Kiaamya: Sweet Success
Nikhil Ballal
The latest entrant into the hustling and bustling sweets and namkeen market of Thane is Kiaamya. Though the brand set its foot on the city of lakes on October 8, 2019, its parent company has been around for close to four decades. Under the umbrella of Mahalaxmi Sweets and Namkeen, a leading name in Jalgaon, the Kolte family has been serving quality products since 1983. It offers an avalanche of delicacies including chivda, shev, pedha, barfi, shrikhand, chocolates, dry fruits and many more.
It all started in the early 1980s when Govind Kolte, a hardworking gentleman slogged day in and day out to meet both ends. With a modest financial background, it was not a smooth ride for Kolte. Just like his father, Govind did odd jobs on the farm to earn money. He studied till seventh standard and was forced to drop out due to dearth of finances. However that did not deter him. He was determined to work hard which helped him change his fortunes.
Govind’s maternal uncle saw him striving and he decided to take him along to Ahmednagar. There he gave him job. When it seemed that everything would be fine, Govind was removed from that job after the retirement of hismaternal uncle. Kolte was at crossroads. He could either go back to Jalgaon or pave a different way for him. He decided to do the latter.
Govind went to Mumbai. There again he started working as a daily wage labourer. He worked all day long and then slept on footpaths. Many a times the police used to whack the people sleeping on footpaths and once he was at the receiving end of the same. He decided to search a new place. He found one and slept outside a house. Next morning the owner of the house saw him and was surprised. Though the owner allowed Govind to sleep there, he wanted him to clean the utensils in return.
After a few days, that house owner’s son in law, on his visit, met Govind and upon his father in law’s request called Kolte to his office. He gave Kolte a job in a factory (W.G.Forging Co.). All seemed to be going well till that house owner left for his native place. Again there was no place for Kolte to sleep. To solve this issue, he decided to take up night shift. He worked from 8pm to 8am in the factoryand slept between 12noon and 6pm in a movie theatre. This was the routine for sometime and finally Kolte and his couple of friends rented a place in Kopri. He continued to work in the night shift though. A few days later, he got an offer to go to Kudal where a new branch of his factory was being opened. He grabbed the opportunity with both hands as he knew he would earn an extra buck.
In 1979 Kolte got married and in view of starting his own family moved from company quarters to a posh chawl. Govind always believed in having good people around that’s why he rented a decent place.
Govind’s elder son Shailesh was born in 1980 and the younger one Deepak in 1981. Just adjacent to his chawl, there was another chawl, where a gentleman by the name Tayshete was into the chivda business. He asked Kolte if he could work with him in the business. Kolte agreed.After few years, Taysheteshared the recipe with Kolte. After gaining experience, Kolte decided to expand the business and therefore he went to Jalgaon. He started with a small shop in 1983. Till 1993, Kolte made and sold only chivda. Around late 1992, he took a big space in MIDC and started a factory; Mahalaxmi Sweets and Namkeen. Slowly and steadily, Kolte increased his repertoire and introduced more products. Seeking guidance from Milan Mithai, he started with manufacturing pedha. Gradually, barfi, kajukatli, shev, etc. started finding their feet in the factory.
In 1998, another factory was opened and it housed over 50 products. Shailesh’s brother Deepak joined the family business in 2003. Deepak is a gold medalist in food technology and his expertise has been very useful in the growth of the business. In 2005, the entire working was based on ERP. Company’s website was developed in 2006 and Koltes started taking orders online. In 2015, they introduced an app for the same.
Apart from serving quality delicacies, Koltes believe in top notch packaging. Once Govindhad got mithai from Nashik. By the time his family had it in Jalgaon, it did not smell good. That time the Koltes realized that though the quality of mithai was nice, bad packaging led to its downfall. Mahalaxmi Sweets and Namkeen is the first company in India to use ITC Paperboards for packaging. Using quality paper ensures the taste of the product. There is yet another aspect in which they have been the pioneers and that is use of pharma grade sugar in their products. Since 1998, they have used pharma grade sugar instead of the regular sugar. They believe in providing healthy food to our customer. Therefore, they ensure that we use only good quality and safe ingredients in our delicacies.
At present, Mahalaxmi Foods and Kiaamya manufactures and sells over 200 items and have unequivocally carved a good name for them across India.
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