Pune Inc: How the baking bug bit this biomedical engineer and egged him on to set up a profitable venture

While ready-to-eat commercial breads, cookies and biscuits make up most bakery sales in India, brands such as CrustWorthy are finding favour with a clientele that is well-travelled, relishes good food and is willing to spend on clean, gourmet products, especially after the pandemic. It is to this segment that Panchpor reached out when he decided to start his company on August 9, 2021.

On CrustWorthy’s second anniversary, Panchpor will be celebrating a client size of 4,000 in Pune, collaborations with 15 restaurants in the city as well as pop-up partnerships with several local brands and firms. The company is slowly venturing into making its bread available to clients in Mumbai. What sets Panchpor’s breads apart — sourdough, sandwich breads and brioche, among others — is that he is a biomedical engineer with a fine understanding of microbiology and microorganisms.

Before the pandemic, though, he was a mechanical engineering student who had built a 3D-printed prosthetic arm with a few classmates at MIT, Pune. He even has a patent for it. After graduation, Panchpor worked at NCL Innovation Park and was accepted to his dream university, Georgia Tech or Georgia Institute of Technology in the US. The Covid-19 pandemic, however, put paid to his plans. What does a new engineer, who has left his job and cannot go to a top university, do at home during the lockdown?

Panchpor made the Challah, a sweet braided loaf of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, because he had been reading Jewish history and was intrigued by the braided shape of the bread. The first bread that he made in his home microwave oven was soft and fragrant, and held its shape. Panchpor then began to read up on food and baked so frequently that the microwave oven broke down. He was quick to get himself an oven toaster grill or OTG.

By the time the second Covid-19 lockdown ended, Panchpor had mastered the art of baking. He set up an industrial baking unit, comprising equipment from industrial ovens to mixers, in his garage and learnt to use these. The initial investment was from his savings of Rs 3 lakh. To make the business profitable, Panchpor decided to change something else first.

An introvert, he realised that a startup founder needed to network and connect with people. He had to change himself to succeed. Panchpor became active socially and on social media, meeting other business owners of products that could pair well with bread. “CrustWorthy was a passion project for me for a year or so because I was in the mindset of baking all day for pleasure. It was hard for me to get out of that mindset and into a proper business mindset since I do not have a business background,” he says.

The result of his personal transformation is that CrustWorthy products are now part of hampers and parcels of a large number of brands. Such partnerships help the other brands access clients of CrustWorthy and also aid the startup in accessing its own market.

CrustWorthy is staying in tune with the demands of its clients. It offers products that are not readily available in the country, such as Challah and the Japanese milk bread Shokupan and simple well-baked loaves and slices. They have also introduced a range of flavoured butter spreads and plan more innovations. “The Indian audience is not educated about the different kinds of breads, just as I was not. There are many varieties of bread around the world and so many ways to eat it. It’s one of the most versatile products, and our aim is to bring these to the table across the country,” he says.