Gaurav Arora | Entrepreneur
When Gaurav Arora arrived in Australia in 2004, he found there was a lot the country offered him—lovely people, great weather, and a good lifestyle. What it didn’t offer at the time was a good and consistent supply of Indian food staples, which would allow him to recreate the cuisine he grew up on in India. And it was that missing ingredient that inspired him to set up Usha Food Imports, a supplier of Indian food staples.
“The entrepreneurial spirit runs in my family and that was what helped me establish myself in a business in Australia,” says Gaurav.
“When I came here to do my masters, a lot of Indian migrants were moving into South Australia because of the job opportunities. As a result there was lot of demand of Indian and Asian food staples and groceries in this region, but the local market could never see consistent supply of these items compared to popular cities of Sydney and Melbourne,” he says.
Gaurav, then a student of Manufacturing Management, hit the ground running to research the market for Indian food staples. “Local storekeepers told me that they were having difficulties with storage facilities and transportation costs involved in procuring products from either Melbourne or Sydney,” he says. Gaurav decided that unlike his classmates who were set on pursuing high paying jobs, he would settle in Adelaide start a business.
Usha Imports was thus born in the garage of Gaurav’s home. “I started with frozen food signing on with the Indian company Vadilal for the South Australia region,” he says. His first weekly order was for just five cartons of vegetables.
Since then, the business has prospered with its growing product portfolio and sole distributorships for well-known ethnic food and non-food brands from India, Pakistan, Canada, and Malaysia.
The way I see it
The single most important moment in my career… When I started operating the business from my own custom built commercial warehouse in 2012 after years of renting warehouses
Growth is… Finding newer opportunities to add to our business product portfolio and widen our reach to customers both horizontally and vertically
Advice to budding entrepreneurs… Ignore the naysayers!
Who’s Who of Adelaide’s & Melbourne’s Indian Community 2018 magazine now online! Click here.
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