1900s Monginis | Sweet endings

The overpowering sweet smell on the ground floor of the two-storeyed blue-pink building does not faze any of the dozen-odd workers putting the final touches to a conveyor belt of cakes. There are cakes everywhere, mostly circular ones, which are being smothered either with white cream or glossy chocolate.

The father and son duo of Zoher H. Khorakiwala and Qusai Z. Khorakiwala stand amid the sugary treats, equally unaffected. They, like the workers at Monginis Foods Pvt. Ltd’s production unit in Andheri, Mumbai, have been there, seen that. Many times, practically every day; these are merely products of their enterprise, not desirable commodities that would have others salivating.

Zoher, the chairman and managing director, inherited the company from his father Hussain and shares it with his three younger brothers. Idris and Quresh handle Monginis’ production and distribution in Cairo, Egypt, while Kumail is joint managing director in Mumbai. Qusai leads the third generation; at 28, he has stepped into the business ahead of his younger siblings.

Their office, in a lane identified by the company’s name, is on the second floor; the lower levels are dedicated to various aspects of production. There is the overpowering heat from the assembly line of ovens in one section, intensified by melting chocolate in another corner, offset soon by the chilling calm of the icing area where another set of workers squeeze “smileys” on more cakes. Traditional handwork mixes well with technology—just ahead, a machine prints a glossy image of Spider-Man in edible ink on what will eventually end up at a kiddy party.

Though the exact dates are not clear, Monginis is around 100 years old, started by two Italian brothers in pre-independent India, in an eponymous restaurant-cum-store in Fort. At some point post-independence, and history gets a little blurred here, they sold the store to a family now identified only as the Khuranas. They held the firm for just a few months before selling it to the Khorakiwala family in 1961—the family bought the space, actually, for Akbarallys, the departmental store.

But since all the baking equipment already existed, the family decided not to shut down Monginis and began selling its products at a counter at Akbarallys. Today, Akbarallys’ furniture store stands at the place where the Italians once mixed dough.

“I remember when we were children,” says Zoher, who started working in the family business in 1972, “people would queue up outside the shop. They used wooden trays at the bakery and fresh cakes and puffs would be brought to the counter. It would get over in minutes. Then the next batch would be made. It was a constant cycle.”

As Akbarallys gained fame, the Khorakiwalas felt the need to diversify, which they did with a store in Bandra. “Even then, in south Mumbai, there were a few bakers, including another Italian and a Swiss. But they made highly-priced Western cakes, which we made affordable. Our products were available in grocery stores but they would just lie in a corner. So we thought we might as well open an exclusive cake shop,” says 60-year-old Zoher.

The Andheri unit started in 1986, when the Fort operation was wrapped up. By then, Hussain and his sons had taken over Monginis after the various business interests of the family were divided among the brothers. Qusai says his father and uncles saw the baking industry playing a “niche market role rather than in the mass market”. They applied their learnings from their travels abroad in starting franchises, in both manufacturing and cake shops, which led to Monginis becoming a national player.

The first franchise store opened in Kolkata in the 1990s, often the reason why the brand is mistakenly considered to have started there.

The current generation, led by Qusai, wants to take Monginis forward through the modern channels of retail—online, across B-towns, with multiple business models, so that people across the world can have their cake and eat it too.

Qusai talks about their four business models—the cake shop for freshly made everyday products, the long shelf life open market packaged goods which are distributed in 17 states, and e-commerce. The fourth business model that’s still in the works is a bake-shop unit for smaller cities which do not need a full manufacturing unit. It’s the concept that will take Monginis strongly into smaller towns like Jaipur, Aurangabad and Raipur, among others.

Their existing business has already made Monginis among the biggest players in the organized sector in terms of volumes, with their target audience remaining the upper-middle, middle and lower-middle classes. “There is no national player in my segment,” says Qusai. “For example, Merwans are killing us in Andheri, but they have only one shop.” An indication of Monginis’ size comes from the average production generated in Mumbai—with 229 outlets, they make 30,000 pastries a day and 7,000 gateaus (from 1/2-5kg). These numbers dip during weekdays and peak on weekends, says Qusai. During Christmas, the figures turn turtle: to about 300,000 pastries and 40,000 gateaus a day.

Qusai admits he does not mind being known as a “station brand” for Monginis is often found near local train stations in the city. “We have a strong lower-middle class client base who are loyal,” he says, sitting in front of a poster that declares, “A balanced diet is chocolate in both hands”.

Even though their products have changed over the years, there are some perennial favourites like butter cream and Black Forest. “I don’t know why,” he muses. Their focus recently has been on—and with great success—the eggless and vegetarian cakes. What Qusai has not been able to explain is the total failure of their sugarless products. “We have the highest cases of diabetes in the world, so I don’t know how to comprehend the market.”