Behind Haldiram’s Lip-smacking Success

Behind Haldiram’s Lip-smacking Success

Sanjib Dutta

In early 2019, popular press covered a news item that Kellogg’s, the global leader in food manufacturing was in talks to buy a stake in Haldiram’s, the Indian sweets and snacks manufacturer and valued it at $3billion. Although the talks didn’t go through, it endorsed the brand value Haldiram’s had built over the years based on a rock solid foundation created by its founder Shri Ganga Bhishan Agarwal.

In 2017, Haldiram’s became the largest snack company in India ahead of local and international players such as PepsiCo, Balaji, Pratap Snacks. It had sales of INR 4,224 Cr. in a market valued at ~INR 22,000 Cr. By 2019, the overall snacks market in India was valued at ~INR 27,000 Cr. and Haldiram’s was expected to close FY2020 with sales of ~INR 5000 Cr.

So what makes Haldiram’s such a lip-smacking brand that even international food biggies are trying to grab a bite of it? Haldiram’s focused on innovation right from the time the brand was born. The iconic Haldiram’s bhujia had gone through many changes in its shape and size. The company’s product innovation along with smart marketing created Haldiram’s bhujia as it is known today. Haldiram’s also displayed a global mindset. After establishing its presence in India, Haldiram’s eyed international markets such as US, Canada, UK, Thailand, UAE, and Sri Lanka with had strong Indian diaspora. It also grabbed shelf space in internationally renowned supermarkets such as Tesco and Carrefour.

Throughout its expansion, Haldiram’s stuck to its core competency of providing Indian taste. It also focused on attractive packaging and used technology to provide snacks in nitrogen-filled pouches which increased the shelf life of the snacks. The company also used a Carrying and Forward (C&F) agent network to distribute its products. It had a comfortable net profit margin of 8-10%.

The future of Haldiram’s looks promising. It is taking bold decisions such as partnering with startups to incubate in the consumer food space. It is also hiring professionals from industry to play a bigger role in the company which had otherwise been a family-owned business. This will go a long way in scaling up in future.

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