WHEN Bipin Hadvani moved from Bhadra village to try and make his fortune as an entrepreneur in the city of Rajkot, in 1990, his father extended him a loan of Rs 4,500. In 2022, when Hadvani wished to buy out his younger brother’s 30 percent stake in the company Bipin founded — Gopal Snacks — he raised a loan of Rs 490 crores from a financial firm, noted Mint.
And as Gopal Snacks closed its Rs 650 crore IPO on March 11, 2024, news reports indicated that it had been subscribed nine times, with “investors picking 10.78 crore equity shares against an offer size of 1.19 crore shares,” as per MoneyControl.
The family run enterprise has been counted among the leading success stories of the Indian snacks sector. Its ascent though has been a steady one. Here are the other numbers that tell Gopal Snacks’ story:
1 — number of products with which Gopal Snacks, then known as Gopal Gruh Udyog, started its commercial life. The product was “chavanu”, which food raconteur Sheetal Bhatt, of “theroute2roots” fame describes as “raw, dry or roasted foods like popped grains, puffed rice, flattened rice sev, roasted chickpeas”. “Spicy, sweet, salty, sour — chavanu ticks almost all flavour profiles,” Bhatt writes.
2.5 lakhs — Bipin Hadvani’s share, in rupees, from a snack business he co-founded and managed from 1991 to ~1994. He used this money to set up Gopal Snacks along with his wife Daxa.
84 — Daxaben’s position in a ranking of India’s 100 wealthiest women, released in 2020 by Kotak Wealth Hurun.
60 — number of products, spanning Gujarati namkeen and snacks as well as non-traditional fare like chips/wafers, pellets, nachos, that are part of Gopal’s repertoire today.
5 — i. price, in rupees, of Gopal Snacks sachets that account for about 70 percent of the company’s sales. ii. quantity, in grams, of each of these sachets, down from a previous 8 gm.
1 crore — number of snack packets estimated to be produced by Gopal Snacks every single day across its seven plants.
100 crores — revenue, in rupees, that Gopal Snacks posted in the financial year 2012.
1,128 crores — net sales, in rupees, posted for financial year 2021 by the company, according to Mint.
11 — number of Indian states in which Gopal Snacks is retailed.
80 — in percent, Gujarat’s share towards Gopal Snacks’ revenue.
750 — dealers; 7 lakh — retailers that are part of the company’s distribution network; 70 — number of countries to which Gopal Snacks’ products are exported, as per a Forbes report.
95,000 crores — size, in rupees, that the Indian snacks market is expected to reach within this decade.
Care for some more numbers? India is the third-biggest snack market in the world; Gopal Snacks is the fourth-largest branded ethnic snacks company in India. For one snack — gathiya — the company is the largest manufacturer in India by volume and revenue, states a FinShots analysis.