What is the success story of Haldiram
The story of the Indian delicacy Bhujia, not just any bhujia, it’s The one and only “Haldiram Bhujia” which is not only famous in India but also made its name all over the world making India proud. Began in 1918 as a part-time hobby for extra income has today become a giant enterprise in the food industry in India generating close to ₹5,000 crores in annual revenues Starting its journey from a small namkeen shop in Bikaner (Rajasthan, India) to a multi-billion-dollar company.
Ganga Bhisan Agarwal aka Haldiram (fondly called by his family) started working for his father and selling Bhujia, using his aunt’s recipe. However, he left his family’s home due to disagreements with them. Haldiram opened his first shop in 1937 in Bikaner, where he started selling Bikaneri Bhujia, which he named after his birthplace. After a while, he added moth flour and reduced the thickness of the bhujia. These alterations happen to be the game-changer in the business making it the ubiquitous snack we today known as Haldiram’s bhujia. Sales increased after this change, and more people became interested.
Haldiram decided to open a shop in Kolkata after attending a wedding there, he decided to open a shop there. This was his first step in growing the business in Bikaneri Bhujia. There was no turning back after that. Haldiram as a family was joined by his sons and grandsons who expanded the business and took it to new heights and continued to work in the betterment and expansion of the business for which they keep on experimenting to improve the taste as per the customer’s demands.
Later, as the business grew to such heights, it started giving rise to disputes over territorial and trademark rights of the empire among the younger generation. As a result, Haldiram’s three sons Moolchand, Rameshwar Lal, and Satidas, and their sons work under different names like Haldiram & Sons, Bikaji Haldiram’s Nagpur, Haldiram Bhujiawala, etc. After expanding to Nagpur and Delhi, Haldiram’s started setting up restaurants in major cities of India as well as foreign countries. Among Kolkata, Nagpur, and Delhi, Delhi emerged as the largest. This multi-billion-dollar brand had earned the Most trusted brand industry certification in the year 2003.
Today there is a range of Haldiram products such as sweets, cookies, pickles, namkeens, western snacks, Bhujia, etc. The pricing of Haldiram products is so pocket-friendly that its products are marketed at various retail locations such as bakeries and cake shops, among others, and various shopping sites. Various stores throughout the globe also market these products as their products are very popular among the Indian diaspora.
Haldiram attributes its tremendous success to the following factors:
- A traditional recipe is guarded and passed down through generations
- Family-led supervise manufacturing units
- Family’s rigid control over company’s operations
- Business guarded against short-lived market trends.
- Each key position in the company is given to the accordingly groomed family member.
Stores, showrooms, and restaurants of Haldiram can be found mostly in India’s northern, western, and eastern regions. The north is home to a variety of Haldiram snacks and ethnic food markets. In the eastern states of India, Haldiram Bhujiavala handles sales. The Haldiram Foods International restaurant in Nagpur serves both Eastern and Southern cuisine. However, the company has a weak presence in the southern states. The problem remains unresolved despite repeated efforts.
Market Strategies:
Haldiram in its initial days never invested in advertising and marketing for expanding its brand. They already had enough business from customer retention and word of mouth. But, in today’s intensely competitive market, they realized the importance of advertisement and marketing to sustain their brand in the market as there are various competitors and they have to keep up with the new trends and preferences of the customer in the market, also retain their attention on the brand. In the process of creating brand awareness through marketing and advertisement Haldiram’s have done numerous collaborations, few of them are:
Haldiram’s entered into an exclusive master franchise partnership with French bakery café Brioche Dorée, the world’s second-largest bakery chain because of which for the first time, the Brioche Dorée cafes only served vegetarian food.
In 2015, Haldiram tied up with a Bollywood movie, “Prem Ratan Dhan Payo” and launched a contest for promotions through which they distributed 1.5 crores of snacks.
Haldiram’s, one of India’s biggest brands, began with Bhujia and ended up setting up a multi-billion-dollar company. Over the years, the company has grown at an incredible rate and there’s no sign of slowing down. The future is bright for this amazing company.
Author: Nikita Sharma
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