Software company executive gets taste of food business.

Sudipta K. "Basu," Ghosh, the president of Calabasas-based software consulting firm, Omnikron Systems Inc., is about to launch another business endeavor, one that has nothing to do with the world of computers. Along with his son, Robin Ghosh, Basu Ghosh has his heart set out on being the Omaha Steaks of Indian cuisine, as he has founded Basu's Homestyle Indian Cuisine, a new Calabasas-based company that aims to deliver frozen and delicious traditional Indian delicacies direct to its customer's homes.

A long-time cooking enthusiast, Ghosh had long entertained the idea of opening an Indian food restaurant and had even gone as far to be a passive investor in several other people's restaurants ventures. Yet despite running his successful concept company, Ghosh never got over the idea of serving his home-cooked meals that had garnered raves from his friends and family.

"At first, I decided to just go ahead and open a restaurant, but I soon realized that the most important thing about running one was about paying attention to minute details. I'm more of a concept guy and I soon realized that I wouldn't enjoy the grind of the day-to-day challenge. So about a year and half ago, I decided to go with selling frozen foods."

Initially, Ghosh considered making frozen dinners and placing them in upscale markets such as Whole Foods and Bristol Farms, but Ghosh realized that consumers who bought frozen dinners were generally more interested in price point than quality. Knowing that he couldn't compete with companies like Lean Cuisine that sold frozen meals for $3 a pop, Ghosh settled on the idea of marketing the frozen meals directly to customers homes.

"My original goal was to create a set of recipes and products to be sold frozen to the consumers. The core proposition was to make food as good if you came to my house and I had cooked for them," Ghosh said. "It was tough at first to translate the home cooking to large scale preparation being done at the factory. But after a year and a half of product testing, we're certain that we've gotten it down perfect."

Throughout the entire process, Ghosh relied heavily on his son, Robin (Basu's Homestyle's director of operations), who had formerly been employed at Omnikron. Though Robin Ghosh had been dissatisfied at Omnikron, the elder Ghosh claims that this project has been a much better experience for both of them.

"From day one, Robin has taken a keen interest in the business and has become my go-to-man. He works on all parts of the business, including dealing with the manufacturer, the product designers and our website," Ghosh said. "We work in tandem. I've really been enjoying the experience and he's made the business happen. It's been a blessing to work with my son and build a business together from scratch. I hope that one day, he will completely take over and run it all by himself."

After a year and half process of getting the recipes down pat and developing a client base to sell to, Basu's Homestyle is preparing to launch at the beginning of January. Ghosh claims that the company already has hundreds of customers ready to receive the deliveries.

Hew Market for Snore-Stop

After having a great deal of success with marketing its Snore-Stop snoring cure to humans, Westlake Village-based Green Pharmaceutical Inc., is making a run toward the canine world, as it has recently begun marketing Snore Stop for pets.

"We decided to sell the product because of demand from our customers. We've been selling the product for humans for almost 10 years but lately we've begun to receive calls from customers saying that the product cured their spouse's snoring problem, but now they can hear the dog's snoring problem, Christian de Rivel, the company's vice president of sales and marketing said. "They asked if we could make a product for their dogs and when we got more and more of these inquiries, we decided to fill the need in the marketplace."

The product began shipping just last month and it already has gotten placement in prominent national retailers like Petco. According to Rivel, the product didn't take long to develop, just approximately three months as the company primarily just tweaked the traditional Snore Stop formula.

"We kept most of the main active ingredients but changed our inactive ingredient. Our traditional formula has alcohol in it, but we had to take it out for pets. We also had sugar for humans which we do not have for pets," de Rivel said.

Rivel also added that big plans are in the works for the company that made a name for itself by paying over $37,000 in cash to advertise its product on a college student's forehead for a month.

"It's our 10th anniversary and we really want to connect deeply with America. Our marketing plans are going to involve the 50 states, one after another to really connect with the people like a presidential campaign," Rivel said. "After 10 years in business, we want to meet people face to face instead of through media, ads and publicity. It's going to be a very good thing."

Great American Accounts

Woodland Hills-based asset management firm, Great American Group has recently landed some major deals to liquidate the assets of several large companies. Most notably the firm has inked a contract to liquidate the venerable aviation firm, Wyoming-based Hawkins & Powers Inc.

According to GAP, the total liquidation has a valuation in the multi-millions, as the company is selling H&P's extensive collection of vintage aircraft, engines, parts and ground support materials.

"The G&P deal was a good-sized deal for us. It's a very old and well-known company," Mark Weitz, the president of GAP's wholesale and industrial services, division said. ""To our knowledge, it is the single largest and most unique collection of this type of vintage aircraft. There are some flight-ready and some non-flight ready planes and we expect many of the pieces to wind up in museums. The liquidation is ongoing and it's going to continue over the next several months."

But H&P is not the only major account that the company has landed of late. Additionally, GAP is liquidating many Mervyn's stores that are slated for closure.