balaji wafers (chandubhai virani )

Presented by – Singam Nishant Class – Achievers

Roll No - 3439

Company profileType – Private Limited Founded – 1976Headquarter- Rajkot ,GujratRevenue- 1000 croreNo of Employee- 1500

Key People

Chandubhai, Bhikhubhai, & Kanubhai Virani

About Chandubhai Virani

• Chandubhai Virani was born on the 31st of January, 1957 to a farmer named Popatbhai Virani in a small village of 2000 residents named Dhun-Dhoraji in Jamnagar, Gujarat. His family consists of three brothers – Bhikhubhai, Kanubhai and Meghjibhai and has two children.

• Very down to earth person amongst the brothers and prefers to lead a simple life with a low profile. One may often find him wearing a simple white & green checked shirt to his office, where the walls are covered with pictures of his father, his gurus, Swami Vivekananda and a statue of Lord Hanuman with a background depicting the bridge which the vaanar sena (army of monkey’s) had built to take Lord Shri Ram to Lanka.

• Chandubhai prefers spending time in the middle of Nature’s beauty which often begins and ends at their farmhouse.

Early Life of Chandubhai Virani

• His story dates back to 1972! Rains were scarce and farming was becoming tougher with every passing day. Looking at the worsening conditions, his father sold of their ancestral agricultural land and gave INR 20,000 to the brothers and asked them to go and do business with it.

• They migrated to Rajkot and as they belonged from an agricultural background, they decided to start a business of fertilizers and farm implements. Unfortunately due to lack of knowledge and experience; someone supplied them duplicate fertilizers and they lost all their money!

• They migrated to Rajkot and as they belonged from an agricultural background, they decided to start a business of fertilizers and farm implements. Unfortunately due to lack of knowledge and experience; someone supplied them duplicate fertilizers and they lost all their money!

Early Life of Chandubhai Virani• Looking at their commendable efforts; Govindbhai – the cinema

owner, handed over the canteen to them on contract basis in 1976.

• Even though they had job in canteen they did other jobs like managing ticket counter and filling in for doorkeeper

• They use to buy other local brand or loose wafers and packet them.

Turning Point• The turning point came was in 1982 when they started making

their own chips and wafers with just 1 tawa.• Expanding these idea they decided to sell their wafers to other

shops

Introduction of Brand• 1976 time when they first coined their brand “Balaji”• They had to wander shop to shop to sell their wafers.More

difficult part for them was to collect money from shopkeepers.They were treated as beggers.

• .From 1 shopkeeper to 10 and in time they had 200 loyal customers.

• As demand grew they were in need of larger production which was only possible through machines and technology.So they set up machines for peeling,cutting with 10-20 kg capacity.This increased the business in 1982-1989 but profits were wafer thin.

• In 1989 they brought 1000 meter plot with Rs 3.6 lack bank loan and expanded from 2 tawas to 8.After 3 years they succeeded with turnover of Rs 3 crore

BALAJI GROUP• For the first time Balaji Wafers invested INR 5 lakhs and took

their biggest leap by setting up a plant in Aji, ‘Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation’s’ industrial estate.

• Subsequently, in 1995-96 another plant was instilled too! But this time Chandubhai keeping the future in mind installed a more technologically advanced semi-automatic plant with a capacity of 250 kg of potato chips per hour.

• A desperate need of better technology arose and in 1999 Balaji Wafers installed Gujarat’s first fully automated potato chips plant which was followed by another one in 2003-04 in Vajdi district with a capacity of 1,200 kg per hour.

Rapid Growth• The sales grew so quickly that by 2006, Balaji captured a 90%

share of the potato chips market in Gujarat, and a 70% share of the namkeen category. Besides that the markets in Maharashtra and Rajasthan continued to grow rapidly too!

New Plant in Valsad• Highly motivated with the fast growth; Chandubhai or should

we say Balaji Group in 2008 set up yet another plant in Valsad which had a processing capacity of 8,000 kg of potatoes per hour and producing 2,000 kg of potato chips per hour.

• After so many years, today they have manufacturing units in Rajkot and Valsad which in a combined capacity produce 3,400 kg of chips per hour.

Products (Wafers)

Products (Namkeen)