This Daily Wage Labourer's Son Is IIM-B's Youngest Distinguished Alumni Awardee

From making merely 10 packets of one-kilogram idly-dosa batter a day in 2005, ID Fresh Foods today manufactures 50,000 packets a day. The reason behind this success is credited to 44-year-old PC Mustafa, the co-founder of iD Fresh Food (India) Private Limited. Recently, he went on to become the youngest recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Awards (DAA) in the history of IIM-Bangalore.

“My father would be proud to see my name on the Wall of Fame at the institute,” Mustafa said after thanking his batch of 2007 for nominating him.

PC Musthafa’s success story

Mustafa grew up in Chennalode, a remote village in Kerala’s Wayanad district, and is the son of a daily wager. His village neither had electricity nor roads. At the age of 10, Mustafa decided he wanted to become an entrepreneur.

“Since my family lived on the meagre earnings of my father who slogged as a daily wager, getting pocket money was a distant dream for me. So, during the summer holidays I borrowed Rs 100 from my uncle and set up a make-shift mithai shop (which sold chocolates and sweets) in our village,” said Mustafa. Earnings from his mithai shop gave him decent returns and he did not have to worry much about his pocket money anymore.

After school and during weekends, Mustafa helped his father in his job as a kid. An average student, he failed in class VI, and that is when his father wanted him to quit studying and assist him in his work full time. However, Mustafa’s teacher, Mathew Sir, urged his father to give him one more chance. Taking a personal interest in him, Mathew Sir taught Mustafa separately after school, and since then, Mustafa has not looked back. For his pre-university course, he got admission in Farooq College in Kozhikode (Calicut) after class 10, and later secured the 63rd rank in the engineering entrance exam in the state, and secured admission in Regional Engineering College (now National Institute of Technology) in Computer Science, according to The Weekend Leader.

After Mustafa finished his engineering course, he worked in several places. Starting off by getting a salary of Rs 6,000 per month at a start-up in Bengaluru, it crossed Rs 1 lakh when he shifted to Citibank, Dubai. “I sent my first month’s salary of Rs 1.3 lakh to my father through a friend of mine to clear all his debts,” he said.

He soon presented his parents with a house in his village, and his father got his three sisters married. Mustafa got married in 2000 and has three sons now.

Through a series of events, Mustafa went on to study at IIMB and started an enterprise that sold idly and dosa batter along with his cousins while pursuing his MBA. His company, iD Fresh Food, which in 2005 made 10 packets of one kilogram batter a day, today manufactures 50,000 packets a day and a team of 1,300 employees works in Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Dubai, at their units.

The private limited company was founded by Mustafa and his cousins Abdul Nazer, Shamsudeen TK, Jafar TK and Noushad TA in 2005. 50% share in the company is held by Musthafa and the rest by his cousins.

Other recipients of the award

Besides Musthafa, the two other recipients are S Vaidyanathan (PGP 1992), co-founder of The Ganga Trust, and MV Rajamannar (PGP 1985), chief marketing and communications officer and president-healthcare business, Master Card. Vaidyanathan is wheelchair-bound and helps others with disabilities.

A report on IIMB’s growth will be delivered by Prof G Raghuram, director of IIMB, whereas the Foundation Day Lecture will be delivered by Malavika R Harita, founder-CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Focus at the IIMB auditorium. The theme for the Foundation Day Lecture is ‘real empowerment’, reported The Times of India.

The Logical Indian lauds PC Musthafa’s determination and perseverance and believes that his effort to shine will inspire every youth today.

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