Meet Karan Dinesh Mehta, the 23 year old entrepreneur looking to revolutionize the Edible oil industry in India

Karan, a finance enthusiast is a commerce graduate from the Narsee Monjee college in Mumbai. After pursuing specialisation courses in finance including CFP, FRM & CFA, Karan managed to land up a job at Deutsche Bank post his graduation and worked as an analyst here.

Hailing from a business family, Karan was always passionate about becoming an entrepreneur and he desired to be a food business owner at some point of time in his life. 

Karan’s family is involved in the business of manufacturing and exports of Indian origin oils under the name of Ashok Oil & Food Products (AOFP), formerly known as Ashok Oil Mills which was established in 1948 in Shivaji park, Dadar, Mumbai.

Ashok Oil & Food Products is a 90% export focused business dealing in indigenous oils such as: Mustard oil, Sesame Oil, Peanut Oil, Ricebran Oil, Coconut Oil, Gingelly Oil, Flaxseed oil etc.

The reason they didn’t cater to the Indian market, which is considerably large, is simply because India imports 70-80% of its edible oil requirements which consists mainly of sunflower oil, palm oil, soyabean oil etc. in huge quantities which are imported in its crude forms and then sold as refined oils, which are scientifically proven extremely unhealthy for human consumption and on top it, the edible oil industry as a whole is believed to be filled with malpractices which includes mixing of a said oil with another oil and then selling it at a premium, not highlighting the ill effects of refined oils, giving out false health claims such as good for heart, good for diabetics, pro immunity etc. and a lot of the big organisations easily get away with it because of the strong marketing budgets that they have.

Karan, being a new age entrepreneur intends to change the landscape of the industry as he always thought to himself, “why are we only exporting such huge quantities of our oils across the globe and ignoring our own country?” Although the Indian market was quite different in terms of its preferences until a few years ago, Karan believes that India is an evolved market now and will accept a far superior and honest product being marketed to its consumers with the right intentions.

Karan dug a bit deeper and found out that most of the imported oils such as Sunflower oil, Palm oil, Soya-bean oil, etc. are received in their crude forms. These oils then go through the process of chemical refining, bleaching and deodorizing process (known as RBD) because of which they not only lose their nutritional values, taste and smell but the sticky liquid which is left in the end is then packaged and marketed in such a way to make the consumers believe that these oils are healthy for heart, diabetes, increases immunity, etc.

Ashok Oil & Food Products has very strong foothold in the international market with the export of edible oils under their own brand, “Ace” which has become a staple in the kitchens of thousands of families all across the USA, Canada, EU, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Middle-East etc. 

Karan has spent more than a year now to create a new, premium and healthy edible oil brand, specifically focused on the Indian market which shall be known as “Ace Gold”, India’s Natural Edible Oil.

Ace Gold is positioned as the gold standard of edible oils in the country with a strict policy of ethical marketing, honest promises and a motto of using our indigenous oils and saying no to refined oils.

A notable point about the packaging developed for Ace gold is, as a sign of showing transparency, the packaging material used is a mix of glass and recyclable transparent PET bottles with an intention to always let the actual colour of the oil be visible to the consumer rather than most other packaging used in the market which uses HDPE material which is completely opaque. 

Karan aims to make Ace Gold the leading and most importantly, a trusted edible oil brand by promoting and marketing their naturally filtered and cold pressed range of oils.

Ace gold oils are now available online on Amazon, Flipkart as well as the brands own store: www.acegold.in

Ace Gold shall be rolling out soon in stores as well starting with Mumbai and then expanding to other cities.

The post Meet Karan Dinesh Mehta, the 23 year old entrepreneur looking to revolutionize the Edible oil industry in India appeared first on Times Applaud.