iD Fresh Food’s new CMO wants to knead the next Indian breads story

“It’s like a Formula One car. I’m still testing how fast the car can go, and how fast I can go in it,” remarks Gaurav Kwatra, the new chief marketing officer at iD Fresh Food.

It’s an analogy he uses to describe his 100-odd days at the packaged food major, known for its idli and dosa batters and parathas. Kwatra joined the 20-year-old iD Fresh Food after spending over a decade at Nestlé and nearly four years at Britannia.

Entrepreneurship was always dear to him. “I have always had an entrepreneurial bent of mind, and the question of whether I should become an entrepreneur or take the plunge has been plaguing me,” he says, revealing these as two of the major reasons he took up the assignment of “setting up a business from scratch in Purina PetCare (a pet food company).”

Logic would dictate that he start something of his own after his stint at the Swiss conglomerate, but iD Fresh Food came calling. “The work at iD, as well as what I wanted to do, seemed like a perfect fit.”

Moving from a giant MNC to an Indian company has its differences, and Kwatra acknowledges them—primarily speed. He says iD Fresh Food “can move very fast” in innovation or campaigns. On the other hand, large organisations, he says, “study, read up, and then take things at their own pace.”

The change from moving at a steady pace to a supercar can be challenging. Kwatra is thankful that his so-called honeymoon period at iD Fresh Food has been a smooth ride.

His first big campaign was released on 30 March 2025—the company tweaked the packaging of its batters to reflect the complete absence of preservatives. In addition, it invited schoolchildren to audit its factory, as it did with grandmothers last year.

Meeting PC Musthafa

Kwatra describes iD Fresh Food co-founder PC Musthafa (now chairman and global CEO) as a humble and “very straightforward person.”

When he met Musthafa for the CMO role, the latter was clear that iD Fresh Food was his baby and that he wanted professional care for the brand. He earned his new CMO’s respect when he told him, “I’ll be very honest, it will take me time to give you full control of the brand.”

The first set of inquiries from the co-founder was about what Kwatra was passionate about and his opinion on what iD Fresh Food was doing. The transparency shown by Musthafa and the opportunity to absorb learnings from him convinced Kwatra to take up the CMO role.

Bread has caught Kwatra’s eye

In his brief period at iD Fresh Food, Kwatra has seen the making of and worked on the marketing of all the company’s foods, from batters to parathas to filter coffee and fruit pulp.

However, it is bread that has caught his eye. No, not the kind you find at your nearest bakery, but the ones “our grandparents used to make.” For example, think of missi rotis and those made from different kinds of millets.

The company recently released an ad detailing how, regardless of whether it’s a parotta, paratha, or parantha, they all carry the same emotion of love for those who enjoy them.

“Indian breads are a bit of a lost art; many of these breads have disappeared from the Indian repertoire. It has come down to basic chapatis and parathas,” he rues. At the same time, he sees a huge opportunity in the Indian bread space “both from an indulgence perspective as well as a health perspective.” He says iD Fresh Food will “soon launch various expressions of Indian breads.”

“I believe there is no one in the country today who owns this space, and iD Fresh Food has the right to own it and build the traditional Indian bread category in a packaged format,” declares the CMO.

What’s your media strategy?

They say you should never ask women their age or men their salary. To this, you can add: never ask CMOs about their media strategy. Yours truly did, and thankfully, Kwatra didn’t mind answering.

“The social ecosystem, the Google ecosystem, and OTT platforms play a very important role,” he says, adding that “we can do a lot more in digital, in first-party data, and in understanding metrics.”

Television isn’t exactly high on the new CMO’s radar because “it is not the most effective vehicle for geo-targeting,” but print is part of his media mix.

When questioned about the Indian Premier League (IPL), he does not feel any FOMO because “our homemaker's affinity (our primary TG is the modern homemaker) is not as strong as it is for some of the FMCG brands.”

Kwatra signs off by saying iD Fresh Food is a bold organisation making bold moves. It feels like a win-win situation for the new CMO, who confesses: “… That’s something I like—go big or go home. So I like to be bold, and I will definitely have to take some big bets in some of the categories…”