Haldiram Snacks Food Pvt. Ltd. ,

doing business as A trade name, trading name, or business name is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is fictitious business name. Registering the fictitious name with ...

Haldiram's is an Indian multinational

fast-food restaurant A fast-food restaurant, also known as a quick-service restaurant (QSR) within the industry, is a specific type of restaurant that serves fast food, fast-food cuisine and has minimal Foodservice#Table service, table service. The food served ...

chain A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A ...

, founded in 1937, as a confectionery and desserts shop in

Bikaner Bikaner () is a city in the northwest of the States and territories of India, state of Rajasthan, India. It is located northwest of the state capital, Jaipur. It is the administrative headquarters of Bikaner District and Bikaner division. Fo ...

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the List of states and union territories of ...

, by Ganga Bhishen Agarwal. It is currently based in

Noida Noida (), short for New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (ISO: ), is a city located in Gautam Buddha Nagar district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. As per provisional reports of Census of India, the population of Noida in 2011 was ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

. Haldiram's is also a FMCG company as most of its restaurants have a integrated retail section, where packaged Indian

snack A snack is a small portion of Human food, food generally Eating, eaten between meals. Snacks come in a variety of forms including Food packaging, packaged snack foods and other processed foods, as well as items made from fresh ingredients at ho ...

s and confectioneries are sold under its own brand.

History

Haldiram's was established in 1937 as a

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholes ...

sweets and namkeen shop in

. It was founded by Ganga Bhishen Agarwal, fondly known as Haldiram Ji. ''Agrawal is the grandson of the founder Ganga Bishan Agarwal, who started selling snacks from a tiny shop in Bikaner in Rajasthan and went on to create the popular Haldiram brand''. In order to drive expansion, the company's first manufacturing plant was started in

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

(now Kolkata). In 1970, a larger manufacturing plant was established in

Jaipur Jaipur (; , ) is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the List of cities and towns in Rajasthan, largest city of the north-western States and union territories of India, Indian state of Rajasthan. , the city had ...

. Another manufacturing plant was established in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

in the early 1990s. In 2003, the company began the process of developing

convenience food Convenience food (also called tertiary processed food) is food that is commercially prepared (often through processing) for ease of consumption, and is usually ready to eat without further preparation. It may also be easily portable, have ...

s to be marketed to consumers. In 2014, Haldiram's was ranked 55th among India's most trusted brands according to the Brand Trust Report; a study conducted by Trust Research Advisory. In 2017, the company was named the country's largest snack company. In 2022, it was announced that the packaged snacks businesses of Delhi-based Haldiram Snacks and Nagpur-based Haldiram Foods International would be first demerged and then

merged Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

into an entity named Haldiram Snacks Food. Delhi-based brothers Manohar and Madhusudan Agarwal obtained a 56% stake of the merged entity, while Nagpur-based Shiv Kishan Agarwal received the remaining 44%. In 2025, Singaporean state-owned investment firm Temasek acquired more than 9% stake in Haldiram's at a valuation of nearly US$10 billion.

Products

Haldiram's has over 410 products. Its product range includes traditional namkeens, western snacks, Indian traditional and contemporary sweets, cookies, sherbets, and pickles. Products such as

gulab jamun Gulab jamun is a sweet confectionery or dessert, originating in the Indian subcontinent, and a type of mithai popular in India, Pakistan, Nepal, the Maldives and Bangladesh, as well as Myanmar. It is also common in nations with substantial popu ...

and Bikaneri bhujia and papadam are popular. The company also produces

ready-to-eat food Convenience food (also called Food processing#Tertiary food processing, tertiary processed food) is food that is commercially food preparation, prepared (often through food processing, processing) for ease of Consumer (food chain), consumption ...

products, called Minute Khana. In the 1990s, the production of potato-based foods was enabled by the importation of machinery from United States designed for these purposes. Haldiram's products are marketed at various retail locations such as bakeries and confectionery stores, among others, and also on various commercial websites. Prior and up to August 2003 in the United States market, the company's products were limited to

potato chips Potato chips (North American English and Australian English; often just chip) or crisp (British English and Hiberno-English) are thin slices of potato (or a thin deposit of potato paste) that has been deep frying, deep fried, baking, baked, ...

(crisps). In the United States, the company's products are carried by many Indian supermarkets and are popular with the

Indian diaspora Overseas Indians (ISO 15919, ISO: ), officially Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and People of Indian Origin (PIOs) are people of Indian descent who reside or originate outside of India (Including those that were directly under the British Raj). Acc ...

In popular culture

Haldiram's

thali Thali (meaning "plate" or "tray") or Bhojanam (meaning "full meal") is a round Platter (dishware), platter used to serve food in South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Caribbean. Thali is also used to refer to an Indian-style meal made up of a sel ...

was featured as the main character's favourite snack in the Indian

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

-language romantic

family drama In film and television show, television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or docudrama, semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humour, humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional te ...

film '' Prem Ratan Dhan Payo'' (2015). More than 1.5

crore Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the India ...

Haldiram's snack packets were printed with the logo of the film.

Legal issues

In 2006, co-owner Prabhu Shankar Agarwal was found guilty for attempting to murder a tea seller. The tea seller had refused to move his stall from its location near Agarwal's restaurant in

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.haldiram.com/ Confectionery companies of India Companies based in Nagpur Fast-food chains of India Brand name potato chips and crisps Indian brands Indian companies established in 1937 Food and drink companies established in 1937