A South Indian restaurant making big losses because of the 1975 emergency decided to pivot their business model and ended up becoming a global 1000 crore INR brand.

A thread on MTR foods

1/

1920 - 3 brothers from Udupi left to find a better life in Bangalore. Being good in cooking, they became cooks in some small eateries.

1924 - The brothers decided to start a small restaurant called Brahmin Coffee Club on Lalbagh Fort Road. The place served coffees and Idlis

2/

The unique proposition of the restaurant was the hygeine and cleanliness standards which was not a priority for restaurants that time.

This helped them become popular through word of mouth. And slowly they added more veg items to the menu.

3/

1942 - During World War 2, India faced a shortage of rice. To manage things, they experimented with Semolina (Rawa) and became the first to create Rawa Idli.

1951 - The restaurant was renamed as Mavalli Tiffin Rooms (MTR) after the locality where it was situated

4/

1975 - During emergency, MTR was finding it tough to continue running their business. Also, the food control act which regulated that food had to be sold at very low prices meant that MTR was making losses. So they shut down the restaurant

5/

But to save the jobs of the people working with them, they started selling their raw material like spices, mixes, pickle, chutneys, etc. used in the restaurant in MTR branded packs through the grocery shops in Bangalore.

6/

Surprisingly, this business turned out to be more profitable than the restaurant business. They also added ready to eat products like upma, idli, chips and snacks.

1984 - They again reopen the restaurant and slowly started adding more restaurants in Bangalore.

7/

But the focus remained on expanding the product range of the foods division

1990 - They also were the first in India to import ice cream machines (softy ice creams) and started franchising ice cream kiosks as well

8/

2000 - PE players came calling. Aquarius Capital invested 6 crores and after 2 years JP Morgan partners invested 19.2 crores.

2007 - Orkla, a Norwegian conglomerate acquires MTR for 100 million $ giving an exit to the family and the other investors.

9/

Today MTR has 15 restaurants in India and abroad. But, more importantly it has a huge range of products sold both in India & abroad with revenues close to 1000 crores INR

It continues to innovate with new product ranges like 3 minute breakfast range

10/10

MTR is now amongst the most famous food products company in India.

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Sources :

https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.timesofindia.com/business/india-business/mtr-foods-the-journey-of-innovation/amp_articleshow/65152609.cms

http://www.mavallitiffinrooms.com/about 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.scroll.in/article/948221/mavalli-tiffin-rooms-taste-the-secret-sauce-of-the-legendary-south-indian-restaurant-chain-mtr