History & Marketing

Strategies Of Balaji Wafer

Company Name: Balaji wafers
Founded by: Chandubhai Virani 

Balaji Wafers is the largest regional potato wafer, snack brand and the
second biggest player in the potato wafer segment in the country.
Based in Rajkot, it also caters into grain based snacks in various
flavours.

How It All Started 

Chandubhai Virani is the founder and director of Balaji Wafers Private
Ltd. The days of struggle for Chandubhai dates back to 1972. At that
time, rains were scarce and farming was becoming tough with every
passing day. Looking at the worsening conditions, their father who
was an ordinary farmer gave three of his sons – Meghjibhai,
Bhikhubhai and Chandubhai – the sum of Rs 20,000 to invest it wisely.

He asked them to go and start a business with the amount. They all
migrated to Rajkot and being from an agricultural background, they
finalised to start a business of fertilizers and farm implements. 

Due to lack of knowledge and experience, the business didn’t work

out as they were supplied with duplicate fertilizers. Looking at their
admirable efforts, Govindbhai – a cinema owner, handed over the
canteen to them on contract basis in 1976. Despite having the canteen
job, they also managed the ticket counter and filled in for the
doorkeeper. They use to buy loose wafers made locally and packet
them to sell in the cinema hall. 

However, the supplier of wafers was always late which use to disturb
the business at the cinema hall. Then the family made ‘masala’
sandwiches for the canteen, it was a hit, but due to perishable product
it was hard to keep up it and it was then that Chandubhai saw a future
in wafers because they could be carried anywhere and
everywhere. With a investment of Rs 10,000, Chandubhai set up a
small scale business in a shed and began his experiments with making
chips, after canteen work. In a short span, he had three canteen
contracts- 2 at Astron Cinema and the Kotecha Girls High School in
the city.

Launching 
In 1984, they coined their brand name ‘Balaji’. The premises of Balaji
Wafers Private Limited in the village of Vajdi (Vad) around 20 km from
Rajkot, has a small Balaji temple in the forefront of the 50-acre factory
area. It is a proof of the faith that the owners have in Lord Balaji, from
where the brand name ‘Balaji’ was derived.

The factory has around 2,000 plants and trees, a hundred cows, a
water treatment and bio-gas plant but not a single company branding
done anywhere. Despite of the fact that company do not favour
branding, it is a record-breaking factory when it started in 2003, with
the highest potato processing capacity of around 5,000 kg potatoes in
an hour.

The initial 10 years was a lot of struggle for the 3 brothers, and they
earned around Rs. 20,000 to 30,000 a month. For the business to gain
momentum, the company Balaji Wafers Private Limited was formed in
1992, along with the 3 directors – the brothers Bhikhubhai,
Chandubhai and Kanubhai. For the first time Balaji Wafers invested
INR 5 lakhs and took their biggest leap by setting up a plant in Aji,
‘Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation’s’ industrial estate. 

Subsequently, in 1995-96 another plant was installed too. Chandubhai

had farsighted technology advancement so he installed a
technologically advanced semi-automatic plant with a capacity of 250
kg of potato chips per hour. A desperate need of better technology
arose and in 1999, Balaji Wafers installed Gujarat’s first fully
automated potato chips plant which was followed by another one in
2003-04 in Vajdi district with a capacity of 1,200 kg per hour. 

The company has an employee base of 5,000 people of which 2,500

are women. From employees to shopkeepers, for Chandubhai
everyone is part of the “Balaji Family”. The next generation has now
joined the business. They include Bhikhubhai’s sons – Keyur takes care
of R&D and Mihir looks after marketing; Chandubhai’s son Pranay
takes care of development, liaison and construction (while his
daughter Kinjal is married), and Kanubhai’s son, a student, is waiting in
the wings. 

What started as a small micro-business has evolved into a multi-

national company with a turnover of Rs. 4000 crores.

Marketing Strategy And Interesting Facts

Behind Its Success.
 Balaji brand is not an outcome of intensive marketing and
advertising campaigns but has been created solely by the
importance the company places on delivering quality and
affordable products and various CSR initiatives that it has
undertaken, making it a classic example of ‘word of mouth’
promotion.
 Balaji do not advertise its products nor run any retail
schemes or promotions to sell their products. Instead of
misspending on superficial aspects like packaging and
design which does not really benefit either the company or
the consumer, Balaji believes in investing on ensuring that
fresh and quality products reach the market.
 Balaji does not use artificial flavours in its snacks and
prefers to use local spices which give a made-at-home
taste to its snacks.
 Balaji has affordable price unlike other popular brands
almost 50% less, despite of in cost bearing process like
 engaging in research, sustainability, product innovation
and new manufacturing techniques this all is possible as
Balaji makes good use of freely available resources like
water and air, it makes biogas (worth approximately 15-20
lacs) to use in the canteen by treating waste water from the
plant, generates electricity worth 25-30 lacs which is used
in the plant. Benefits from these savings are transferred to
the consumer. Apart from all this, Balaji also concentrates
on ensuring that it maintains good relations with
distributors & retailers who give the brand good visibility
at the point of sale.
 Balaji Group processes around 450,000 kg of potatoes per
day and 400,000 kg of namkeens per day. Balaji has a
dense network of 550 distributors and its products are sold
upto 400,000 retail outlets across India.
 

Campaigns
Apart from colour, appearance and taste, what sets apart the best
wafers are the crunch when one bites into them. That said, a visit to
the products page of Balaji Wafers will surely urge one to buy a pack
— the page opens with an irresistible ‘crunch’. Balaji is said to be the
second biggest brand in the potato wafer segment in India, without
any promotions and advertisements.

Conclusion
The Economic times declared Balaji wafers as the “Sultan of Wafers”.
The key elements behind the phenomenal success of Balaji are the
strong fundamental values of Virani brothers, which chiefly include
“Trust, Passion and Steady Hard Work!” The wafers are loved by all
and it’s a part and parcel om many lives on a daily basis.