Arvind Dadu

SWEET SPOT

- Shrabonti Bagchi

It is probably the most flavour-packed building in Jigani, an industrial area on the outskirts of Bengaluru populated by chemical plants, hardware manufacturing facilities and printing presses.

You don't quite expect to find a place that churns out kaju katlis, motichoor laddoos and baklava in the heart of this strictly unromantic neighbourhood, but Anand Sweets' presence here is not accidental. It was in 2009 that the Bengaluru-based company, which makes mithai, snacks, savouries, and runs restaurants and airport retail stores, decided to move to a central manufacturing facility.

"It was an unusual move, because back then most mithai shops did everything on the same premises, making mithai and namkeens in a backroom and selling them in the front of the store," says Arvind Dadu, 44, managing director of Anand Sweets & Savouries, the family-owned company started by his father Anand in 1988 and now run by him and his brothers Ankeet and Ankush.

Dadu is showing me around the 300,000 sq. ft facility that churns out around 15,000kg of sweets and snacks every day. "As we were expanding the number of outlets, we decided to move everything to a central place to maintain hygiene and quality standards... to make sure that any bite of Mysore pak from any of our stores would taste the same."