MegaBrands · Spices and blended masalas
Everest: How a 200 Square Foot Spice Shop Set India’s Benchmark in Masalas
Everest, selected as the Mega Brand for Spices and blended masalas by the Business Intelligence Unit of WCRC (World Centre for Research and Consulting), started in 1967 with three masalas. Today, the company says, about 25 million households use Everest every day.
Everest in numbers
At a glance
Everest is the spice brand of Everest Food Products Pvt Ltd, a privately held company headquartered in Chembur, Mumbai. The late Vadilal Bhai Shah registered the brand in 1967, starting from a 200 square foot spice shop with three masalas. His sons Sanjeev Shah and Rajiv Shah joined in 1981 and 1992. Everest says it now offers more than 200 products, sells about 4 billion packs a year and is present in more than 80 countries. It is the Mega Brand for Spices and blended masalas in WCRC MegaBrands.
| Key facts | |
|---|---|
| Brand | Everest |
| Owner | Everest Food Products Pvt Ltd (privately held) |
| Brand founded | 1967, by the late Vadilal Bhai Shah |
| Headquarters | Chembur, Mumbai |
| Leadership | Shah family; Sanjeev Shah was chairman and managing director in 2022 and Rajiv Shah a director in 2024 |
| Category | Spices and blended masalas |
| Range | More than 200 products and sizes, including more than 75 pure and blended spices (Everest, 2026) |
| Scale | About 4 billion packs a year; more than 500 tonnes produced a day (Everest, 2026) |
| Reach | About 1 million outlets across 1,000 Indian towns and cities; more than 80 countries (Everest, 2026) |
| Campaign hashtag | #TasteMeinBest (used on Everest’s website) |
| Recognition | Selected as the Mega Brand for Spices and blended masalas by the Business Intelligence Unit of WCRC (World Centre for Research and Consulting) |
Everest has built its brand on a simple promise: the taste of a home-cooked meal, made easier. Its website carries that promise in the hashtag #TasteMeinBest, and the brand rests on almost six decades of blending spices for Indian homes.
The story begins in 1967. Vadilal Bhai Shah, starting from a spice shop of about 200 square feet, registered the Everest brand and launched three blends: milk masala, garam masala and tea masala. Everest grew from that counter into a national brand. His son Sanjeev Shah joined the business in 1981 and his second son, Rajiv Shah, in 1992. The family is still at the helm: Sanjeev Shah was described as chairman and managing director in 2022, and Rajiv Shah spoke for the company as a director in 2024.
WCRC MegaBrands covers 501 categories in India and selects one benchmark brand in each. It looks at brands through five pillars: Brand Positioning & Recall; Consumer Trust & Sentiment; Product, Innovation & Delivery; Sustainability, Governance & ESG; and Digital & Financial Soundness. Everest has been selected as the Mega Brand for Spices and blended masalas by the Business Intelligence Unit of WCRC (World Centre for Research and Consulting). Here is how Everest’s record lines up with each pillar.
Everest through the years
- 1967Vadilal Bhai Shah registers the Everest brand and launches milk, garam and tea masalas
- 1981Sanjeev Shah joins the business
- 1983First TV commercial, broadcast on Doordarshan; first small factory bought in Vikhroli, Mumbai
- 1992Rajiv Shah joins the business
- 1996Second factory opens in Kurla, Mumbai
- 2010Exports reach more than 65 countries
- 2017Amitabh Bachchan becomes brand ambassador; largest plant inaugurated at Umbergaon, Gujarat
- 2025Eazy Chef ready-to-use spice mix range launched
Pillar 1: How Everest Owns Share of Mind
Brand Positioning & Recall · weighted 28% in the MegaBrands framework · How MegaBrands measures this
Everest was an early believer in mass media. In 1983, sixteen years after the brand was registered, Everest made its first television commercial and began broadcasting on Doordarshan, the national public broadcaster. In the same year it bought its first small factory, in Vikhroli, Mumbai. Advertising and capacity grew together from then on.
The brand has worked with some of the best known names in Indian cinema. Everest’s own timeline records Amitabh Bachchan becoming its brand ambassador in 2017, Mahesh Babu joining as ambassador for South India in 2022, and Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan signing on together in 2023. In September 2023, the two appeared in an Everest film directed by R Balki, built around home-cooked meals and the feelings they carry.
Everest has also spoken to people who cook for a living. In July 2022 it named chef Ranveer Brar as a brand ambassador, a move reported as aimed at a younger audience. Sanjeev Shah, then chairman and managing director of Everest Foods, explained the choice: “We are delighted to stitch an association with none less than chef Ranveer Brar because we believed that it would be a perfect brand fit as he understands food and taste and most importantly we share the same value systems of not compromising with quality.”
The thread that runs through all of this is taste. Everest’s website repeats #TasteMeinBest alongside its name, a short line tied to the one thing a spice buyer cares about most.
Pillar 2: Why Indian Kitchens Trust Everest
Consumer Trust & Sentiment · weighted 26% in the MegaBrands framework · How MegaBrands measures this
Trust in a spice brand is earned at the stove, one meal at a time. Everest has been in Indian kitchens since 1967, and the company says about 25 million households now use its products daily. A blended masala is a promise of consistency: the same pack should give the same taste every time. That repeat purchase, across generations of home cooks, is the clearest sign of trust a food brand can have.
That trust has also been tested in public. In June 2023, a US importer recalled two batches of Everest Sambhar Masala and Garam Masala after the US Food and Drug Administration found Salmonella in samples; the recall notice said no illnesses had been reported. On 5 April 2024, Hong Kong’s Centre for Food Safety said it had found ethylene oxide, a pesticide, in samples of four spice-mix products from India, one of them Everest Fish Curry Masala, and instructed vendors to stop selling the affected products. On 18 April 2024, the Singapore Food Agency directed an importer to recall the same Everest product, saying ethylene oxide exceeded permissible limits. The agency noted that there was “no immediate risk” from low levels of ethylene oxide but that long-term exposure may lead to health issues. In May 2024, Nepal’s food regulator banned the import and sale of Everest spices until its own tests were complete.
Everest said that only one of its 60 products had been held for examination, calling it “a standard procedure and not a ban”. It said its exports are cleared only after approval from the laboratories of the Spices Board of India, and director Rajiv Shah told Reuters its products were safe. In India, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) collected spice samples across the country, including nine from Everest facilities in Maharashtra and Gujarat. On 21 May 2024, PTI and ANI reported that ethylene oxide was absent in the 28 laboratory reports FSSAI had received by then, covering samples from two brands. In June 2024, Reuters reported that Rajasthan’s food safety authorities had flagged one batch of an Everest spice mix as unsafe in a letter to FSSAI; Everest has said its products are safe.
Pillar 3: The Engine Behind Every Everest Pack
Product, Innovation & Delivery · weighted 20% in the MegaBrands framework · How MegaBrands measures this
Everest’s range has grown far beyond its first three blends. The company says its range now runs to more than 200 products and sizes, including more than 75 pure and blended spices. Alongside everyday masalas, the range covers asafoetida under the Hingraj name, launched in 2014; saffron in an exotic range; ginger-garlic paste; herbs and seasonings under Tasteeto, launched in 2021; and Eazy Chef, a ready-to-use spice mix range launched in 2025.
How Everest reaches you
Behind the packs is a manufacturing base built in steps. After the first Vikhroli factory in 1983, Everest opened a second factory in Kurla, Mumbai, in 1996 and a third in Vikhroli in 2000. In 2017 it inaugurated its largest plant, at Umbergaon in Gujarat. Everest says it now produces more than 500 tonnes a day and sells about 4 billion packs a year.
Delivery is where a spice brand wins or loses, because masalas are bought often and in small packs. Everest says its products are sold in about 1 million outlets across 1,000 Indian towns and cities.
Pillar 4: Everest and the Communities It Serves
Sustainability, Governance & ESG · weighted 16% in the MegaBrands framework · How MegaBrands measures this
Everest is a family business in its second generation. The founder’s sons joined in 1981 and 1992, and the company remains privately held.
Everest says its social work focuses on “hunger, malnutrition, education, and health”. Its CSR page lists a hospital it started in Una, Gujarat, a charitable school in Simer, Gujarat, and cancer relief aid for the underprivileged with the Madat Foundation. It also describes a water conservation project that covers piped water supply, water quality monitoring and building local capacity so that communities can manage their own water.
Food safety is the governance test that matters most for a spice company. Everest has said that its exports are cleared only after approval from the laboratories of the Spices Board of India, and that its products are safe.
Pillar 5: Everest’s Growth at Home and Abroad
Digital & Financial Soundness · weighted 10% in the MegaBrands framework · How MegaBrands measures this
Everest Food Products is privately held and does not publish its financial results, so the brand’s growth is best read through its scale. A business that began as one shop now produces more than 500 tonnes of spices a day, according to the company, and added four factories between 1983 and 2017.
Exports have grown too. Everest’s timeline shows its spices reaching more than 65 countries by 2010; the company now says it is present in more than 80.
Online, Everest’s website carries the full product range, a separate recipe site and its television commercials, and links buyers to online and quick-commerce stores.
The Everest Benchmark
Every category has leaders. A MegaBrand is the brand its category is measured against. Everest holds that place in Indian spices and blended masalas because its record is strong across the pillars at once. It is widely recognised, used daily in millions of homes by the company’s count, built on a wide range and a large manufacturing base, run by the founding family since 1967 and present in more than 80 countries.
Above all, Everest shows how far a single idea can travel when it is kept simple. A 200 square foot shop selling three blends became a brand that, by its own count, sells about 4 billion packs a year. The promise has stayed the same: the taste of a home-cooked meal.
Everest on MegaBrands
Follow Everest's consumer pulse
Powerfacts
What does Everest do?
Everest makes and sells spices and blended masalas. The company says its range covers more than 200 products and sizes, from garam masala and pure spices to asafoetida, saffron, ginger-garlic paste and ready-to-use spice mixes.
When was Everest founded and who leads it?
The Everest brand was registered in 1967 by the late Vadilal Bhai Shah. His sons Sanjeev Shah and Rajiv Shah joined in 1981 and 1992. Sanjeev Shah was described as chairman and managing director of Everest Foods in 2022, and Rajiv Shah as a director in 2024.
Who owns Everest?
Everest is owned by Everest Food Products Pvt Ltd, a privately held company headquartered in Chembur, Mumbai, and run by the Shah family.
More Questions About Everest
How big is Everest?
Everest says it produces more than 500 tonnes of spices a day, sells about 4 billion packs a year and is sold in about 1 million outlets across 1,000 Indian towns and cities.
Where are Everest spices made?
Everest’s timeline lists factories in Vikhroli and Kurla in Mumbai, and its largest plant, inaugurated in 2017, at Umbergaon in Gujarat.
In how many countries is Everest sold?
Everest says its products are present in more than 80 countries. Its own timeline shows exports to more than 65 countries by 2010.
Who are Everest’s brand ambassadors?
Everest’s timeline records Amitabh Bachchan as brand ambassador from 2017, Mahesh Babu for South India from 2022, and Bachchan with Shah Rukh Khan in 2023. Chef Ranveer Brar was named an ambassador in July 2022.
What happened with Everest Fish Curry Masala in 2024?
In April 2024, food regulators in Hong Kong and Singapore reported ethylene oxide in Everest Fish Curry Masala and had it withdrawn from sale there, and in May Nepal banned sales of Everest spices pending its own tests. Everest said its products were safe and that only one of its 60 products had been held for examination. In May 2024, it was reported that FSSAI’s tests in India had found no ethylene oxide in the 28 lab reports received, which covered samples from two brands.
Why is Everest the Mega Brand for Spices and blended masalas?
Everest has been selected as the Mega Brand for Spices and blended masalas by the Business Intelligence Unit of WCRC (World Centre for Research and Consulting). Its record is strong across the five MegaBrands pillars: high recall, daily use in millions of homes, a wide range made at scale, family stewardship since 1967 and reach in more than 80 countries.
About Everest
Everest is the spice brand of Everest Food Products Pvt Ltd, a privately held company headquartered in Chembur, Mumbai. The brand was registered in 1967 by the late Vadilal Bhai Shah. Everest says it offers more than 200 products, sells about 4 billion packs a year and is present in more than 80 countries. Everest has been selected as the Mega Brand for Spices and blended masalas by the Business Intelligence Unit of WCRC (World Centre for Research and Consulting).