Bhujia Barons by  Pavitra Kumar;  Published by Penguin Portfolio ; Pages 157; Price Rs.399/-

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   Pavitra Kumar was born in Deolali, Maharashtra, in 1985. She completed her undergraduate degree in journalism from Delhi University in 2003 before a short stint with CNN-IBN in Delhi.  Pavitra  pursued  a career in marketing and worked for digital marketing agencies in management roles. At the same time, her love for writing pushed her to freelance writing.She completed her MBA from the Carlson Institute of Management.

Quite literally the 1984 November riots-- following the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi-- gutted the “Haldiram “ establishment in Chandni Chowk in the national capital .One of the brothers Manohar saw everything that he had ever worked for, everything he had ever saved up, was right there, in those two small floors above the Sikh baker’s shop. His security and the future of his children were fast evaporating into a dark and sooty sky. But like the proverbial phoenix Haldiram re-emerged.

This book recounts  the fortunes of the Agarwal family from Rajasthan’s Marwar region, which took a fistful of bhujia — the roadside snack that’s sold by the bhori in Bikaner’s bazaars — infused it with three generations of toil, and has today built a processed foods business empire under the Haldiram’s brand that is valued, by some estimates, at Rs. 6,500 crore.

The volume  is  a chronicle of a homegrown ‘family business’  pickled in conservatism and  laced with an extra-strong masala flavour. It relates to a breakaway strand of the family, based in Kolkata, about whom the rest of the khandan, which built its bhujia base in Bikaner, Nagpur and Delhi, can only speak in hushed tones.

The origin was  during the time of Ganga Bhishen Agarwal (who was endearingly nicknamed ‘Haldiram’ by his mother, and who would later provide the group’s brand identity) that the ‘product differentiation’ occurred .Building on a bhujia sev recipe proffered by an aunt, a young Haldiram, married by age 10 and already immersed in the trade, experimented with spices and flavours and arrived at a formulation that set “Haldiram’s bhujia” apart in the crowded marketplace of Bikaner’s snack-vendors. 

The Haldiram family business started when patriarch Haldiram began making and selling a new snack—bhujia—to locals in Bikaner, Rajasthan, in 1918.He transformed a local snack into a national product by insisting on  high  quality, customer  friendliness , packaging and branding long before such concepts were heard of. The shelf life of bhujia was enlarged from six days to six months.The company radically changed customer preferences which was beyond learger brands.

 All was not well in the beginning  and the  family did indulge in tussles  redolent of fratricidal wars. It was not  inter-personal disagreements  as much as on business philosophical differences. The expansion of the Haldiram’s empire from small-town Bikaner to, first, Kolkata and, later, to Nagpur and Delhi, battling formidable headwinds, is a breathless case study of old-school family business,  giving way to a gradual professionalisation.

At  the centenary of its founding, the Haldiram’s empire is poised for the next phase of expansion, under a young generation of Agarwals who, for the first time, come equipped with international business accreditation.

Kumar does a competent job of chronicling these twists and turns, and her boots-on-the-ground reportage is illuminating.  Haldiram’s empire has revenue much greater than that of McDonald’s and Domino’s combined.

Haldiram’s –– has a history replete with ingredients worthy of a potboiler movie script; underdog hero, dizzying success, murder, intrigue, and a long-winded, high-decibel family feud that’s been playing out in the courts for nearly three decades.

 The book is full of interesting anecdotes .The most interesting is the story of ‘Bikhi bua’, who first introduced Haldiram and his brothers to the snack.While everybody loved the tasty snack, it was Haldiram who turned it into a lucrative business. She never received credit for it, but it was Bikhi bua who first sowed the seeds of bhujia in the Haldiram family.The initial sales were slow. However, Haldiram changed the game by innovating with ingredients. This changed the fortunes of the family and was just the beginning of the boom. The  bhujia was named  ‘Dungar Sev’ after the maharaja of Bikaner to differentiate it from others and create a brand. It could also be seen as an attempt to make the customer feel adequately royal when having this special bhujia. The Indian snack industry had stepped into  the world of branding.

 “Let your senses guide you” is the secret sauce of the Haldiram clan. The family’s “art of picking and blending the spices”, coupled with the uncanny wisdom of recognising just the right flavours, has been passed down the generations. Mixing, testing and tasting spices comes naturally to the Agarwals.

 There is not enough information on how competition has eaten into Haldiram’s business and the impact on the brand post the USFDA (United States Food and Drug Administration) labelling it unfit for sale in the US.

Over the years, Haldiram’s has garnered its fair share of the press. From tracing the incredible journey of its precocious founder Gangabhisan Aggarwal a.k.a. Haldiram in Bikaner, right through to the media blitzkrieg that was unleashed following the murder of a tea stall owner, for which Prabhu Aggarwal, the current scion of the Kolkata wing of the family, was sentenced to life behind the bars; the brand has been witness to both the good and the ugly of being in the spotlight.

 A hard toil and booming demand help Haldiram and his three sons scale up the venture from a small-time stall to a business that churns out 100-200 kilos of bhujias a week by the 1940s and 50s, with the prices shooting up from 2 paise a kilo to a handsome 25 paise! A chance visit to a Kolkata wedding prompts Haldiram to branch out into that ancient city. But it is familial pressure  rather than strategic vision that nudges grandson Shiv Kishan to set up shop in Nagpur, where Haldiram’s expands its snacks and sweets menu .

There is  black sheep of the family, Prabhu Shankar, who literally bulldozes his way through Kolkata and is sentenced to jail after an alleged attempt to take out a ‘supari’ on a tea stall owner

Aggarwal  under its fold has  today nearly 500 products sold under an array of brand names, several quick service restaurants, an e-commerce portal that’s on anvil and ambitious plans for expansion across categories such as frozen food and healthy snacks.
  Can Haldiram’s survive the onslaught of intense competition from MNCs and a new breed of local players that are breathing down its neck?.

The brand name is used by three completely independent businesses run by Haldiram’s grandsons namely Haldiram’s Nagpur, Haldiram Bhujiawala, Haldiram’s Prabhuji and Haldiram in Kolkata; and the best known Haldiram in Delhi.

 These are ordinary men who have achieved extraordinary feats. 

P.P.Ramachandran.

06/ 11 / / 2016