Ahmedabad, Gujarat, 2021. Vashist Nitin Patel was gingerly in his approach. The third-generation entrepreneur—he joined the family business of flour and spices in 2001, beefed up the Gaay Chhap and Uttam brands, and scaled it from ₹42 crore to ₹1,100 crore in revenue in two decades—was on a routine market visit last January. Apart from gauging the pulse of the market and feedback of consumers, Patel wanted to share a technical update with his sea of retailers. “They are family members and we share everything with them,” says the director of Shree Bhagwati Flour & Foods, which started with Gaay Chhap besan (gram flour) in 1962.
(This story appears in the 07 October, 2022 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)