GIVING BACK TO SOCIETY IS WHAT KEEPS HAMDARD RELEVANT: HAMID AHMED

Hamdard, meaning a companion in pain, made a humble beginning in 1906 as a small affordable Unani clinic. Less than half a century later, it was converted into a trust, with a pledge to use profits for charitable purposes. Hamid Ahmed, who is the great-grandson of founder Hakeem Abdul Majeed, and CEO and trustee of Hamdard Laboratories India (Food Division), tells Rajat Mishra about the company's expansion plans, strategies and hopes for newly launched and upcoming products

- Rajat Mishra

How has Brand Hamdard stayed relevant over the last 100 years?

It is because of our philosophy of providing quality products to the masses at an affordable price. We have always stayed true to that mission. That is one of our core focus areas, and we have been very successful. This has been proven with Rooh Afza, which is not only the highest selling, but also the most economical, sharbat in that category. It is also known for having the most number of ingredients in that category. Others use synthetic products. They use just sugar and colour. But we use ingredients such as mint, rose petals, orange juice, pineapple juice and cloves.

Our motive is also to earn profits, but how to use these profits is equally important. We provide the best quality of products at an affordable price. And, we use our profits differently. We give away 85% of the profits that we earn in charity. This is, again, a point of relevance.

We have been building institutions. We have built a university, a couple of schools, cultural institutes and skill development institutes from the profits that we have earned from selling Hamdard products all through these years. We have managed to stay relevant because of this model.

How has Hamdard's journey been so far?

Hamdard was started by my great-grandfather Hakeem Abdul Majeed in 1906 in old Delhi. It was a proprietorship company at that time. Unfortunately, he died in 1921. So, his wife, who was my great-grandmother, and her two sons (my grandfather and his younger brother) formed a partnership in the business.