MegaBrands · Legacy sweets and savoury houses

Haldiram’s: How a Bikaner Namkeen Shop Sets India’s Benchmark for Sweets and Savouries

Haldiram’s, selected as the Mega Brand for Legacy sweets and savoury houses by the Business Intelligence Unit of WCRC, began as a small namkeen shop in Bikaner in 1937. Today its range of more than 400 varieties reaches over 80 countries.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial · Published October 2026 · 9 min read

At a glance

Haldiram’s is the snacks and sweets brand of Haldiram Snacks Food Pvt Ltd, a family-promoted company with its corporate office in Noida and registered office in Nagpur. It traces its roots to a namkeen shop opened in Bikaner in 1937 by Ganga Bhishen Agarwal, known as “Haldiram Ji”. The brand sells more than 400 varieties of namkeen, sweets and ready-to-eat food, runs restaurants and reaches more than 80 countries. It has been selected as the Mega Brand for Legacy sweets and savoury houses by the Business Intelligence Unit of WCRC.

Haldiram’s carries the nickname of its founder, and that tells you a great deal about the brand. Ganga Bhishen Agarwal, known as “Haldiram Ji”, opened a small namkeen shop in Bikaner, Rajasthan, in 1937. The shop became known for its bhujia, and the founder’s name now appears on snack packs across India and abroad.

The company describes the journey in one line: “One recipe, carried from a family kadhai to the world’s shelves.” Its own timeline marks the steps. By 1983 the family had built plants for packaged snacks and sweets in Delhi and Nagpur. Exports to the United States began in 1993. A first overseas factory opened in London in 2018, and a first international store followed in Dubai in 2025. In April 2025 the packaged food businesses of the Delhi and Nagpur arms came together as one company, Haldiram Snacks Food Pvt Ltd.

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. Haldiram’s has been selected as the Mega Brand for Legacy sweets and savoury houses by the Business Intelligence Unit of WCRC (World Centre for Research and Consulting). Here is how Haldiram’s record lines up with each pillar.

Pillar 1: How Haldiram’s Owns Share of Mind

Brand Positioning & Recall · weighted 28% in the MegaBrands framework · How MegaBrands measures this

Recall for Haldiram’s starts with a name and a place. The brand is named after its founder, and its story begins with Bikaner bhujia. That origin puts a real person, a real town and a real product at the centre of the brand’s identity. The company’s website sums up the promise as “Where Tradition Meets Taste” and signs off its story with “With Love, From Haldiram’s”.

The second source of recall is the festive calendar. Haldiram’s has made mithai, India’s traditional sweets, a recurring theme of its advertising. For Diwali 2023, its campaign “Tyohar ke har tohfe mein Haldiram’s” was built around the brand’s range of festive gifts. In October 2024, a television film built around the line “Haldiram’s mithai khao aur happy shappy ho jao” ran across television, print, hoardings and digital media. Its message was that people need not wait for a special day to enjoy sweets.

Divya Batra, Head of Marketing at the time, explained the thinking in 2024: “We aim to showcase mithai as more than just a treat for special occasions.”

The brand has kept the idea fresh. For Holi in March 2025, it extended the “Happy Shappy” theme with AI-generated music and video made for social media. For Diwali 2025, it launched “Aap Diwali manate hai, Hum Diwali banate hain!”, a campaign built around a premium gifting range that included stuffed dates, baklava and gourmet mithai collections.

Pillar 2: Why India Trusts Haldiram’s

Consumer Trust & Sentiment · weighted 26% in the MegaBrands framework · How MegaBrands measures this

Trust in a sweets and savoury house is earned over many festivals, and Haldiram’s has had close to nine decades of them. The company describes its own record as “Nine decades of taste, trust & scale”. Annu Gupta, who became Chief Executive Officer, International Business, in February 2026, put the same idea this way: “With an 80-year legacy delighting Indian consumers, we are setting our sights even higher.”

Much of that trust is built at the moment of giving, and Haldiram’s designs its seasonal ranges around festive gifting. In 2023 Kailash Agarwal, President of Retail, said: “At Haldiram’s, we take pride in being a part of every Indian celebration.” During Diwali 2025, Haldiram’s outlets across the country were decorated for the season and stocked with festive sweets and hampers.

Trust also depends on consistency at scale. A packaged snack bought in a small town has to taste the same as one bought in a metro or abroad. In 2017, a packaging trade report described Haldiram’s plants as following good manufacturing and hygiene practices, with ISO 22000 food safety certification and online X-ray and metal detection checks on the line.

The company’s website frames the founder’s outlook simply: “He believed that if food could bring people together, even for a moment, then its purpose had been fulfilled.”

Pillar 3: The Kitchen Behind Haldiram’s

Product, Innovation & Delivery · weighted 20% in the MegaBrands framework · How MegaBrands measures this

Haldiram’s began with one snack and now sells a whole pantry. Its range covers more than 400 varieties across traditional namkeen, Western-style snacks, sweets, ready-to-eat meals, frozen foods, bakery, beverages and noodles.

The brand has added new formats to its heritage lines. Sub-brands such as Minute Khana, Cup Shup and Cookie Heaven extend the range beyond traditional snacks. Seasonal gifting ranges have widened the sweets offer with newer items such as stuffed dates, baklava and khajoor anjeer bites.

Manufacturing grew in clear steps. The company says it had built plants for packaged snacks and sweets in Delhi and Nagpur by 1983. It began exporting snacks to the United States in 1993 for the Indian diaspora, and opened its first overseas factory, in London, in 2018.

Haldiram’s also serves food fresh. Alongside packaged products, it runs sweet shops and restaurants in India. In February 2025, Haldiram’s opened its first international restaurant in Bur Dubai, a 110-seat outlet offering both table service and quick service. “This is just the beginning of our expansion journey,” said Pankaj Agarwal, described at the launch as a Director of Haldiram’s. In April 2026 a flagship followed on Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed Road, with handmade sweets and savoury snacks, an all-vegetarian dining menu and a gifting area.

Pillar 4: Haldiram’s, From Family Shop to Modern Company

Sustainability, Governance & ESG · weighted 16% in the MegaBrands framework · How MegaBrands measures this

For most of its history Haldiram’s was run by the founder’s family across separate regional businesses. The last few years have brought a more modern structure. In May 2023, Krishan Kumar Chutani, a professional manager from outside the founding family, joined as Chief Executive Officer. The Delhi-based Haldiram Snacks Pvt Ltd and the Nagpur-based Haldiram Foods International Pvt Ltd then combined their packaged food businesses into Haldiram Snacks Food Pvt Ltd, after approvals from the Competition Commission of India and the National Company Law Tribunal. Under the scheme the Competition Commission approved in 2023, the shareholders of the two businesses were to hold 56% and 44% of the merged company respectively.

When the merger was announced in April 2025, Mr Chutani wrote: “A new chapter begins in the Haldiram story, and it’s a significant one.” Since March 2025, minority investors have also held stakes in the snacks business alongside the founding family.

Haldiram’s has also invested in cleaner energy at its plants. In May 2014, a 1.5 MW solar power plant was commissioned at the Nagpur factory of Haldiram Foods International, supplying electricity directly to production. Shivkishan Agrawal, then Chairman of Haldiram Foods, said the group was committed to increasing its dependence on green power. In 2017, a trade report also described the use of digesters that turn organic food waste into methane for plant burners.

Pillar 5: Haldiram’s Growth With Financial Strength

Digital & Financial Soundness · weighted 10% in the MegaBrands framework · How MegaBrands measures this

Haldiram’s is privately held and does not publish annual reports, so its scale is known from press reports. These put the revenue of the snacks business in FY2023-24 at between about Rs 12,800 crore and Rs 14,000 crore.

The clearest marker of financial strength came in March 2025. Singapore’s Temasek agreed to buy a 10% stake in the snacks business for about US$1 billion, valuing it at about US$10 billion (around Rs 85,000 crore). Weeks later, Alpha Wave Global and the UAE-based International Holding Company agreed to take a combined stake of about 6% at a similar valuation, according to PTI. The new investment was reported to support expansion in India and abroad, especially in the United States and the Middle East.

That international push now has its own leadership. In February 2026, Haldiram Snacks Food named Annu Gupta as Chief Executive Officer, International Business. “Our vision is to build a world class brand that resonates with global consumers around the world,” Gupta said. Haldiram’s products are sold in more than 80 countries.

Digital channels now carry much of the brand’s festive marketing. Its campaigns have used influencer partnerships, AI-generated content and, for Diwali 2025, a nationwide mithai contest, alongside television and print.

The Haldiram’s Benchmark

Every category has leaders. A MegaBrand is the brand its category is measured against. Haldiram’s holds that place among India’s legacy sweets and savoury houses because its record is strong on every pillar at once. Its name is widely recognised, its products are part of Indian celebrations, its range runs from bhujia to ready meals, its structure has been modernised, and it has drawn major investors.

Above all, Haldiram’s shows that a family recipe from one town can become a modern, professionally run company without losing its roots. The brand that began behind a Bikaner counter in 1937 now sells across India and in more than 80 countries, still under the founder’s name.

Powerfacts

More Questions About Haldiram’s

About Haldiram’s Haldiram’s is the snacks and sweets brand of Haldiram Snacks Food Pvt Ltd, with its corporate office in Noida and registered office in Nagpur. Founded as a namkeen shop in Bikaner in 1937 by Ganga Bhishen Agarwal, it sells more than 400 varieties of namkeen, sweets and ready-to-eat food in India and more than 80 countries, and runs sweet shops and restaurants. Haldiram’s has been selected as the Mega Brand for Legacy sweets and savoury houses by the Business Intelligence Unit of WCRC (World Centre for Research and Consulting).