Blue Chip

How the Rajkot-headquartered Balaji Wafers built formidable fortresses in four states that national foods giants haven’t yet been able to breach

- RAJIV SINGH

2014, RAJKOT (GUJARAT)

The chips were heavily stacked against Chandubhai Virani. And he knew it. On one side of the table was Balaji Wafers, a homegrown snacks maker that had hustled over three decades to clock ₹1,000 crore revenue in 2014. Chandubhai and his brothers—Bhikhubhai and Kanubhai— started Balaji Wafers by making potato chips from a small room in Rajkot in 1982. At the other end of the table was the Goliath, a multinational snacks and beverage maker, multiple times the size of Balaji.

The foreign company played its cards. The offer on the table for the Virani brothers was over ₹4,000 crore for selling out. “It was a lot of money,” says Chandubhai, but he was not surprised.

For the snacks industry, 2014 had started on a crispy note. In January, WestBridge Capital Partners picked up a 25 percent stake in DFM Foods reportedly for ₹64.5 crore. The Delhi-based company, which had blockbuster ring brand Crax, primarily catered to markets in north, west and central India. Two months later, private equity fund Lighthouse bought around 12 percent stake in the Rajasthan-based Bikaji Foods. The suitors were on the prowl.

Back in Rajkot, Chandubhai was not impressed or overawed by the offer. “I have never feared anything or anybody,” says the founder and director of Balaji Wafers. “If they thought they could intimidate me with their size, they were wrong.” And he had the wind in his sales. Balaji had emerged as the biggest wafers brand in Gujarat and Rajasthan, and was among the top three in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.