Down the Ages: From Bhakarwadi to Walmart, How Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwala’s Sweet Legacy is Going Global

It is a sultry May afternoon in Pune. But at the Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale outlet near Deccan Gymkhana, it is business as usual. A steady stream of customers keeps flowing into the sweet shop, some to make a quick purchase, others lingering to sample new offerings.

The constant hustle is familiar for Indraneel Chitale, who never envisioned a future in the family business. Instead, he studied engineering after school as “there was no pressure from the family to take over the business in future”.

“It was not about understanding the business but being employable in case something goes wrong. That is what we were told—to be able to stand on your own no matter what the legacy,” he tells Outlook Business.

But destiny had other designs.

Despite professional detours, Kedar Chitale and his cousin Indraneel found their way back to the legacy their grandfathers had built. Together, they have introduced innovations that have helped the brand expand beyond its local stronghold and across borders.

From Milk to Mithai

In 1939, Bhaskar Ganesh Chitale started a dairy business in the town of Bhilawadi. Initially focused on milk production, the enterprise gathered pace over the next decade when his sons RB Chitale and NB Chitale expanded the business in a different direction.

“From 1950, Chitale Bandhu started selling milk products like khowa, chakka. As there was enormous response, we started making traditional sweets like barfi and laddoo. My grandfather and his younger brother started Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale and launched our first shop,” says Kedar, the eldest in the current generation.

The evolution from a modest dairy operation to a household name and a presence in overseas markets has been anything but easy. But it has been able to refute the old Chinese proverb of a “three-generation rule” that claims that family businesses rarely survive beyond the third generation.

For Kedar and Indraneel, sustaining success has also meant a willingness to experiment.

Artisanal chocolates from Switzerland, matcha-flavoured éclairs and gluten-free doughnuts have intervened into spaces once firmly held by laddoo and barfi. Urban consumers are more health-conscious and scrutinise labels for products that have organic or zero trans fats and are gluten-free.

“We have a plethora of [sweet] products that are low in added sugar, lactose-free and gluten-free. We also have clean labelling on all items,” says Indraneel.

In a marketplace increasingly dominated by imported confectionery and shifting dietary preferences, the brand has introduced millets laddoo, no-added-sugar gulab jamun and kaju katli and high-fibre cookies, while also offering the traditional modak, laddoo and puranpoli.

“Our grandmothers played a big role in deciding the recipes of products like laddoo and bhakarwadi. We still follow their recipes,” says Kedar. Sticking to the original recipes of signature products has allowed the brand to preserve appeal among its core Marathi customer base, proving that in an era of constant reinvention, familiarity still sells.

Finding the Sweet Spot

Over the decades, each generation of the Chitale family has grappled with its own set of challenges—ranging from the complexities of scaling production and managing logistics to navigating the downturn in demand during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We started making snacks in 1977. But it took 12 years to shift to mechanised production. During the 1970s, due to lack of machinery, we could make only 200kg of bhakarwadi per day,” says Kedar.

As demand outstripped capacity, the Chitale family turned to automation, fully mechanising production by 1997 to scale operations. Yet with increased output came a new challenge: managing the complexities of large-scale distribution.

By that time, the Chitale family had established more than 50 stores in Pune and franchise shops in other cities. “Mithai business is a highly perishable business, so transportation and logistics became a challenge. Having uniform services in all franchise shops became difficult,” says Kedar.

The core hurdle lay in machinery—at the time, specialised equipment required to produce bhakarwadi was scarce. Transporting finished products posed logistical issues and replicating production near franchise outlets was impossible due to the unavailability of suitable machines across India.

“Finally, we found machines that were making spring rolls in other countries and that were available in abundance [and] brought those,” says Kedar.

Currently, the family has a few dozen shops across cities in Maharashtra and one outlet in Goa.

While business was growing and the third generation was preparing to tap into the Indian diaspora market abroad, the pandemic struck with full force. “We realised during Covid-19 that customers preferred packaged products over loose sweets and snacks. Thus, we upscaled our packaged-items production. With this, we also managed to export more packaged products abroad,” says Kedar.

The company focuses on growth primarily through third-party retail, that is, resellers and quick commerce, with the emphasis being on low-unit price products that are under ₹50. This approach has given it a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 20% for three years now. Their next target is expanding in other countries.

“The US and Australia have already been tapped and we are working with a couple of big-box retailers there, like Kohl’s and Walmart,” says Indraneel. The brand has six outlets in the US and exports to the UAE and the UK as well.

Signs of the Times

Long-time residents of Pune remember how the brand used to close its shutters from 1–4 pm every day, a culture that has since changed. As customer demand surged and the city’s pace of life evolved, Chitale Bandhu adapted. Today, its stores remain open from morning till late evening.

Another change has been an increased focus on marketing and creative commercials. The brand signed cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar as its brand ambassador as it marks its 75th anniversary.

“Marketing is extremely important these days. We wanted a face with which the masses would be able to connect immediately. It will help us increase our reach,” says Kedar.

Despite these changes in doing business, for over six decades, the company has deliberately steered clear of outside investors, keeping ownership within the family.

The legacy of the sons of the late RB Chitale is now being carried forward by his sons Madhav and Shrikrishna and grandson Kedar. In parallel, the lineage of the late NB Chitale continues through his son Govind and grandson Indraneel.

Both branches of the family remain deeply rooted in the business. Despite this, there is a strict policy of no business discussion at home, says Indraneel.

“Previously, the families used to gather more at events than in the office. But now, with technology, we are always connected, we talk less about business [at home],” said Indraneel.

That said, the cousins have left no stone unturned to welcome new ideas and innovations from their employees, especially the younger ones.

“We have a reward system where every member irrespective of whichever channel they are working in, can come up with a product idea. If that materialises into trials, they are incentivised,” says Indraneel.

It is this approach that has helped Chitale Bandhu remain one of the sweet anchors in India’s evolving gastronomic story, testifying to the legacy of authentic flavours and a dedication to heritage.