, Indoguna is well-poised to embark on yet another exciting new phase of its business. This also signifies a big move forward in the premium food industry, particularly in terms of its halal products.

Indeed, Indoguna strives continually to keep itself competitive and profitable by searching for ways to value-add to its products, such as by extending its reach further up the value chain.

With the management's business acumen, fuelled by its strong commitment to quality, Indoguna looks set to enjoy further growth.

The writers are students from NUS Business School