Meet Chitales Bandhu
INR 200cr business started as a small Indian sweets shop
Local business
INR 200cr business started as a small Indian sweets shop
Small businesses take time to grow. Initial years are about perfecting the product and winning the trust. Small business entrepreneurs do not aim to scale and grow fast in the beginning . They build businesses for the coming generations. Some common traits of such businesses are plainspeak, single location or few locations, demand being more than the supply, grows with the city.
Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale is one such small giant in Pune. It is Pune’s most famous sweets shop. They are famous for bakarwadis, mango barfis and numerous other food items. Two brothers Raghunath and Rajabhau started Chitale Bandhu in 1950s. At first they sold traditional sweets and snacks. Their focus was to produce best food. After 25 years they introduced bakarwadis, a Gujarati snack. They tweaked it to suit local preferences. It was the breakout product.
Third generation owners Govind and Shrikrishna shared the secret of success: “We all wanted to grow,” says Shrikrishna. “How to do it was different. We never had a target that we should make it a ₹500 crore business or so. Instead, we did it by kilogrammes (of goods sold).”
Success of Bakarwadi led to franchises, mass production using machines, and new ventures. Today, the fourth generation is capitalising on the hard work of its previous owners. It clocks an annual revenue of INR 200cr. Along with the other group businesses such as dairy, the total revenues cross INR 100cr. Today it exports food items to other countries. In 2017 it launched its first branding campaign. It presents a playbook for building long term local businesses.