MDH – THE SPICE KING
Many may not know the company Mahashian Di Hatti Pvt. Ltd. but it has been present in almost every Indian household for decades, and from generation to generation, for the world-famous brand MDH is owned by this company.
Mahashay Dharmpal Gulati was born on 27 March 1923 in Sialkot, now in Pakistan. The partition of India in 1947 was brutal beyond imagination and it shattered millions of households and lives forever. Dharampal Gulati was also a victim of this tragic event. The partition forced him to travel from Sialkot to Delhi with only Rs. 1500 in his pocket. His future was uncertain, to say the least. Although he tried his hands at various small jobs, he was always a failure. He even worked as a horse-carriage driver but the meagre salary could not sustain him and his family.
Dharampal Gulati sold his horse carriage and finally decided to try his luck one final time by taking up his family’s occupation of grinding and selling spices. He purchased a very small plot of land sometime in 1948, and started his first ‘Mahashian Di Hatti’ (Hatti means shop, especially a small one). Dharampal Gulati’s woeful days of struggle were about to end and the family shop started gaining attention. The sales of his spices increased and it encouraged Gulati to purchase another shop in the famous Chandini Chowk area.
MDH followed a simple business model. It always kept customer and customer satisfaction as its primary goal and vision. The commitment and loyalty toward its customers and customers’ needs, sets MDH apart from its competitors. Customers noticed it and thus started a life-long loyalty between the brand and its followers.
India is famous for multiple things, and one among them is the country’s rich, varied and unique spices. MDH was a brand that stood for all of these. In an Indian household, if someone can win the trust over the daily spices used in the kitchen, they win the household, and this is exactly what MDH did.
Soon the business expanded and at the same time, the era of TV had started. The black and white televisions became a craze in India and people thronged to see this amazing invention of mankind being brought to India. MDH also wanted to take advantage of this new advertisement media and decided to made a TV Ad to promote its spices. The story, however, goes that MDH had hired an actor to represent its brand and the date for shooting the TV Ad was finalised. However, the actor did not turn up. To encourage the disappointed crew, “Mahashay” Gulati himself acted the part. His red pagdi, his white moustache, his tall figure and his blissful smile, represented the image of the ‘grand old man of India’ and he became a popular figure in all the company’s advertisements and became known as ‘Dadaji’ (Grandfather). His face on the spice packets and boxes became a trademark along with the brand.
With 65 varieties of spices being produced and with products being distributed across more than 100 countries, MDH has its own fan following. One of the early innovations of MDH was to start selling packaged spices. Dharampal Gulati was so particular about consistency and commitment that even at a ripe age, despite having several workers at his beck and call, he himself used to visit the factories and taste the flavour of the spices. He was also very popular amongst his employees and staff. He never let ego come in his way of creating a family-like environment in his factories.
Starting with hand grinding of spices, MDH switched to fully-automatic machines for grinding spices, and today produces 30 tons of spices every day. Although Dharampal Gulati was a school dropout, with his determination and acute business sense, he built MDH to be a Rs. 1000-crore sales company, having a market share of about 12% in the spices market, second behind Everest Spices.
“Dadaji” was also a great philanthropist. What makes him stand apart from any other wealthy people was his devotion to social causes, especially his humanitarian outlook. He opened hospitals and schools in impoverished localities and donated 90% of his salary to other charitable causes. In 2020, MDH donated 7500 PPE kits to health workers for fighting COVID-19. “Dadaji” was a prime example of how businesses can be built from scratch, handled in the simplest of ways, and most importantly can be set as an example without compromising any morals.
For his contribution to trade & industry, Dharampal Gulati was awarded the prestigious Padma Bhushan in 2019 by the President of India.
Mahashay Dharampal Gulati passed away on 03 December 2020, at the age of 98 years.
Credits and suggested further reading:
https://thestorywatch.com/master-of-spices-and-hearts-the-inspiring-story-of-mdh/
https://www.theweekendleader.com/Success/2937/king-of-spices.html