A good 'desi' pizza

SAY CHEESE! Yeah, Smile. For here are pizzas for 20 bucks from Amul! Pizzas topped with Mozzarella cheese made by Amul have entered Chennai to take a share of the pie.

It was just a matter of time before Amul brought it to the city, especially, since it did start selling pizzas in Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and Bangalore earlier this year.

The `Snowcap' Pizzas have tasted success in all its places of launch, Mr. J. Rajan, Manager (Sales) of Gujarat Co- operative Milk Marketing Federation, tells us.

``The number of pizzas sold per outlet varies anywhere between 75 and 100 on any given day, going up to 150 pizzas on holidays. Amul already sells 19,000 pizzas per day and after the launch in Chennai, the sales will overshoot that of leading Pizza MNCs,'' he says.

Folks from Amul believe they would be able to bite into a huge part of the market, especially with their pricing that they describe as ``affordable by a majority as compared to the high priced pizzas from the MNC outlets''.

``The price compares well with that paid for a Masala Dosa,'' is the logic. Amul would be undertaking regular quality checks at the franchisee outlets selling the 20 rupee pizza.

The outlets would start off selling `Snowcap' pizzas - the ready to eat kind, served hot. In a month, Amul would be introducing the frozen take-home pizzas. To sink your teeth into a cheesy pizza, you could drop in at Nilgiris, T. Nagar, Desserts N Cakes, Greams Road or the Amul Pizza outlet in Mylapore.

Door delivery? The pizza franchisees would decide on that independently, says Mr. S.K. Kulkarni, Assistant General Manager, (Sales).

``Within a month, the pizzas would be available in 50 important outlets in Chennai,'' says the Amul Sales team.

It was only a few years ago, that Amul introduced its ice-cream range pitching it against Kwality Walls, priced cheaper than the latter. Now, the company claims to have ``overtaken'' Kwality Walls in the race.

Ice-creams, Pizza... what next? Well, Amul is bringing curd to Chennai. Branded curd in Chennai? Yes, why not?

After all, we've seen the Chennaiite paying for branded coffee, at a price ten times more than what he was used to.

Amul says it is a mass market brand, and will be affordable. `Dil Maange' curd?

By Sudhish Kamath

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