Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale is an Indian snacks enterprise which popularly runs in Maharashtra. It was formed by Shri. Raghunath Rao Chitale in 1950 as a subsidiary of the Chitale Group of Industries. Its first outlet was set up in Bajirao Road, Pune City. Although its outlets are limited to major cities of Maharashtra, the products are distributed all across India. Over the years, Chitale Bandhu has been known for making namkeen and sweets. It is also known to export its namkeen to countries such asU.S., Singapore, and Israel. The brand menu consists of over sixty different kinds of sweets and forty different kinds of namkeen. The enterprise has an average turnover of around 200 crore rupees with around 2,000 to 2,500 customers shopping every day.
History
Early years
In mid-1930s, Bhaskar Ganesh Chitale, also known as B. G. Chitale, was an ordinary milk businessman located in a small village of Limb Gaon situated in the Satara district of Maharashtra. Due to an unexpected turn of events, his cattle fell prey to an unknown disease resulting in their death. This caused a major loss in the business owned by the Chitale Family. In 1939, with a fresh start B. G. Chitale founded the Chitale Group of industries by starting their first enterprise, Chitale Dairy. The brand quickly gained reputation for its quality after it expanded its reach after Raghunath Rao Chitale set up a shop in Mumbai, Maharashtra in a partnership. In the year 1946, the partnership came to an end and Raghunath Rao Chitale had to leave Mumbai. He then moved to Pune and started vending milk supplied to him from Bhiwandi. The business became a success in the city and in the year 1950 he bought a 500square feet shop where he set up a new enterprise, Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale. The shop is still operational and is now considered the headquarters of Chitale Bandhu.
Introduction to Bakarwadi
Chitale Bandhu started the sale of bakarwadi in 1970. Due to the growth of demand, the enterprise then installed machines to maintain the original shape and size of the bakarwadi. In the early nineties, the bhakarwadi sale was around a day. Currently, the enterprise sells about of the snack daily. Introduction of bakarwadi in Chitale Bandhu's shop increased the sales of the enterprise to a great extent. This growing demand for the new snack was fulfilled after B. G. Chitale's toured Japan in the 1970s. With the new innovations and technology, the enterprise adopted a semi-automatic production of bakarwadi in 1989. Later, the production was made completely automatic. This allowed the enterprise to grow faster. In the following years Chitale Bandhu started opening multiple branches around the city of Pune.
Computerized billing system
In 1985, the enterprise installed a computerized billing system.
Products
Snacks and namkeen
Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale has over 40 varieties of Namkeen sold at multiple outlets. Some of the common and widely sold Namkeen include: bakarwadi, various Chivda, Farsan, Gathi, Papadi, various sev, and Shankarpali. Along with these there are also multiple chaat products such as Samosa and Kachori.
Bakarwadi
Chitale Bandhu has been known for selling bakarwadi since the early 1970s. Although this snack was originally made in Gujarat, it gained popularity in Maharashtra when it was introduced. Many sources, such as NDTV foods, believe that although the enterprise was performing well in the sweets sector, after the introduction of bakarwadi in the menu, its sales increased rapidly. NDTV foods also referred to this snack as a "bronzed snack". With the technological change, the organisation made the production of bakarwadi automatic, which allowed it to boost the production of bakarwadi. This increased the sale of bakarwadis from 300 kilos a day in 1970, to over 3000 kilos a day in 2012.
Sev
A large variety of sev is available at Chitale Bandhu, such as:
Tikhat Jad Sev
Sadhi Sev
Zero-sized Sev
Masala Sev
Palak Sev
Tomato Sev
Chivda
The enterprise has also been known for selling variety of chivda, such as:
There are over 60 different sweets on the menu of the enterprise. The popular sweets that are sold include: various types of halva, burfi, sweet rolls, peda, Laddu and Jalebi.
Burfi
A list of burfi which are sold at Chitale Bandhu include:
The enterprise has various flavours of roll which include: gulkand, mango, anjir, and cashew-apple.
Controversy
In 2017, the workers of Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale, went on a strike who demanded a hike in their salaries. Following the labor court's order, the workers returned to work on October 1, 2017. However, according to the workers, they were not given a professional treatment after re-joining. Many of them stated that they were made to sit idle in the working hours. One of the employee, Vandana Ughade, claimed that the doors of the workplace were also closed to confine the workers in. Indraneel Chitale, the owner of the enterprise in 2017, countered all the claims by stating that the workers were left idle because the production itself was low due to the preceding strike.
