In the heart of challenges, they found opportunities and with unwavering determination, their success story began. When the hero of our story named Chandubhai Virani was born in 1957, in a farmer family in Doraji Jamnagar, Gujarat. The father of Chandubhai Virani was farmer name Mr Popatbhai Virani and the mother of Chandubhai Virani was Mrs. Jayantibhai Virani. Their parents had two other sons along with Chandubhai Virani named Mr. Bikubhai Virani and Mr. Meghjibhai Virani.
Popatbhai Virani and his three sons usually works on the field and they lived their life with the money of farming. But once there was draught and there was the shortage of water and due to this the whole crop was totally destroyed. Mr Popatbhai Virani decided to sale his land and he sold it in Rs 20,000. This was the era of 1972 and he gave this money to is sons and he adviced them to start a business of Fertilizers and Farm Implements. The three brothers accepted the advice their of father and they started a business of Fertilizers and Farm Implements but their was problem this business was very new to them and their business was shutdown and their money was flushed, but they never give up and they knew tat nothing was left in the village. so they decided to move to Rajkot with their family.
In Rajkot these brothers opened a mess for college students but their faith wanted to give something else. After sometime this mess was closed and this business was also flopped. Then they decided to work in a theater in Rajkot named Astron. In this theater Chandubhai Virani worked as a gatekeeper and other two brothers worked as a cleaner and on a ticket counter. The brothers worked very hard and with their dedication and as a result in 1976 the owner of the theater gave them the Contact of Canteen.
Their was a big question around the Virani brothers was what snacks or beverages should they sell. Which snack has the high demand during the Interval of the film. At start they sold sandwiches but sandwiches could not be stored due to this they had regular losses. The sandwiches that were not be sold were also spoiled. So they came with a solution to sell chips instead of sandwiches. At starting period they bought chips from different venders and sold it in theater but sometimes vender were not able to deliver chips on interval time and due to this their whole business day was ruined. The idea of selling chips was profitable but due to the vender it changes into loss.
So after regular mistakes of venders Chandubhai Virani decided to make chips by himself. So first he rented a room where he made the chips and brought them to theater for selling. The chips were made by Chandubhai Virani himself. Which helps in the improvement of chips and it helps in increase in demand in theater and ultimately it helps in increase of profits. When the demand of chips was increasing Chnadubhai taught his brothers ‘how to make chips?’ At starting their were some difficulties because their brother doesn’t had dome this type of work. After sometime these three brothers were making chips. The chips were named “Balaji Wafers.”
Now they were selling chips in theater but also to local shops also. In short spam of time Balaji Wafers gained popularity and the demand was also increasing. After analyzing the demand Chandubhai bought a Moppet and he delivered chips to remote shopkeepers. After some days in Rajkot more than 30+ shopkeepers were buying Balaji Wafers.
To expand their business Chandubhai decided to setup a factory. In 1989 he arranged a bank loan of about 50 lakhs and opened Gujarat’s biggest potato wafers plant. It helps in the production and they target new customers. In 1995 the company changed it’s name from Balaji to Balaji Private Limited Company. In year 2000 Balaji Wafers have taken control over 90% of potato chips market share in Gujarat. After Gujarat Balaji Wafers expanded in the cities like Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Goa nad Madhya Pradesh with market share of 65%.Along with chips Balaji also sell Salted Snacks like Auloo Bhujia, Mumbaiya Mix etc. India’s Salted Snack Market is Rs.43,000 crore Balaji has a market share of 12% and it is the third largest player in the market with current rivals like Haldiram with 21% share and Pepsi Co. with 15% share.
Their is a interesting fact that most of F.M.G.Cs companies spend around 8-9% Annual Sales in marketing and advertisement but Balaji Pvt. Ltd. spend less then 2% of their Annual Sales.
In Economics Times interview Chandubhai Virani told that “I never have a competition with my rivals when it’s comes to pricing.” because their prices are very less. Balaji Pvt. Ltd. doesn’t even set a sales target because their main focus is to fulfill the demand of affordable price and high quality products. This statement of Chandubhai Virani is 100% correct because a company doesn’t survive with only one product and he knows it very carefully that’s why Balaji have:-
23 Namkeen Products 12 Wafers Products 12 Western Products The material cost of Balaji Products is around 78% of the total cost. The average material of this industry in only 65%. The quality of any products of Balaji is 13% more compared to other companies. After giving more quantity still the profit margin of Balaji is 10-12% by cutting off in other expenses. In Balaji they make new commodity in every 15 days and they sell it all of them where the other companies took minimum 25 days.
The marketing ways of Balaji is also very interesting which heps to gain more popularity. They targeted their biggest rivals Lays by trolling them for having more Air. So they took advantage of this troll and came up with the slogan “Hava Kam, Wafers Jada Or Flavor’s Waha-Waha.” So a competitor company tried to buy Balaji as it know the popularity of Balaji and offered Rs.4,000 crore but Chandubhai Virani rejected the offer by saying “My business is like my child and I would never deal my child.” It was the time when the sales of Balaji was 1 Thousand crore. It is still unknown that who the competitor who offered the money.
This is the dedication, hard work which shows that in F.Y 23 (Financial Year 23) Balaji Wafers achieves a milestone with annual sales surpassing I.N.R 5,000 crore which is 24% more that in F.Y 22. Balaji managed to achieve a net profit of Rs. 409 crore in F.Y 23, a significant increase from Rs.7.2 crore in previous year.
“As the sun set on their journey, success became not just a destination but a testament to resilience, hard work and the power of dream fulfilled.”
+ There are no comments
Add yours