The Company
In 1961, Deccan Achaar opened as a single pickle store in Hyderabad. Sixty-five years on, it's a multi-store retail operation with a loyal local following and a growing export base spanning the UK, the Middle East, the US, Australia, and Canada. The business is now run by its second generation, led by CEO Sadeq Bin Mahfooz.
Today, the company produces around 25 varieties of pickles with mango, lime, and vegetable as its signature lines, processing more than 50,000kgs across two manufacturing units. It runs five retail stores with more than 150 SKUs, a fast-expanding distribution business with international exports, and an online store, with around 150 employees in total.
The challenge
For years, Deccan Achaar ran its retail counters on a local point-of-sale application, with accounting handled in a separate system. As the business grew, this setup became a serious liability.
Inventory was unreliable. Stock counts drifted into negative numbers and never reconciled; the POS vendor was unable to fix it. "Inventory is the backbone of our business," said Asif Hashmi, business development & operations manager. "Without accurate numbers, the team couldn't tell what had sold or what remained."
Support was effectively absent. Glitches on the POS application took a week or more to address, as the original developer had reportedly left, leaving no one to maintain the system.
Downtime hit sales directly. When the POS system failed, billing stopped and the customers were left waiting at the counter. Therefore, the occasional downtime hits revenue and customer experience directly due to lack of proper support.
Manual workarounds were expensive. Every store needed two or three people just to count and track inventory by hand (roughly 10–15 across all stores).
Data was fragmented. There was no consolidated visibility across stores for leadership. Each store's data lived on its own, disconnected from accounting and from every other store.
The company needed one dependable ERP built for food businesses that could support aggressive retail and distribution expansion—and was backed by support that responds.
The solution: Zoho ERP
The recommendation came from experience. Hashmi used Zoho Creator at a previous company in the US back in 2016, and when he saw that Zoho had launched an ERP, he took it to CEO Sadeq Bin Mahfooz. The team was already weighing other local ERP options, but chose Zoho for its ease of use and global track record.
The rollout was handled directly by Zoho's implementation team. Phase 1 covered retail and distribution, and went live in roughly three months, including about two months of testing, within the agreed timeframe.
This implementation brought together:
POS systems across all five stores.
More than 150 SKUs were migrated with inventory management and valuation.
An online store built on Zoho ERP for website and wholesale orders
Purchase orders, vendor-management workflows, and payments
A single system interface connected across multiple warehouses and store locations
Centralized and standardized HR and payroll across the organization
All of this now runs from one connected platform spanning Deccan Achaar's warehouses and retail locations—replacing the fragmented POS and accounting setup that had held the business back.
"You don’t need to be highly technical to use Zoho ERP. Many people in our organization aren’t, but once you show them how, anyone can use it — it’s very friendly for everyone."
Asif Hashmi
Business Development & Operations Manager, Deccan Achaar India
Benefits & ROI
Overall, the company estimates the switch to Zoho ERP cut operational errors by 60%. Employees who once only knew how to punch numbers into a legacy system now work fully within the ERP—a capability the company sees as essential as it scales.
Zoho ERP enabled Deccan Achaar to:
Achieve real-time inventory accuracy: Live stock updates and expiry alerts cut write-offs by 30%.
Free 2,500+ work hours monthly: Manual stock counting was eliminated, letting staff reskill for higher-value operations.
Tighten cash control: The POS wont close a register until the exact cash amount is entered, tightening cash handling and closing revenue and billing gaps.
Simplify HR and payroll: Automated payroll and HR management, auto-calculated LOP, and digital payslips delivered via the mobile app.
Gain access to faster customer support: Issues that once took a week or more to be addressed are now resolved remotely in minutes.
Reduce operational errors by 60%: Staff moved from a legacy till and now confidently work on a full ERP, a key capability as the company scales.
Looking Ahead
With retail and distribution live, Deccan Achaar is preparing Phase 2: bringing its two manufacturing units onto Zoho ERP as it scales production with fully automated machines, and pushes deeper into Indian states and overseas markets.
The company expects the platform to remain its operational backbone as it grows, extending into manufacturing reporting, profit-and-loss visibility per unit and per outlet, and its widening distribution network.
