Haldiram

By: Ravi Gera( MBA)

 HALDIRAM NAMKEEM
History
Haldiram began as a tiny shop in Bikaner In 1937, Ganga Bishen Agarwal,
(popularly known as Haldiram), opened a small sweet shop in Bikaner, a
smalldistrict in Rajasthan. Bikaner had a large number of sweet shops selling
sweets as well as namkeens. 'Bhujia sev,' a saltysnack prepared by Ganga Bishen,
Bis
was very popular among the residents of Bikaner and was also purchased by
tourists coming to Bikaner.

In 1941, the name 'Haldiram's Bhujiawala'was used for the first time.
In 1950, Prabhu Shankar Agarwal (Prabhu), along with hisfather Rameshwar Lal
Agarwal (son of Ganga Bishen)
Bishen), expanded the business by establishing a small
manufacturing unit for sweets and namkeens in Kolkata. The success of this unit
motivated Prabhu to upgrade its machinery to improve the quality of its products.
As demand for Haldiram's
diram's products increased, it was decided to scale up the
company's manufacturing and distribution activities.

In 1970, a large manufacturing unit was set up in Nagpur in the state of

Maharashtra (India). In 1983, a retail outlet was set up in New Delhi. The outlet
became very popular not only among the Delhiites but also among tourists visiting
Delhi.

Haldiram's was able to achieve significant growth during the 1980s and 1990s. In
1992, a manufacturing unit with a retail outlet attached to it was set up in the
outskirts of Delhi. A year later, Haldiram's syrups and crushes were successfully
launched in the Indian market. In 1995, a restaurant was opened in New Delhi. In
1997, realizing the potential of namkeens, the company set up a manufacturing unit
in Delhi exclusively for making namkeens
namkeens.

Over a period spanning 65 years, the Haldiram's Group (Haldiram's) had emerged
as a household name for ready
ready-to-eat
eat snack foods in India. It had come a long way
since its relatively humble beginning in 1937 as a small time sweet shop in
Bikaner, Rajasthan. In2001, the turnover of the Haldiram's was Rs.400 Crore and
approx rs1500 crore in 2008
2008-09.. The group had presence not only in India but in
several countries all over the world.
Product range
 Namkeens
 Sherbats
 Cookies
 Papad
 Pani-puri
 Bhel-puri
 Sweets
 Taka-tak
 Chips

Few firsts by Haldiram

a. It was the first company in India to brand 'namkeens‘.
b. The group also pioneered new ways of packaging namkeens.
c. Its packaging techniques increased the shelf life of namkeens from less
than a week to more than six months.
d. It was also one of the first companies in India to open a restaurant in New
Delhi offering traditional Indian snack fooditems such aass "panipuri,"
"chatpapri," and so on, which catered to the needs of hygiene conscious
non-resident
resident Indians and other foreig
foreign customers.
Exports
Haldiram’s exports have been growing at the rate of 40% for the past five years
and the company clocked an annual export turnover of Rs.200 crores.
Company is very particular about their quality and hygiene and hence it meets the
standards set by FDA, USA and Safety act, U.K. Every raw material undergoes
rigorous testing.
The company has won many awards like Brand Equity award, Successful Brand
award and was conferred the International Food Award. By the Trofeo
International
nal Alimentacion of Barcelona for its quality
quality.

Major export markets are--

North America
South America
Western Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Asia
Southeast Asia
Middle East
Africa
Oceania
Sector
The size of the packaged food market in India is estimated at $10 billion and is
expected to reach $20 billion by 2014, while the share of packaged food in the
food and grocery market is expected to touch 5 per cent by the same time.

Factors that have fuelled this industry’s growth are the arrival of foo
foodd
multinationals, rising popularity of quick
quick-service
service restaurants, modern retail trade,
technological advancement, changing urban lifestyles and so on.

The main categories of packaged food are bakery products, canned/dried processed
food, frozen processed food,
ood, meal replacement products and condiments. Some
emerging new categories in this segment are processed dairy products, frozen
ready-to-eat
eat foods, diet snacks, processed meat, probiotic drinks and so on.

Some key players in this industry are Hindustan Un Unilever

ilever (tea, instant coffee,
biscuits, pulses, instant beverages), Nestle (instant coffee, milk and milk products,
ready-to-eat
eat foods), PepsiCo (aerated drinks, fruit juices, cereals, snacks) and
Haldirams (sweets, namkeens, syrups, crushes, snacks).

In this
is report we will stress on Indian package snacks and sweets because Haldiram
mainly deals with exports of Indian packaged snacks and sweets.

In this product category Haldiram has 3 major competitors-

1. Bikaji
Established in 1987 as shivdeep food products the company has products
like bhujia, soan papdi, cornflakes chivda etc.
2. Lehar by Pepsico. was launched in 1996 , Innovated through small packs
and new traditional Flavours. Was built on communication, irresistible taste
and modern imagery .

Lehar was re-launched

launched in 2006 and positioned on the plank of "Taste zyaada
kyonki oil taza" with a promise to deliver good taste through the use of fresh
oil in manufacturing.
 3. Local sweet shops which do not have pan-India presence they do have good
goo
hold in areas around them. Eg
Eg- Jhama in Navi Mumbai and Tip Top in
Thane.
Push
ush and pull strategy
Haldiram has used both of above mentioned strategies to increase in sales and
become a dominant player in the market, however it has always been more inclined
towards push strategy.

Push

Push can be defined as promotional strategy makes use of a company's sales force
and trade promotion activities to create consumer demand for a product.

The producer promotes the product to wholesalers, the wholesalers promote it to

retailers, and the retailers promote it to consumers.

Haldiram has used both of above mentioned strategies to increase in sales and
become a dominant player in the market, however it has always been more inclined
towards push strategy.

Haldiram's developed a strong distribution network to ensure the widest possible

reach for its products in India as well as overseas. From the manufacturing unit, the
company's finished goods were passed on to carrying and forwarding (C&F)
agents. C&F agents passed on the pro products
ducts to distributors, who shipped them to
retail outlets. While the Delhi unit of Haldiram's had 25 C&F agents and 700
distributors in India, the Nagpur unit had 25 C&F agents and 375 distributors.

Haldiram's also had 35 sole distributors in the internati

international
onal market. The Delhi and
Nagpur units together catered to 0.6 million retail outlets in India. C&F agents
received a commission of around 5%, while distributors earned margins ranging
from 8% to 10%. The retail outlets earned margins ranging from 14% to 30%. At
the retail outlet level, margins varied according to the weight of packs sold.

Retailers earned more margins ranging from 25% to 30% by selling 30 gms
pouches (priced at Rs.5) compared to the packs of higher weights. Apart from the
exclusive showroomsoms owned by Haldiram's, the company offered its products
through retail outlets such as supermarkets, sweet shops, provision stores, bakeries
and ice cream parlors. The products were also available in public places such as
railway stations and bus station
stationss that accounted for a sizeable amount of its sales.

Haldiram's products enjoyed phenomenal goodwill and stockists competed with

each other to stock its products. Moreover, sweet shops and bakeries stocked
Haldiram's products despite the fact that the comp
company's
any's products were competing
with their own products.

Haldiram's also offered its products through the Internet. The company tied up
with indiatimes.com,, a website owned by the Times of India group8 to sell its
products over the Internet. Haldiram's products could be ordered through a host of
other websites in India and abroad.
Giftstoindia.com, giftssmashhits.com, tohfatoindia.com and channelindia.com
enabled people residing abroad to send Haldiram's gift packs to specified locations
in India. Region-specific
specific websites enabled people to send gifts to specified regions.
These include indiamart.com (Delhi and surrounding areas),
mumbaiflowersgifts.com
ersgifts.com (Mumbai), and chennaiflowersgifts.com (Chennai and
other parts of Tamilnadu). These websites competed on issues such as delivery
time, which varied between 48 hrs to one week, delivery charges (some websites
offered free delivery of products) and value added services (like sending personal
messages along with the gift packs).

Although haldiram
ram has undertaken promotional activity but none has been on such
scale.

Pull

Pull can be defined as g strategy is one that requires high spending on advertising
adv
and consumer promotion to build up consumer demand for a product.

If the strategy is successful, consumers will ask their retailers for the product, the
retailers will ask the wholesalers, and the wholesalers will ask the producers
Haldiram's product promotion had been low key until competition intensified in the
snack foods market. The company tied with 'Profile Advertising'9 for promoting
promoti its
products. Consequently, attractive posters, brochures and mailers were designed to
enhance the visibility of the Haldiram's brand.
Different varieties of posters were designed to appeal to the masses. The punch
line for Haldiram's products was, 'Alw
'Always
ays in good taste.' Advertisements depicting
the entire range of Haldiram's sweets and namkeens were published in the print
media (magazines and newspapers). These advertisements had captions such as
'millions of tongues can't go wrong,' 'What are you wait waiting
ing for, Diwali?' and
'Keeping your taste buds on their toes.'

To increase the visibility of the Haldiram's brand, the company placed its
hoardings in high traffic areas such as train stations and bus stations. Posters were
designed for display on public ttransport
ransport vehicles such as buses, and hoardings,
focused on individual products were developed. Captions such as 'yeh corn hain'
(this is corn), 'chota samosa - big mazaa' (small samosa10- big entertainment), 'yeh
Kashmiri mix khoob jamega' (this namkeen item will gel well) and 'oozing with
taste' (for Rasgoolas) promoted individual products. To increase the visibility of
the Haldiram's brand, the company placed its hoardings in high traffic areas such
as train stations and bus stations. Posters were designed for display on public
transport vehicles such as buses, and hoardings, focused on individual products
were developed. Captions such as 'yeh cocorn
rn hain' (this is corn), 'chota samosa - big
10
mazaa' (small samosa - big entertainment), 'yeh Kashmiri mix khoob jamega' (this
namkeen item will gel well) and 'oozing with taste' (for Rasgoolas) promoted
individual products.

Conclusion
Haldiram is a renowned name in branded Indian packaged food industry. Company
is a leading player in India and also reaches out to its patrons across the globe.

The company has been growing at a phenomenal rate and has achieved great
success due its high quality and tasty packaged Indian snacks and namkeens.