Latest news with #HarshilPatel
Time of India
14-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Freeze-dried ice-creams & aam ras are Gujaratis' new travel essentials
Ahmedabad: Nothing says home like the taste of kulfi—even at 30,000 feet over Europe. This summer, Gujaratis are packing more than passports for their trips abroad—they're taking freeze-dried ice cream , basundi, and even aam ras along for the trend is taking off—literally and figuratively—as a thriving micro-industry in Gujarat. With international travel rising every year—be it tourists or parents visiting their kids—and many families adhering to strict vegetarian or Jain diets, freeze-dried Indian ice creams are now emerging as the new must-pack essentials. Industry insiders say that demand for freeze-dried ice cream alone soared to 400–500 kg a day, supplied by over 40 units across the state. "We handle mostly Jain and Swaminarayan travellers who strictly avoid foreign ice creams fearing they may contain eggs or other non-vegetarian ingredients," said Smita Modi, a travel agent. "Now, we provide freeze-dried ice cream with their travel packs. For a single tour, we send up to 100 kg! It's cost-effective and hassle-free."Harshil Patel, who runs a freeze-dried food facility, said, "In the past three years, ready-to-eat food exploded in popularity. This year, ice cream became a star. We flash-freeze it at -30°C, dry it slowly over 9 hours at 50°C, and end up with a crunchy, wafer-like cube which turns into fresh ice cream when mixed with water or milk and frozen." Patel's unit processes 650 kg of food daily, with about 15% now devoted to frozen desserts. Supermarkets, snack shops, and tour operators are snapping up supplies."People abroad can now enjoy home food without worrying about spoilage. Our biggest clients are travel agents and caterers," says Samir Avadiya, another Modi, who owns a popular food store in Ahmedabad, says it's not just tourists. "Parents come in with home-cooked food to get it dried before sending it to their kids overseas. Ice cream demand spiked, but we also do mango ras, gajar halwa—even handvo!"And it's not just food makers riding the wave. Machinery manufacturers are seeing booming orders too. "There are now more than 40 freeze-drying units in Gujarat—and growing," said Chandrakant Patel, who supplies equipment to the industry. For Gujaratis, wherever they go, the taste of home follows—crispy, cool, and ready to eat.
Yahoo
04-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
3 stocks Fools bought over 10 years ago and still hold
The shorter your investing time horizon, the more we think that you're gambling with your investment money. A longer time horizon for building wealth allows more time for companies to work on your behalf as a shareholder. Here are a number of stocks that our free-site writers have bought and held for at least the past decade! What it does: Amazon is a global leader in online retail and marketplace for third party sellers. Its cloud computing platform Amazon Web Services provides data storage and AI services. By Harshil Patel. I first bought Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) shares 12 years ago in 2013. And it's one of my longest-serving holdings. Since then, it has risen by around 1200%. I was inspired by Peter Lynch's book One up on Wall Street. I used the concept of investing in what you know. I was a subscriber to its Prime service and had learned that many more features were on the way. Its subscription service looked promising, and I was even prepared to pay a higher price. Amazon was innovating and sales were growing. It was impossible to know how much of a success it would end up being. But it looked promising. Today, it's a more mature business. That said, it continues to grow sales and offer innovative solutions. But do I think it's likely to rise by another 1200% over the coming 12 years? I doubt it. With a market capitalisation of $1.8bn, it could struggle. That's why I'm focussing on smaller companies today. Harshil Patel owns shares in Amazon. What it does: Diageo manufactures some of the world's most popular drinks brands like Smirnoff vodka and Captain Morgan rum. By Royston Wild. Being a Diageo (LSE:DGE) shareholder has proved 'a game of two halves' for me, to use a well-worn football cliché. A steadily growing dividend and rising share price gave me a solid return before 2020's Covid emergency. Since then, Diageo shares have been up and down, and they've been locked in a sustained downturn since mid-2022. As a consequence, the drinks giant's provided a sub-par average annual return of 4% over the past decade. This is below the 6.5% that the broader FTSE 100 has delivered over that time. Yet I haven't been tempted to cut and run, at least yet. I'm confident that Diageo's share price will rebound strongly when consumer spending power recovers, driven by its packed portfolio of leading brands. The rise of 'teetotalism' in the West poses a threat to long-term revenues. Yet Diageo's huge emerging market exposure provides exceptional profits opportunities that may help to offset this. I'm also encouraged by Diageo's successful foray into the non-alcoholic market. European sales of its Guinness 0.0 variant doubled in the six months to December. I'm sure it has more tricks up its sleeve to capitalise on this fast-growing segment. Royston Wild owns shares in Diageo. What it does: Lloyds Banking Group is a UK retail bank and one of the country's biggest mortgage lenders By Alan Oscroft. I've held Lloyds Banking Group (LSE: LLOY) shares for more than a decade. I've learned a lesson from that: it's important to know when not to sell. One of those times is after bad news has hit the share price, because it's too late by then. Panic selling is almost never a winning strategy. I certainty wouldn't sell just because Lloyds has fallen as a result of President Trump's tariff war. The biggest threat I see is the car loan mis-selling case, currently with the Supreme Court. Lloyds has set aside £1,150m to cover potential costs, bit it's not clear if that will be enough. The fear isn't enough to make me want to sell, but I don't want to buy more right now. On the bright side, I see forecasts that could drop the Lloyds price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio to only seven by 2027. Will I hold Lloyds for another 10 years? Probably. Alan Oscroft has positions in Lloyds Banking Group Plc. The post 3 stocks Fools bought over 10 years ago and still hold appeared first on The Motley Fool UK. More reading 5 Stocks For Trying To Build Wealth After 50 One Top Growth Stock from the Motley Fool The Motley Fool UK has recommended Diageo Plc. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. Motley Fool UK 2025
