P C Mustafa hails from a remote village in Kerala’s Wayanad district and his father was a coolie whereas his mother never had the chance to go to school. So she is a homemaker. Mustafa might have failed class 6 but he went on to study in the National Institute of Technology in Calicut and Indian Institute of Management in Bengaluru. Talk about the stepping stone to success!
Today, the 45-year-old Mustafa is the owner of the 100-crore company. ID fresh-packaged idli and dosa batter is sold in all major Indian cities. Mustafa set up the company with an initial investment of Rs 25,000. Today, the entrepreneur’s success speaks huge volumes. He now employs people from rural India.
“I grew up in a small village called Chennalode near Kalpatta in Wayanad. The village was so remote that we had only a primary school. It had no roads or electricity. We had to walk at least four kilometres to go to high school so most of the kids dropped out after primary school.
My father Ahmed stopped studying after Class 4 and worked as a coolie on a coffee plantation. My mother Fathima never went to school. I am the eldest and I have three younger sisters,” Mustafa told Rediff.
Mustafa confessed that he had no dreams of becoming an entrepreneur but wanted to be an engineer. Shamsuddin who is one of Mustafa’s cousins had seen dosa batter being sold in plastic bags in nearby stores and suggested that they make and supply dosa batter. This was when Mustafa’s journey kick-started as he decided to invest Rs 25,000 and start a company soon.
Five cousins namely Nasser, Shamsuddin, Jaffer, Naushad and Mustafa worked together. They found a small place of 550 square feet and started with 2 grinders, a mixer and a sealing machine. They were discussing names when a cousin suggested ID for idli dosa. They then named the venture ID Fresh as they came up with a plan to supply fresh dosa and idli batter.
When ID Fresh turned out to be a Rs 100 crore company in October 2015, the team celebrated well on a grand fashion. They have attained a tremendous growth from producing 10 packets in a day in 2005, with just cousins the kitchen, to around 50,000 packets a day with 1,100 employees in just 10 years.