All of you must have heard about the phrase “rags to riches”, for those who don’t know what this term means, it means that a person has done a great job in his/her career and moved to get all the riches in the world.
Well, the same can be used to describe the story of a tiny street stall which once used to have its only branch or a small street shop in Rajasthan, the Bikanerwala.
Yes, the leading brand for sweets and snacks once used to be a very small street shop in the city of Bikaner.
How It All Started?
In 1905, a man named Lalji and his sons used to manage a very small sweet and snack store on the streets of Bikaner’s old city area of Kote Gate. In 1950 two of his Sons, Jugalkishoreji and Kedarnathji decided to expand the business by moving to Delhi, to popularize their delicacies.
Lalaji and his sons had created a huge impact on nearby cities with their culinary expertise passed on to them generation by generation. Jugalkishoreji and Kedarnathji chose to set up their shop in Chandini Chowk, Delhi, and started selling Namkeen and sweets.
Just like these brothers, there are numerous stories from India where we have seen that perseverance is the key to success in the business, here is another inspiring story of Harbhajan Kaur from Chandigarh who launched her startup at 90.
Initially, the Shop was named “Bikaner Namkeeen Bhandar” which became famous for serving delicious delicacies like Moong Daal Halwa, Kaju Katli, and Bikaneri Bhujia amongst other competitors.
In their native place, people recognized them as Bikanervala and that’s how they came up with the name Bikanervala.
In the 1960s, these two brothers expanded their business by increasing their line of products by introducing a greater variety of traditional sweets and namkeens. They also opened up many branches in prominent areas of Delhi including Karolbagh.
The current chairman of Bikanerwala, Mr. Shyam Sundar Aggarwal joined the family business in 1968 when he was just 16 years old and had just finished high school.
He somehow realized the urge to explore more Indian products and opened up many outlets in India.
The Journey Was Not Easy
Every journey has some ups and down, and Bikanervala also faced numerous challenges. Bikanerwala faced many challenges with its outlets.
When the outlet in Rajouri Garden was acquitted of selling adulterated products to customers, the court absolved the Bikanervala outlet in Rajouri garden and found its manager Kunwar Pal Singh responsible for selling adulterated sweets to the consumers.
According to the local health authority, Delhi, a food inspector went to the shop to purchase sweets on July 2001 and took the articles, and sent them to a Public Analyst for examination.
The analyst reported that the sample was adulterated because the amount of dye content of synthetic colour used exceeded the permissible limit. However, the owners managed to win the case as other samples of the same sweets produced didn’t have synthetic colours above permissible limits.
Milestones Of Success
As time went by, with the hard work put in by the Lalji family, they managed to do an agreement with PepsiCo’s snacks brand “ Kurkure Leher” to sell Indian Namkeens, and they opened up an outlet in Faridabad, Haryana for the same.
They did tremendously great with their vision and urge to take their business to a higher level.
Bikano – The Latest Addition To The Bikanervala Family
In order to sell globally, the founders formulated a way to sell airtight packages under the name “Bikano”.
While everyone was worried about the increased level of competition in the market, the founders managed to successfully own and run a chain of Bikanervala restaurants.
Bikanerwala is now a 1000 crore company with 94 outlets including 25 outlets in Singapore, New Zealand, etc.
They have also managed to win the Best Sweet Shop, Delhi award in 2012,2013, and 2014 by the Times food India.
If you also want to experience the rich delicacies of Bikanervala then you can now also order them online through Zomato And Swiggy or visit your Bikanervala near you.
There are more inspirational stories like Bikanervala, you can also check this inspiring story about – A School Dropout From Kashmir – Check How Sheikh Asif Setup a Business Generating Millions
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