Frustrated with rising costs and a lack of traditional Indian foods in Thunder Bay, a group of Lakehead University international students found a way to solve the problems. They opened their own grocery store.
HDL Global Inc. is Thunder Bay’s first Persian-Indian grocery store and features a secondary restaurant business called Desi Chatko — an Indian street food bar.
Masood Imtiaz said 99 per cent of the products are imported directly from India, bypassing wholesale fees and additional transportation costs.
“Twenty per cent of our selections are Persian groceries, which we buy straight from Iran. It gets exported to the Middle East, then it comes straight to Canada,” Imtiaz said. They have their own branding and shipping, with many of the products stamped with the HDL logo.
Imtiaz co-owns the business with Dharmesh Kamal, Pratik Patel, Dhruvin Donda and Faraz Khorsandi, He described it as a long-extended branch from HDL Global Inc. company based in Gujarat, India.
“We have a region in Gujarat and that’s where this brand comes through. It’s a family business,” he said. “There are no preservatives or chemicals added so we knew these guys were good to do business with.”
Imtiaz said HDL Global Inc. ships products to warehouses across the globe, including Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, but mainly in the Middle East in Dubai, and Saudi Arabia.
“This region is where most of our inventory — 60 per cent — is going every month and 40 per cent goes to European countries,” he said. Thunder Bay is their most northerly shipping destination in Canada and it takes about 45 days to import the groceries from India, assuming there are not any customs problems.
Imtiaz said their customers are predominately international students studying at the university and at Confederation College.
“We run a lot of promotions, like discounts and offering students delivery services,” he added.
At the Desi Chatko Indian street food bar, the sizable menu is all vegetarian.
“There is no meat here, it’s basically all vegan,” he said.
Everything is authentic and even the spices being used are straight from India, and nothing we use is local,” he said.
Imtiaz called their business a prototype for their goal as a wholesale operation. He said they want to introduce their product to the community and eventually be able to supply other grocery stores and restaurants with bulk food orders. For now, he said their best alternative is to start off with a retail (grocery store) business and see how the customers respond.
“We want to be a supply chain and that’s the goal,” he said.
HDL Global Inc. will host their grand opening today at 635 Arthur St. W.
