What Haldiram's is known for

Snack and sweets chain founded in 1937 in Bikaner, Rajasthan, by Ganga Bhishen Agarwal, who began selling bhujia and traditional sweets from a small shop before the family opened a Nagpur manufacturing plant in 1970.

Haldiram's traces back to 1937, when Ganga Bhishen Agarwal — known as Haldiram Ji — opened his own small shop in Bikaner, Rajasthan, after learning the trade in his father's bhujia business. Bhujia is a crunchy, deep-fried chickpea-flour snack seasoned with spices, and it became the foundation of what Agarwal built: a shop selling bhujia alongside other traditional Indian sweets and namkeen. As demand grew beyond Bikaner, the family expanded operations to Kolkata and, in 1970, opened a manufacturing plant in Nagpur, Maharashtra, a move aimed at reaching markets across western and southern India. Nagpur later became the company's operational base. The broader Agarwal family runs several related but separately structured businesses under different names — including Haldiram's, Bikanervala, Bhikharam Chandamal and Bikaji — a pattern common among Rajasthani trading families that split operations among siblings and branches over generations. Today Haldiram's product range spans namkeen, packaged sweets, chaat and ready meals, sold through its own outlets and wide retail distribution across India and abroad.