‘Spice King’ MDH's Dharampal Gulati leaves behind a lasting legacy
- 3 years ago
Gulati passed away yesterday at ripe old age of 98 after suffering a cardiac arrest. With a paltry sum of money in 1947, he slowly and steadily turned his spice business into a multi-million FMCG empire, today globally known as MDH Masala.
'Mahashay’ Dharampal Gulati, the owner and CEO of the iconic spice masala brand MDH (Mahashian Di Hatti), passed away yesterday, at the age of 98.
Known as the ''king of spices'', Dharampal Gulati, was undergoing treatment at Mata Chanan Devi Hospital in Delhi for the last three weeks. His condition deteriorated on Wednesday night and he passed away yesterday morning because of cardiac arrest.
Most fondly known as ‘Mahashay', Gulati was born in 1919 in Pakistan’s Sialkot, where his father had set up a small shop.
However, after the Partition in 1947, his family moved to Delhi in India. In 1953, Gulati rented a shop in Chandni Chowk, named it Mahashiyan Di Hatti (MDH), and started selling spices. ). He left studies at a very young age to help his father at the shop.
From a small shop in Karol Bagh, ‘Mahashay’ Dharampal Gulati built MDH as one of India's leading spices brand. He officially established his company in 1959. At that time, he bought a piece of land in Kirti Nagar to set up a manufacturing unit.
At present, MDH Spices, which reportedly manufactures nearly 50 different varieties of spices, has 15 factories across the country and sells its products across the globe, as per reports. Gulati became highest-paid CEO of a FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) company in India in 2017, according to reports.
Dharampal Gulati was born and raised in Pakistan. His father Chuni Lal sold spices at a shop called Mahasian Di Hatti that opened back in 1919. The family migrated to India and they stayed as a refugee in Amritsar (Punjab).
When Gulati left with his brother-in-law to Delhi, that is when he bought a horse-drawn carriage with the money his father gave him. Back then, when he realised that the business wasn't doing well, he decided to open a small shop and restarted his own family business of selling spices in Karol Bagh (A popular market located in Central Delhi).
Slowly, he noticed that the pace at which the spices were selling was helping him gain success as this was an untouched niche during that time.
Later, Gulati rented one more shop in Chandni Chowk to begin his factory. This was the starting of Mashian Di Hatti (MDH), his father's legacy.
The business did not just flourish in India but he became a distributor and exporter as well. At present, MDH spices are exported to various parts of the world including the UK, Europe, UAE, Canada.
MDH is now a globally recognized huge brand and it exports spices to across the world. MDH spices are sold throughout India and abroad through a network of thousands of wholesalers and over million small retail dealers. MDH products range from ground spices to blended spices and even exotic spices like saffron.
In 2017, Gulati was India's highest paid FMCG CEO, drawing a salary of nearly US $ 3,00,000 which was higher than most other famous CEO’s like Adi Godrej and Vivek Gambhir of Godrej Consumer, Sanjiv Mehta of Hindustan Unilever and YC Deveshwar of ITC.
MDH had posted a net profit of INDRs 213 crore while its total revenues were IND Rs 924 crore in 2017 fiscal.
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