The zesty Zorabians

Ask Perizaad Zorabian what her vision of group Zorabian for the year 2020 is, and she states unhesitatingly that it has to be: When you think great quality chicken at a super competitive price, it has to only be Zorabian. This bubbly president, marketing, Zorabian Chicks Private Limited calls herself a murgiwali (chicken seller), a sobriquet she flaunts with pride. The murgiwali is responsible for sales of about 42 different types of preservative-free chicken products for her family owned poultry business. The passion that she has for her products shines through when she states "we want to be known as number one in quality, not in volume.” This sometime actor, who has been seen in Bollywood movies such as Morning Raga and Joggers Park and often on the Bombay stage, is now obsessed with taking brand Zorabian to the next level, she says coolly.

Shahzaad and Khoram beside a memorial to Khoram’s mother Khorshed; Zorabian with her products

Talking to Parsiana at her elegant home overlooking the Bandra skyline, Zorabian states that 2015 is to be the year of awareness for brand Zorabian as it marks 25 years of their starting the business. The platform has already been created, she states, the markets have already been sensitized. Every quality conscious celebrity chef only wants Zorabian chicken, she claims matter-of-factly. The company counts among its clientele some of the best hotels and restaurants in Bombay and Poona. With the group’s focus on retail sales, she wants to ensure that this contributes a greater share to the turnover. Currently retail sales contribute approximately 40% of total sales and include fresh, chilled and ready-to-cook products. The former refers to a variety of portions and cuts of chicken that are pre-cleaned while the latter includes a range of ready-to-cook chicken products — sausages, salami, burger patties, nuggets and the like.
Godrej, Venkys and Sagunas are the big players in the poultry business, she says. Zorabian admits that pricing of their products is slightly higher than that of the competition. "Our products are actually value for money, and only marginally higher by about Rs 20 per kilo. The products are completely cleaned of fat; they are free from additives and preservatives.” In fact, she states that her vendors believe that the company is not charging the premium they should. "Why should good health be unaffordable,” she asks.
Also on the cards is a range of quick service restaurants. As Zorabian puts it, "we are still ideating about it.” What she visualizes is smallish neighborhood outlets that can, besides selling the group’s products, educate customers about the nutritional aspects of its products. "A concept store, really,” she exults. It’s time to tell the Zorabian chicken story to the world, she says simply.
"I personally owe a lot of our marketing success to the overwhelming support we received from Parsis and Iranis all across Bombay,” admits this marketing and advertising graduate of Baruch College, New York, a city where she also attended the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute. "We launched our ready-to-cook products at a function at Dadar Parsi Colony and haven’t looked back since.”

The hygienic production unit; Packing the ready-to-cook products

Shahzaad (left) with a food technologist

Her eyes sparkle when she talks about her 30-strong marketing team whom she calls her warriors. This is not an instruction-giving, hands-off marketing chief, one soon realizes. She meets or talks to most of her team on a daily basis. Her attention to detail and her people oriented approach to marketing are reinforced when she recollects the full name of the store owner closest to this writer’s residence in Bombay. This is commendable, considering the group sells its products at about 1,000 outlets in over seven cities in India. Products are also sold online by retailers and on the company’s own website. Ever wearing the marketing cap, Zorabian dreams of an application on a smart phone whereby home makers and restaurateurs can order chicken.
She recounts how she learnt the ropes at the farm. She did not begin at the top. The then expectant mother would travel to the farm three times a week throughout her pregnancy. "I told my doctor that when the baby would be born, I would set up a nursery for her in my office. I spent those months understanding and learning the production aspects of the business from my father (Khoram) and from my brother (Shahzaad),” she recalls.
Perizaad states unequivocally that she has no guilt about being in the business of culling and selling chicken. In fact, "I feel a great sense of pride that Zorabian provides the customer with meat that is 100% pure and uncompromised with, and is nutritious, wholesome and healthy. Whether vegetarian or non-vegetarian, we all consume something that has life; that is the cycle of life. We are aware of the toxic levels meat can have when compromised with. The fact is that Zorabian chooses to stay away from that space, no matter how much more that could add to our profits,” she mentions.
"I am the impulsive one in the family,” states this boss lady. You ask her what makes her tick and she quickly replies that she never loses an opportunity due to ‘over thinking.’ She recounts a particularly memorable evening with Shahzaad when they were in the midst of a heated argument about how they should drive the company faster and quicker up the path of success. Being the marketing whiz, Perizaad wanted a quick route to the top. She acknowledges she had her ‘a-ha moment’ when Shahzaad showed her a video of a Bugatti showroom. He has always admired this car manufacturer’s passion for excellence, quality and design as a key to success, she says. The marketing chief was floored by the video and began to see things Shahzaad’s way. "We want to be the Bugatti of the chicken market,” she avers.
The admiration in which the siblings hold each other is obvious. "My Steve Jobs” is how Perizaad refers to Shahzaad. Talking about his sister at the company’s farm and manufacturing facility at Mankivali, near Khopoli on the outskirts of Bombay, Shahzaad, the soft spoken and somewhat publicity shy chief executive officer (CEO) of the company admits "I normally leave the marketing aspects to my sister.”

As he walks us through the farm which has the capacity to process 3,50,000 birds a month, Shahzaad’s passion for quality and his sincerity shines through. He confirms that the company is compliant with every standard and guideline recommended by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India for their industry and their line of business. The farm was the first in the industry to become ‘Halal certified.’ As we tog ourselves with protective covering — footwear, caps and masks — and remove watches and rings prior to walking through the production facility, Shahzaad’s pride at being an ISO 22000 compliant set up is evident. ISO 22000 is the family of international standards that address food safety management. "Everyone here, from top to bottom, has to follow the same set of standards for health and safety,” stresses the CEO.
The production units are spotless and one can easily see that "adherence to quality and safety” is very much in practice. The industry being water-intensive, very early on the company invested in its own effluent treatment plant. The treated water is used, partly, to keep the vistas at the farm green and in bloom. The company is particularly proud of the state-of-the-art ice manufacturing facility, the blast freezer and the boiler plant. The plant goes through an ISO audit every six months, Shahzaad mentions. The breeder farm, where chicks are reared, is at a distance from the processing unit, in keeping with prevalent health standards. The company has partnered with contract farmers all over Maharashtra for their procurement needs. Zorabian’s range of products is exclusive to chicken. They do not produce layer eggs (eggs for consumption). Their breeder farm produces eggs for breeding and producing chicken only.
One realises that this is a very people focussed CEO, much like his sibling. He talks highly of his motivated team members. "I merely guide and motivate my team,” says the youngest of the three Zorabian siblings. "It is they who do all the work.” Very hands on, this young man stays at the farm virtually round the year and seldom comes into Bombay. Since joining the family business in the mid 2000s when the company was going through tough times due to the then rampant bird flu, this software engineer turned poultry farmer now believes that the worst is over. We can only grow from here on, he says. And growth, believes Shahzaad, "can only come from a focus on quality.”

The Ganesh temple on the farm

The farm and the production facility employ about 350 workmen. On the premises are also staff quarters for the workers who come from 17 different states. The Zorabians are proud of the way they treat their employees. Perizaad recounts how they fulfil their corporate social responsibilities by doing the best for their workers. That the Zorabians are a people oriented company is evident in the welfare activities that both the siblings mention, referring to the playgrounds, gymnasium, play center and canteen facilities for the workers. Perhaps the only point of difference between them is that Perizaad wants the welfare activities spoken about explicitly as part of the Zorabian chicken story while Shahzaad states, "We just have to do it, not talk about it.”
"Every day our kitchen feeds all the workers on the farm,” reveals Khoram Zorabian, the paterfamilias who started it all. The company chairman points to the little Ganesh temple at the entrance to the farm and recounts that he refurbished it at his personal expense. The one-and-a-half day Ganesh celebration is a rallying point for the family and the workers, he says with a satisfied look on his face. He also speaks about cricket matches organized for the staff in which Khoram’s extended family too takes part.
There is justifiable pride in his voice when he narrates how he established the company in 1982. The land for the farm was purchased in 1984, he states. This was only a kutcha (rough) road, he waves, pointing to the approach road to Mankivali. He narrates how his close associates attempted to dissuade him from buying land there, because of its remoteness. He recounts with pride that theirs was among the first production facility to be completely environmentally friendly. Gesturing towards part of the fleet of vehicles owned by the company, he proudly states that each morning the refrigerated trucks leave the farm at 4.30 a.m. with chicken for Bombay.
When asked what made him a successful entrepreneur, he quotes the good old fashioned Zoroastrian virtues of "sincerity, honesty and hard work.” He mentions that there are a very few Parsi farmers in the poultry business and states sadly that some of them lost a lot of their assets in the bird flu epidemic of the last decade. Khoram was many things before finding his métier in poultry: milk seller, bakery owner, wine shop owner and restaurateur. The restaurant he started in Bandra, Gondola, continues to be a meeting place for folks who courted there back in the ’70s, he states. They come back for their favorite dishes along with their children and grandchildren, he smiles benignly.
"My mother Firoza is the religious one in the family,” states the glamorous, market savvy Perizaad. "I am not a religious person. I do, however, try to put into practice the concept of good thoughts, good words and good deeds and none of my actions will have any known act of unkindness.” This lady is concerned about the Parsi community reducing in number at what she calls "an alarming rate.” She cites this as the reason for happily agreeing to be the face of the Jiyo Parsi campaign. Parsis are loved and respected, she avers, and continues that "it would be wonderful to see us be more inclusive as a community and share our basic commandments of good thoughts, good words and good deeds with people who want to embrace our faith. I would love to see our religion evolve and open up in my generation.” The 41-year-old businesswoman is married to builder Boman Irani and is mother to Zaha (seven) and Zayaan (five). Shahzaad who is married to Farah (née Irani) is yet to start his family. Health conscious Farah, a home maker, gives a lot of health related tips to her husband.
"I have three very obsessed children,” says Khoram with pride, referring to Perizaad, Shahzaad and Sohrab. The last who runs a successful catering business in Bandra under the name of Cheron Caterers has been designated president of the prospective quick service restaurants. The patriarch lauds Sohrab’s contribution to the recipes for the ready-to-cook range of products. "I can get all the business information I need from the in-house system that Shahzaad developed to track key parameters at the farm on a daily basis,” he says and is appreciative of the efforts his son has put in to modernize the business. He recalls Shahzaad’s insistence on over-configuring the ice plant to meet all international standards. Not involving himself in the day-to-day running of the company Khoram is at hand should Perizaad and Shahzaad need him to interact with bankers or contract farmers.
It is evident that both Perizaad and Shahzaad venerate their father. "He is the original poultry farmer,” says the daughter. When complimented about the smooth running of the farm, Shahzaad says he is only building on what his father started.
"Our aspirations are all towards giving every Indian a chicken experience unlike any other,” states Perizaad. It is evident that Shahzaad too wants the same and that this is a refrain that both have picked up from Zorabian senior.