Sharply earmarking geographies has helped regional brands become kings and queens in their respective kingdoms. And most don't aspire the emperor's throne
If given a chance, what would you like to become: A king or an emperor?” I ask Suresh Kaneriya towards the fag end of a Zoom interview in September. If the query was unembellished, the reply from one of the partners at Rajkot-based Kaneriya Oil Industries was equally unornamented. “Neither,” quips the ‘carrom king’, a moniker bestowed on him by friends for having an unblemished track record in the board game. “I always go for the queen,” smiles the third-generation entrepreneur, who rolled out Rani groundnut edible oil along with his brothers in 1979. “I have Rani, and she rules over Gujarat,” he laughs, alluding to the dominant market share of Rani in groundnut oil in Rajkot and Gujarat. Overall, he claims, the brand is among the top three players in the state, and closed FY22 with a revenue of ₹1,323 crore, close to a three-fold jump from ₹460.15 crore in FY16.
(This story appears in the 07 October, 2022 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)