Gourmet Company, a venture that offers gourmet food products and gift items recently went online with the launch of its e-store Gourmetco.in. Founded by Sandhya Mittersain and Neerja Mittersain, the online store claims to feature 400 gourmet food products including herbal blend teas, cookies, cereals, jams & marmalades, salad dressings, mustards rare coffees, pastas and Mediterranean food ingredients, among others. By choosing to go online, the company aims to target smaller cities where it's difficult to find gourmet food products and ingredients, although there is considerable demand. Neerja Mittersain informs us that since the overheads are less when compared to a physical store, the site is able to offer competitive prices and deliver products in a large number of cities. - Product sourcing: The Gourmet Company claims to have exclusive tie-ups with two gourmet food companies based in UK - "Kitchen Garden Preserves" and "Today Was Fun", and is currently in discussions with other companies. Neerja informs us that the company also sources products from other suppliers domestically including importers as well as a few local Indian companies that are producing high-end gourmet products primarily with a social element - these products include honeys and cooking herbs. - Pricing & competing with Physical retailers: According to Neerja, duties on imported food products are currently quite steep in India. However since the company gets good rates from the food companies it works with directly, it is able to make healthy margins while at the same time, it tries to match international prices for the products. Since the company…
