Daybreak - Haldiram's vs Bikaji just got spicier

Episode Date: March 21, 2025

In this episode we fill you in on three standout stories from the past week. First, why the fight between every Indian’s favourite namkeen brands Haldiram’s and Bikaji just got spicier;��second, the controversy around Urban company’s newest pet project;and finally, the latest from Two by Two where our colleagues Rohin and Praveen discuss what the fourth wave of tech exports from India will look like.Check out the stories and podcasts mentioned in this episode: The latest edition of Long and ShortWhy India's biggest employer of women gig workers refuses to listen to its own workforceTwo by Two: Ultrahuman and Kuku FM have broken outThe Ken is hosting its first live subscriber event! Join two long-term and contrarian CEOs, Nithin Kamath of Zerodha and Deepak Shenoy of Capitalmind, as they discuss the mental models, decision making frameworks, and potential outcomes related to a very real possibility: an extended stock market winter that lasts 24 months or more. Click here to buy your tickets. 

Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar. If you've heard any of the Ken's podcasts, you've probably heard me, my interruptions, my analogies, and my contrarian takes on most topics. And you might rightly be wondering why am I interrupting this episode too? It's for a special announcement. For the last few months, I and Sita Raman Ganeshan, my colleague and the Ken's deputy editor, have been working on an ambitious new podcast. It's called Intermission.

We want to tell the secret sauce stories of India's greatest companies. Stories of how they were born, how they fought to survive, how they build their organizations and culture, how they manage to innovate and thrive over decades, and most importantly, how they're poised today. To do that, Sita and I have been reading books, poring over reports, going through financial statements, digging up archives, and talking to dozens of people. And if that wasn't enough, we also decided to throw in video into the mix. Yes, you heard that right. Intermission has also had to find its footing in the world of multi-camera shoots in professional studios, laborious editing, and extensive post-production. Sita and I are still reeling from the intensity of our first studio recording.

Intermission launches on March 23rd. To get alert, as soon as we release our first video. episode, please follow intermission on Spotify and Apple Podcast or subscribe to the Ken's YouTube channel. You can find all of the links at the ken.com slash I am. With that, back to your episode. Hello and welcome to daybreak. I'm Snickda and I'm Rahil. And in this episode, we will dive into three standout stories from this week.

First, why the fight between every Indian's favorite namkeen brands, Haldirams and Bikaji, just got spicier. Second, the controversy around urban company's newest pet project. And finally, the latest from 2 by 2, where our colleagues, Rohin and Praveen, discuss what the fourth wave of tech exports from India will look like. Last week, everyone's favourite Bhuja brand, Haldirams, reportedly sold a 10% stake to Singapore government-owned firm, TAMASEC. The Kent's deputy editor, Sita Ramanji, wrote about the stake sale in the latest edition of our newsletter on the Indian stock market, long and short. Now, you are probably wondering why a state-owned investment company in Singapore would be so

interested in an Indian Namkeen brand and a family-run one at that. Fair question, with a pretty straightforward answer. Haldi-Rams is not your average namkeen brand. It's one of India's most popular and most successful snack and sweets companies, which is why it was able to sell that 10% stay at a $10 billion valuation. And it wasn't just Temasek in the equation. Some of the world's most prominent investors, the likes of Bain, Blackstone and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority all wanted a bite of Haldirams.

The brand was getting a lot of attention, and not just from investors. In his newsletter, Sita wrote how he couldn't recall any other stake sale being reported by the business media quite as extensively. In fact, one financial daily ran a particularly interesting report. It said that putting its money behind Haldiram's was a risky bet. Not because Temasek paid too much, but because of the growing army of health-conscious urban Indians that aren't reaching for family-sized packets of al-a-bhujia at their neighbourhood grocery stores anymore.

But that's not something Temasek will be losing sleepover. And to understand why, look no further than Haldiram's's biggest rival, Bikaji Foods. Within two years of the company going public in December 2020, its sales grew 40%. Its market value has more than doubled since the listing to 17,000 crore rupees. That's $2 billion. Now with TemaSec in its corner,

Haldi Rams will have a better shot at taking on Bikaji Foods. But before we get into that, let's talk about these two brands for a bit, because this rivalry is like something straight out of a Bollywood movie. What if I told you, the founder of Bikaji is actually the good. grandson of the man who founded Haldirams in the 1930s. Yep, the Haldiram story began in the Bikarer area of Rajasthan

when Ganga Bishan Agarwal founded the snack company. And then, six decades later in 1993, his grandson, Shivratan Agarwal, branched out to start his own brand. You guessed it, Bikaji. Now, unlike the rest of his family, Shivrathan was free to expand Bikaji as he saw it. So today, Bikaji is sold in 8.5.2. every single Indian state and union territory.

Plus, it has quadrupled the retail stores serviced by its own distributors instead of brand-agnostic wholesalers in under three years. Meanwhile, up until quite recently, his three brothers carried the Halidram's legacy forward through their own businesses based in New Delhi and Nagpur, while another cousin of theirs operated out of Kolkata. That was until 2023, when the Delhi and Nagpur businesses eventually merged. This combined entity is the one Temasek has bought into. And according to Sita, the Haldiram's Temasek deal was the final trump card that could really chip away at the advantage Bikaji has had so far.

For starters, this new company has sales of nearly 13,000 crore rupees in FY24, which is far higher than Bikaji's, which is just a little over 2,000 crore rupees. But the thing is, a gap in revenue is the least of Bikaji's concerns at the moment. Because now as a single entity, Haldirams will be able to use a single supply chain and much stronger distribution networks across multiple states. With TemaSex investment, Haltirams likely to go all out with expansion. But of course, there's still no room for complacency because while private equity giants and sovereign wealth funds have been circling Haldirams, foreign portfolio investors continue to lap up Bikachi's shares. their stake in the company has more than doubled since the listing to nearly 8%. Their domestic counterparts, meanwhile, have also raised their holdings.

But they may not continue to be so enamored by the company. After outperforming the Nifty 500, Bikaji has fallen more than the index this year. The days of Bikaji punching above its weight may be over. Before we get into the next segment, my colleagues Rohit and Praveen, who hosts the KENZ podcast 2x2 have a very exciting announcement to me. Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar, one of the co-hosts of the KEN's 2x2 podcast.

And this is Praveen Gopal Khrushnan, the other host of 2x2 podcast. The Ken and we are doing our very first live subscriber event this coming Monday, that's 24th of March, at the Bangalore International Centre's auditorium. It's at 5pm or you'd want to be there. Why, Praveen? Because we have two fantastic guests.

We have Nitin Kamath, founder and CEO of Zeroda, and we have Deepak Shanoi, founder and CEO of Capital Mind. And we are here to discuss something very interesting. Something that nobody wants to talk about or imagine as a possibility or think is actually going to come to pass.

What is it? It's about India's falling stock markets and what happens if this falling stock market continues for another 24 months. What are the effects of that? That's right. The event is called beyond the first order because we want to look at what happens beyond merely just the numbers, right? If, yeah, sure, the stock market goes down and most of us read about the effects of it, the first order effects of it, in the newspapers or news websites each day.

But we want to go beyond that. We want to see what are the second order effects? What are the third order effects? What happens if these markets continue to go down and stay down for the next two years? Yeah. And if you're a subscriber of the Ken, tickets for the event are priced at rupees 999. And if you're a non-subscriber, this might be a good time for you to get a subscription because tickets for you are going to be priced at one triple nine.

And this is going to be the first of hopefully many, many events that we plan to do over the next. Not hopefully for sure, I can tell you. For sure. For sure, events that we're going to do over the next several. months and years. Thank you for your time. What do they say? Link is in the show notes.

Much convenience is convenient enough. How far are we willing to go? And where do we draw a line? I'll tell you. As of now, there is no line. Because soon, you will be able to order a quote-unquote maid to come to your house within 15 minutes. She will do your cooking, your cleaning, scrubbing, nannying,

everything that a regular domestic worker usually does in our homes. But at what price? You won't believe it. The introductory offer is $49 an hour. Well, this is all thanks to urban company, the at-home services marketplace from India, which recently launched a service called Instamate. Right now, this is a pilot project that is running

only in specific areas of Mumbai. Now, this name, Instamate, for obvious reasons, has created backlash after which the company renamed the service to Insta Help. But that does not change the fact that this does very much feel like the commodification of domestic workers who work in an unregulated environment and are subject to all kinds of exploitation. If you remember, the platform is the largest employer of women gig workers in the country. More than a third of urban company's workforce is made up of women. But urban company itself has been under the sky.

canner and has been facing the ire of its service partners for quite a while now. You remember the episode that we had done on how the platform refuses to listen to the basic demands of its own women gig workers who offer in-home beauty and salon services. We discussed urban companies' history of stringent ratings, high platform commissions and arbitrary penalties with two of its own workers. So the fears that this new model could lead to unrealistic performance expectations, and increased job insecurity is absolutely valid. If you haven't come across that episode,

I highly recommend that you give it a listen. I'll add it to the show notes of this one. The point that I'm trying to make is how can we trust a company that has been already called out by thousands and thousands of its own workers to ethically pull off another new at-home service like this one. Keep in mind, most of these workers who will join will be women again, caused widespread criticism, especially from gig worker unions. The Telangara Gig and Platform Workers Union labeled the service as blatant exploitation of domestic workers.

It pointed out that speed should not come at the expense of dignity. Sheikh Salaluddin, the founder of the union and the National General Secretary of the Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers, expressed his concerns that the service treats workers as disposable and it will end up pushing them into high-pressure environments without properly thinking about their well-being. Salaluddin, in fact, even went ahead and called the service modern-day servitude that commodifies domestic workers under the quick commerce framework. Critics are now asking the government to intervene and impose regulations so that the workers get fair wages and social security. Meanwhile, urban company on its part has responded to the backlash on social media. The company said that it's

service partners will earn anything between 150 to 180 rupees per hour and will also receive benefits like free health, life and accidental insurance. They mentioned that partners will now be able to work for at least 132 hours per month, which is equal to 22 days at 6 hours per day. Also, they will have assured earnings of at least 20,000 rupees per month, and urban company also said that the 49 rupees per hour pricing is a limited time offer. But you see why this controversy brings us back to the same issues with India's booming gig economy, fair wages and job security. If urban company wants to continue expanding its services, addressing these concerns is crucial to maintain trust and also to ensure the well-being of its own workforce. Do you have an

opinion on this. I would love to hear from you. So please send us a voice note or a text on WhatsApp at 89711-08379. I'll repeat that again. 89711-08379. And now on to the next segment. Stay tuned. What does it take to grow a global brand today? First, there was the services wave of exports, led by InfoSys and WIPRO. Then companies like Zomato, Oyo, and Ola enter the picture and try to expand their operations globally. The third wave was headlined by SaaS companies like Freshworks and Zoho. But what will the fourth wave of tech exports be like? In the latest episode of the Ken's podcast 2x2,

host Rohin Tharmakumar and Praveen Gopal-Krishnan are joined by two founders who are in many ways at the forefront of that fourth wave. Mohit Kumar, founder and CEO of UltraHuman and Lalchan Bissu, co-founder of Kuku FM. They explain what the fourth wave is going to be. Here's a little sneak peek of the episode. Mohit, what's it for you for ultra-human? What is the larger trend that's paring you? What do you see as the wind behind your sales?

I would say that if I just do like a reiki of what happened, like a reverse recky essentially. I think one thing, there were a few forcing functions that actually helped us think about the global markets and actually make the global shift in our business. One was quite a little. clearly the fact that we started just before COVID. We were pretty much unsure if we build this for India,

how large this business is going to be. So from day when we started saying that, look, this is a global business because health is a global need. There is no local value that we can add in the business. 90 to 95% of the folks we met initially, either for a raising capital conversation or even for hiring, basically said that like, look, if you're building a global business,

why don't you incorporate in the US and move to US and build this? We couldn't find logical reason of what would moving to US actually enable for us. both the incorporation as well as moving physically. Yes, you could learn from folks in the US and the US consumer patterns, trends, which credit cards they use, where did they shop, etc. But we already had like enough people in the team who had spent a lot of years in the US. We could learn from just meeting investors in the US, but it'll be harder for us to make

that shift as a US company and then tell that story that this is the reason why we move to the US, although like some SaaS companies were doing that back then. Initially we thought that before we take that drastic step in the business, maybe let's just build the product and see what a US consumer actually needs. try to understand their mindset. And not just a US consumer. Like a consumer in India is also a consumer. They're value conscious.

That doesn't mean that they're not a customer. So we started thinking there's more first principles ground up back then. All right. That's about it from us this week. Thank you for tuning in and see you next week. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of the Ken, India's first subscriber-focused business news platform. What you're listening to is just a small sample of our subscriber-only offerings. A full subscription unlocks daily long-form feature stories, newsletters and podcast extras.

Head to the ken.com and click on the red subscribe button on the top of the Ken website. Today's episode was hosted and produced by Rahal Philippos and I, Snikda Sharma, and it was edited by Rajiv Sien.