Brand Launch

Breaking new grounds with our Centre of Excellence (CoE) unit

shimlahills Brand Launch, Food Processing
Centre of Excellence

It all started with a humble beginning and today we feel elated to have diversified manifolds into a wide range of product portfolios. Starting from fruit pulp/ puree/concentrate to IQF product range and then the next strategic step into flavours, colours and fragrances. We launched our brand for flavours, colours and fragrances (SNIFF) last year. With SNIFF, our 5000 sq. ft. flavour compounding unit at Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh is also set to achieve new heights! It has a state-of-the-art infrastructure with an analytical lab, microbial lab and application lab. A competent team of food technologists, flavorists, microbiologists and product analysts dwell here to realise their dreams!

We’re now confidently taking small strides in establishing our unit for SNIFF as a Centre of Excellence (CoE) that nurtures creativity, innovation and research. The objective of CoE expands into:-

  • Innovation and transformation
  • Achieving global competitiveness
  • Building stronger networks
  • Identifying new market trends
  • Delivering customer experience, par excellence!

The first step is institutionalizing it as an open centre for creativity. It’s a breeding ground for cross fertilisation of ideas; with our flavour design, quality control, product development and marketing teams working in tandem towards the common goal of nurturing creativity in the food and aromatic industry.

The marketing team provides consumer insights to help understand the relationship between fragrances and different aspects of consumer’s life. The product development team shapes these insights into feasible product solutions. These product solutions are then developed by the flavorists and quality control team to ensure the product meets the specific consumer requirements and also stands the test of stability in raw and processed forms. This ensures that the flavour doesn’t change its characteristic properties when exposed to varied applications.

Our vertical integration strategy (with the fruit pulp business vertical) enables us to produce From the name fruit flavours (FTNF) that serve as natural building blocks for tailor-made flavour compounding. FTNF serves as backbone for flavour compounding creativity.

The creativity is not limited to flavour compounding only. It goes much beyond. The application lab is at work for developing and testing the applications of these flavours to beverage, bakery, dairy, confectionery, oral care and savoury products. The efforts of our application lab save our customer’s time and aids in faster decision making. Our team’s expertise in understanding the applications of different flavours to different bases adds to the client’s understanding of the end-product characteristics.

This centre is very close to our hearts. It’s our prodigy child and we aspire it to bring about a landmark impact in the food industry. With the good wishes of our patrons, we’re sure to achieve this!

SNIFF celebrates the essence of colour on Holi!

shimlahills Brand Launch, Parties and Celebrations
SNIFF celebrates the essence of colour on Holi!

The next level for any company dealing in processed fruits and vegetables is to enter into business of flavours, colours and fragrances. Shimla Hills will soon enter into the flavours business with the launch of our new brand SNIFF (Shimla Natural Ingredients, Flavors & Fragrances).

Our new business aims to deliver the essence of taste and aroma for the beverage, confectionary, bakery and dairy segments. A 5000 sq.ft flavour compounding facility is also being setup at Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh. This facility will have highly advanced manufacturing capabilities with analytical, micro and application labs.

Say it Almighty’s grace or a wonderful coincidence – this news comes at a time when Holi was around the corner. It was a very joyous moment for us to celebrate.

It is not just the exuberant revelry, but the underlining significance of Holi that makes this festival so unique. Holi welcomes the splash of spring colours and tosses aside the deep winter slumber. Nature too makes its happiness evident by blossoming flowers, helping seeds sprout, turning pastures green and adding life to every nook and corner.

Each colour of spring reflects a specific emotion and mood that mirrors in the colours of Holi. Colour holds symbolic and cultural meaning in India. Thus bringing hope and emotions back into our lives.

  • The sanguine Kumkum donned by Indian women on their forehead is a sign of purity, lifelong commitment and prowess.
    Saffron is the colour of spirituality and deep faith.
  • Blue denotes Infinity, The Creator and healing power.
  • Yellow indicates luminosity, cheerfulness, mental development, sunlight and happiness.
  • White though devoid of any colour, amasses in it all colours. It is symbolic of peace, cleanliness, knowledge and the omnipresent truth that is attached to life.

India has a revering faith in spirituality that adds importance to all small and big things attached with our lives. Our pursuit for this faith is what welds us all into one nation. Holi brings our faith back when…

…good prevails over evil

Hiranyakashipu, the demon king in his arrogance for power commanded everyone to solely worship him. When all attempts to kill his son Prahlad, an ardent Vishnu devotee failed, he entreated his sister Holika to use her boon. She could walk into blazing fire without any harm.

Holika did Hiranyakashipu’s bidding, took Prahlad into her lap and entered the fire. But Holika forgot that the boon only worked when she walked the fire alone. Prahlad, due to his devotion in Lord Vishnu was saved from the fire. This is why a day before Holi is celebrated as ‘Holika Dahan’, the burning of evil.

…differences dissolve

Holi also brings back to life the youthful jibes and mischievous pranks of Radha-Krishna. Lord Krishna would quiz his mother Yashoda as to why Radha’s got such a fair complexion while he was so dark. Upon this Krishna’s mother asked him to smear Radha’s face with colour. By doing so they would both become the same. Krishna also frequently threw colour and water over the Gopis. Gradually this got popularized and began to be celebrated as Holi.

I recollect how each one of us looks the same – drenched in spectrum of colours and their infinite shades. There are absolutely no differences to mark one human different from another. Holi wipes all differences and brings fun back, without any distinction of cast, creed, color, race, status or sex.

…innocence wins

Once upon a time in the kingdom of Prithu, there lived an evil ogress Dhundhi. Lord Shiv’s boon made her fear no gods, no men, arms or any weather conditions. But at the same time she was cursed by Lord Shiva of being in danger from crazy boys. On Holi, the pranks and shouts by children ultimately chased her away. It is for this matter that in some parts of India rowdy behaviour is acceptable on Holi.

…life exists even after death

Holi is believed to be the day when Lord Shiva opened his third eye to burn Kamadev, the Hindu god of love. Later, Lord Shiva realised that Kamadeva only meant humanity’s good. He was then resurrected, though in invisible form by Lord Shiva. In many parts of India, on Holi, mango blossoms and sandalwood paste are offered by people to worship Kamadeva.

The vibrancy of Holi reflects on our SNIFF logo – a brightly coloured Tagete flower, as well. Also known as marigold, Tagete defines our new venture with its sweet aroma and subtle flavour.

Being an inflorescence, every leaf of marigolds is in itself a complete flower. Just like every leaf of marigold combines to form a beautiful flower, so does each asset of our SNIFF business. Marigold underlines our spirit to bring – right quality, delivered at right time for the right application. We intend to offer customers the creativity, innovation and technology that translate their needs into customized product offerings.

As harbinger of spring, Holi ushers in new life. It is time when abundance of spring harvest begins to enter our life. At Shimla Hills we welcome the arrival of fresh crops with the Holi celebrations. Our team is all geared to prepare and meet the shipping schedules that have already begun for chickpeas, tamarind and other products.