Being a 90’s kid, I am sure most of us watched this advertisement of MDH Masala, where you can see this older man in every single one of these MDH ads. So, guys, he is none other than the MDH spices brand owner and CEO of the company Mahashay Dharampal Gulati. He is also considered to be one of the highest-paid CEOs in India, who gets paid around twenty-five crore.
In India, people also know him as the king of spices. He might be a 97-year-old man, but his age never stops him to check in his corporation, markets, and also the sellers who are handling everything to make sure that every spice prepared in his factory is fantastic in quality and that his customers don’t have any complaints related to his product. He is always checking in with his people to see how they are handling the situation, and if everything is running in the management smoothly or not? He didn’t become a CEO and Billionaire just selling spices; it is because of how he still handles everything and cares about his clients and their needs.
Here is the successful and inspiring tale of this incredible man Mahashay Dharampal Gulati and how he became the king of spices.
MDH Owner Mahashay Dharampal Gulati Death: ‘King of Spices’ no more, MDH owner Mahasham Dharampal Gulati dies at the age of 98
History of Mahashay Dharampal Gulati
Everything started back in 1919 from Sialkot in Pakistan when his father, Mahashay Chunni Lal Gulati, established a company called Mahashian Di Hatti Pvt. Ltd Deggi Mirch Wale. Dharampal only studied until the Class 5th, but after this, he left his education in the middle and started working with his father and learned everything he knows about spices today from his father. So basically, he gained knowledge about spices from a very early age.
But in 1947, during the India and Pakistan partition time, they had left everything behind in Pakistan and moved to Delhi with his sister because his father’s company got demolished. After borrowing some money from his friend and acquaintances, he begins riding tanga on Delhi Streets. But riding tanga was not helping his financial situation because he was barely making any money. So he decided to do what he knows best and restarted what his father lost.
So in 1948, he opened up a small store in Delhi (Karol Bagh) and started selling spices just like his father used to. He started earning the right amount of income. Soon only five years later, after when he opened his first store. He opened a new store in Chandni Chowk. And ten years later, he bought a piece of land in Delhi, Kirti Nagar, so he can establish his spice company MDH.
Soon he opened numerous branches. He took his knowledge about spices to a whole new level. In the present, MDH owns more than fifteen manufacturing companies. MDH also sends out spices in more than a hundred foreign countries. MDH got more than sixty ranges of available products in around one hundred fifty packets. With time they kept on improving themselves and the way they were importing things nationally and internationally.
Since he turned his small store into a 2000 crore empire, Mahashay Dharampal Gulati started doing charity and established a Mahashay Chunni Lal Charitable trust hospitals and schools for people who are needy and poor—honouring his late father by opening this trust in his name.
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Present MDH Company Analysis
In the present, we can see that the MDH company, with a total of 12%, stands on the second number in the spices market. The first position is held by Everest Masala, who owns 13% shares in the spices market. But currently, Rajeev Gulati, son of Dharampal Gulati, is managing this whole empire with his sister Jyoti Gulati and the rest of their siblings.
Rajeev Gulati, after becoming the Managing director of the MDH empire, changed their method of manufacturing from manual to automatic so they can keep up with the customers and market high demand. In their factories, they now prepare 30,000 tons of masala powder every day. Once these spices are prepared in the factory, they are distributed to 30,000 stockists and 400,000 retail sellers
Back in 2016, MDH manufacturers earned revenue of Rs 924 crore, and their total profit was Rs. 213 crore. In 2020 Mahashay Dharampal Gulati occupies a total of 80% stake of the MDH company. In 2019, on March 16th, the president of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, honored him with the Padma Bhushan award for Trade and Industry.
In 2018 while giving an interview to The Economic Times, he said, “My motivation to work is sincere in product quality sold at affordable prices. And around 90% of my salary goes to a charity in my personal capacity.
A man who is not only humble in nature after being one of the wealthiest men of India, intelligent and remarkable information about spices from his decades of experience. A part of almost every Indian kitchen Mr. Mahashay Dharampal Gulati, in true words, is the man you can make idle of.
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