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A third-generation family business, founded in Kerala in 1953.

Choice was founded in Kerala in 1953, processing and exporting canned shrimp, which is where the original name, Choice Canning, came from. Canning gave way to freezing, freezing to value-added production, and a single Kerala plant to an operation that spans India and the United States. It is still owned and run by the same family.

Seventy years

An archival photograph from the Choice Group's own collection.

The business began with canned shrimp shipped out of Kerala, which is where the first name, Choice Canning, came from. Canning gave way to freezing in the 1970s and to value-added production in 1990. The name outlasted the cans by decades.

From the Choice archive.

  • 1953Founded in Kerala, IndiaChoice begins as a family business in seafood processing and export, laying the foundation for decades of growth.
  • 1990sEarly innovation in shrimp processingFirst to implement Individually Quick Frozen (IQF) processes, helping set new standards for consistency and scale.
  • 1995Expansion into logisticsInternal logistics capabilities strengthen control over distribution and improve reliability for partners.
  • 2000sBuilding production at scaleThe processing footprint expands across India, with facilities designed for high-volume, consistent production.
  • 2000sEntering value-added productsThe business moves beyond raw seafood into prepared and value-added products for retail and foodservice.
  • 2007Launch of Tastee ChoiceA move into branded products, complementing the group’s private label work.
  • 2020sU.S. production expansionInvestment in United States production brings operations closer to key customers and end markets.
  • TodayA global production partnerOperating across India and the United States, supplying leading retailers with value-added seafood programmes.

The operating group

Four plants
in two countries.

Production sits close to the sourcing regions in India and close to the end markets in the United States. That is what lets the group hold a retail programme steady across a year.

Andhra Pradesh, India2 facilities
New Jersey, USA1 facility
Pennsylvania, USA1 facility
A production line running inside a Choice plant.
High-volume lines, built for consistent production rather than peak output.
Workers grading and sorting shrimp at Choice.
Grading and sorting by hand, which is where lot-level traceability starts.
Individually quick frozen shrimp, a Choice finished product.
Individually quick frozen shrimp — the process Choice brought to India first.

Supplied to

GiantAcmeShaw’sHannafordFood Lion

Standards held

BAPASCBRCGSHACCPSTF-aligned freedom of movement
Employees at a Choice processing facility in India.
Around 3,000 people work across the group’s facilities in India and the United States.

Beyond the business

Commitments beyond
the business.

Three commitments the group does not run for a return. All three predate most of what it does today.

4,000Students at the Choice SchoolsThree campuses and eight pre-schools in Kerala, grown from an intake of 43 in 1991. Set out in full below.
100MWSolar capacity under developmentPlanned renewable capacity, developed to carry the group’s own production load and to stand on its own economics.
24/7On-site medical supportWorker housing with free meals, sanitation and laundry, on-site nursing round the clock, and financial literacy and health education programmes across the facilities.

The schools

The commitment that was never an investment.

The Choice Foundation runs three schools and eight pre-schools in Kerala. They have never been held for a return, and the family has no intention of changing that. Jose Thomas opened the first one in 1991 and is the Foundation’s President today, alongside running the operating group.

The first school opened in Tripunithura in June 1991 with an intake of 43 students. It now teaches around 4,000 across three campuses, with roughly 500 educators.

A Choice School campus seen from the air.
The Kochi campus, the first of the three.
A nutrition lesson in a Choice School classroom.
Health is taught, not assumed — one of the three strands.
Students working on a robotic arm at a Choice School.
Around 500 educators teach roughly 4,000 students.

Where they are

KochiThe original campus at Tripunithura, with Kinderlands at Tripunithura, Girinagar, Parvana and Edappally.
ThiruvallaOpened in 2016, after the Chief Minister laid its foundation stone in January 2015. Kinderlands at Thiruvalla and Kottayam.
KozhikodeLaunched in December 2015. Kinderlands at Vellalassery and Chevayur.
01

Two curricula, not one

CBSE across all three campuses, and the International Baccalaureate — Primary Years, Middle Years and Diploma — at Kochi and Kozhikode. Boarding is available from Class 3.

02

Knowledge, Character, Health

The three strands the curriculum is built around, taught as one thing rather than as academics with activities bolted on. The Foundation’s President frames the output as four skills: critical thinking, collaboration, communication and creativity.

03

The 70/30 Programme

Outside practitioners teach inside the classroom, so that roughly a third of what a student meets comes from someone who does the work rather than from a textbook.

04

Young educators

A recruitment programme that brings early-career teachers to Kerala from around the world, which is unusual for a school group of this size and is deliberate.

The people who built the business are the people who invest it.

Who decides

People

The family and the
investment team.

The family has run Choice since 1953 and continues to run it. There is no committee between the operator and the capital.

Jose Thomas

Jose Thomas

Chief Executive Officer, Choice Foods

Has led Choice for close to fifty years, taking it from canned shrimp out of Kerala to a group operating across India and the United States. Founder of the Choice Schools, which began with 43 students and now teach around 4,000. Second generation.

Thomas Jose

Thomas Jose

Director, Global Operations

Runs operations across the group’s plants in India and the United States — production, quality systems and the traceability that the retail programmes are built on. Third generation.

Jacob Jose

Jacob Jose

Commercial Director, USA

Leads the commercial business in the United States, the group’s largest market: retail and foodservice partnerships, private label programmes and category development. Third generation.

Anna Jose

Anna Jose

Sales and Marketing

Sales and marketing across the group’s branded and private label programmes, including the Tastee Choice retail range. Third generation.

Karan Sood

Karan Sood

Director of Strategy and Investment

Over a decade in investment banking and corporate investing on Wall Street — healthcare investment banking at UBS and Citi, M&A and ventures at GE HealthCare and Thermo Fisher Scientific, on transactions worth more than $10 billion. MBA from the University of Rochester’s Simon Business School.

Contact

Talk
to us.

We look at a few things properly rather than many things quickly. Write to Karan directly — there is no form to fill in, and no intake team.

Where we are

KochiWhere Choice began in 1953, and where the schools are
BengaluruThe investment team
GIFT CityWhere the fund is registered with the IFSCA
New JerseyChoice Foods production and the US commercial business
New YorkThe investment team in the United States