How GRB churned itself into a ghee giant

After milk, ghee is the second most consumed dairy product in India and a crowded category. But it’s a category where regional players have held their own against national heavyweights like Amul, Aashirvaad (ITC), Britannia, and Gowardhan, and churned up growth. Take Bengaluru-based GRB Dairy Foods Private Ltd, which from humble beginnings has scaled up into a ₹1,010-crore company — riding on strong connections with retailers — and is now on an ambitious expansion journey.

The company is pumping in ₹100 crore to ramp up its Nilakottai factory, in Dindigul district, where, beyond ghee, it produces snacks and sweets. The expansion is expected to be completed by FY26.

A vital ‘break’through

When founder GR Balasubramaniam first approached retailers with his brand of ghee, he was met with scepticism. People buy from their local dairy, why would they pick yours, they asked him. The year was 1984. Balasubramaniam and his team would carry along 10-20 ghee bottles, hoping that shopkeepers would agree to stock them.

One fine day, his fortune changed in an unexpected way. Trying to convince a shopkeeper to give his product a try, he placed a few bottles on the counter. It was a busy day and, in the rush, one of the bottles slipped and shattered on the floor. The golden ghee splashed across the store entrance. Dejected and embarrassed, Balasubramaniam bent down to clear the glass shards and mop up the spilt ghee. As he turned to leave, the shopkeeper, in a fit of compassion, offered to take a box containing 24 ghee bottles. Eventually, the shopkeeper continued to stock the product and recommended it to other stores too.

In the beginning he was working with just 75 kg of butter a month, Balasubramaniam recalls. “Within a year or two, it was already selling in 10 shops and, soon, I was moving 1,000 kg per month,” he says.

Balasubramaniam had his exposure to the world of business at the tender age of 13, when he joined his sister’s family venture in Bengaluru. Eventually he started his own business, selling butter door-to-door. Quickly realising that the product’s limited shelf-life meant it had to be sold by the 15th of every month, he decided to convert the butter into ghee for extended shelf-life.

Post 1991, his ghee began gaining traction in the busy retail hubs of Jayanagar, Basavanagudi, Rajajinagar, Malleshwaram and Vijayanagar in Bengaluru. Word of mouth helped, and demand soon outpaced supply. However, production remained a challenge.

Balasubramaniam was the face of the company. Though he had helpers and his family supporting him in running the business, retailers knew him personally and preferred to deal with him alone.

Until 1993, all manufacturing took place in a small setup in Bengaluru’s City Market. As demand surged, he realised he needed a dedicated production space and team. This pushed him to transition from a personal, hands-on approach to a distributor-based model.

To ensure that the market associated more with the product than him, he realised he needed to establish a strong brand identity. Thus, in Chennai, he introduced his product under the brand name ‘Udhayam’.

The strategy worked. Branded ghee was placed in key retail locations, and sales picked up. Shops in areas like T Nagar, Mylapore, and Kothawal Chavadi — once Asia’s largest fruit and vegetable market — became strongholds for the brand. Slowly but steadily, Udhayam gained traction in Tamil Nadu.

He replicated the strategy in Bengaluru with the GRB brand name. In 1999, he set up a ghee production factory in Hosur; and in 2004, the company began exporting to Singapore and Malaysia.

Diversification

GRB currently operates six plants for ghee production. In addition, it has dedicated factories for instant mixes, sweets, and masalas, while the Nilakottai factory focuses on snacks. A new plant in Nilakottai has begun producing sweets.

With its expanded portfolio of products, GRB targets revenues of ₹1,500 crore for FY26.

GRB sources butter from across India through a network of regular suppliers. In the ghee market, the company told businessline, it holds a 27.8 per cent share in Karnataka, 24.7 per cent in Tamil Nadu, 21.3 per cent in Andhra Pradesh, and 28.5 per cent in Telangana.

Ghee contributes 75 per cent of GRB’s total revenue, while the rest comes from its food segment. With a presence in 39 countries currently, GRB aims to increase this to 50 countries by the next financial year. Exports contribute ₹100 crore, and the company says it is profitable.

With ghee consumption in India steadily rising, GRB seems to be on a well-oiled wicket. But it’s also in an increasingly competitive field, marked by the entry of several new D2C brands with strong digital play.

Source : Dairynews7x7 March 17th 2025 The Hindu Business Line