History & Marketing Strategies of MDH Brand

Company Name- MDH (Mahashian Di Hatti)
Founder- Mahashay Chuni Lal

Mahashay Di Hatti Private Limited doing business, as MDH is an Indian spice producer and seller based in New Delhi, India. It is second largest leader in the market with 12% market share. The company is known for producing 30 tons of packaged spices in a day through its automated machine brought from various parts of the world.

 

How All It Started

The founder setup the masala company in Sialkot in 1919, which was associated with Mahashay Chunni Lal Charitable trust. After partition of India, his son, Mahashay Dharam Pal Gulati moved to Delhi, opened a shop in a shack, and started selling spices.

After sometime, he bought a plot to setup his own spice factory. Then he built the entire group to one of India’s leading spices manufacturer expanding to 15 factories. 

Launching

The masala company was setup in 1919. Starting with manually ground spices, MDH switched over to automatic machines to meet the fast growing demand for MDH spices. Several decades ago, housewives use to grind their spices manually at home and make their own blends for use in their cooking, to make this process easier for the housewife, ‘Mahashian Di Hatti’ (MDH) visualized the concept of ready-to-go ground spices for them.  

MDH today have a range of 62 products available in over 150 different packages. In 1959, he setup the MDH spice factory. Speaking to the Economic Times, Mahashay Dharam Pal Gulati, who is currently 94 years old said that his motivation to work is being sincere in the product quality which is sold at affordable prices! Nearly 90% of his salary goes to charity.

 

MDH’s Marketing Strategy and Interesting Reasons behind Its Success

-MDH has a varied product line of grounded and blended spices like MDH Haldi Powder, MDH Degi Mirch, Jeera Powder, Garam Masala, Chicken Masala, Chana Masala, Rajma Masala, Dry mango (amchur) powder and many more. They also have 3 products other than spices. They are MDH Dant Manjan, MDH Kesar and MDH Havan Samagri.

-The company faces a lot of competitions from other brands and hence has adopted a competitive market as well as penetrative pricing strategy. It wants to sell its products in every parts of the country. Both these models have helped in larger sales volumes and greater revenues for the company.

-MDH is also available in Saudi Arabia, Japan, UAE, The United kingdom, Europe, Canada, The United States of America and a few parts of South East Asia as well. Its fully automated manufacturing plants in Gurgaon, New Delhi, Nagpur and Sajot in India. A fully functional unit is working in Sharjah, UAE. 

-MDH Masala has a widespread distribution channel in India that includes more than 400,000 retail dealers and 1,000 wholesalers. MDH is penetrating into the market by competitive pricing strategy to maintain a firm holds on the consumer market. Apart from the expeditions, the prices of spices vary from Rs. 25 to 70 for a 100-gram packaging, which is reasonable. The firm leaves no touch point empty to reach the customers – be it local corner shops, convince/discount stores or super markets.

-It faces a stiff competition from Everest, which has 13% market share, Catch, CookMe, Ramdev, Pushp, Mother’s Recipe, Priya and Nilon’s. MDH earns a good amount of revenue from its exports to Japan. 

Charity work by MDH

Mahashay Dharam Pal has developed more than 20 schools including MDH International School, Mata Lilawati Knanya Vidyalaya, Mahashay Chunnilal Saraswati Shushu Mnadir, Mahashay Dharampal Vidya Mandir and more.

He started a 10-bed eye hospital at Arya Samaj, Subhash Nagar in November 1975. In January 1984, a 20-bed hospital was established in Janakpuri, New Delhi to commemorate his mother Mata Chanan Devi. Now it has 300 beds in about 5 acres land. The hospitals are equipped with CT scan, MRI, HERAT Wing, Neuro Sciences, IVF, etc.   

 

MDH campaign

MDH has unique selling preposition in terms of its quality and traditional yet distinctive flavours. It utilizes its USP in all its promotion campaigns. From Television, print media to its entire social media handles the marketing communication in sync with its USP.

The owner of MDH has become a known face with his appearance in the advertisement. All the ads made by the brand feature the owner of the company Mahashay Dharam Pal Gulati, which is unique and hence has a very prominent recall value in the minds of the consumers.

Nature Jaisi Shudta” campaign made to promote the natural ingredients used for making the species and depict their purity. ‘Mahashay Dharam Pal Gulati Journey Ad’ is published in the year 2017, which focused on the journey of the owner and how he has been associated with all the process of the company that has reached such great heights 

A unique and creative ad film ‘MDH Masala StoryEnterpreneurial Journey of Mahashay Dharam Pal’  made by a fan who has explained the story and the journey of the owner of this spice company and how has he been so successful in India and globally.

The company has taken up socially relevant projects and has developed Mahashay Chuni Lal Trust. It has received several awards for its products like ITID Quality Excellence Award, Dadabhai Naorogi Award, Arch of Europe Award and many more.

 

Conclusion

In India spices are a part of life and heritage and MDH makes it the important part of Indian food because of taste and quality its spices. At the age of 94, Dharam Pal was the highest paid FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) CEO in India in 2007. He took home over Rs. 21 crore as salary last fiscal. 

At the age of 96, where most of his peers retire, the proud owner who still owns 80% of his company stakes, makes his daily round of factories, markets and meets the dealers on Sundays until he is satisfied that everything is in order in the company.

MDH is known for its quality, distinct flavors and traditions. This spice giant has targeted households all over the country and has distribution channels in the smallest of towns in India. It has opened hospitals and schools for the well-being of the people, thereby maintaining a positive brand image. 

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