From selling on the streets to becoming a destination brand, the story of Kanpur’s Thaggu ke Laddu

Six decades ago, Ram Avtar Pandey, alias Mattha Pandey, would roam around the streets of Kanpur with a big thali full of laddus in his hands and a gamcha (fine cotton cloth) on his shoulders. 

His laddus were so liked by everyone that they would wait for him eagerly in their neighbourhood knowing he would be passing their street with his delicious fare.  

And guess what he named the laddus? Thaggu ke Laddu!

Ram Avtar came to Kanpur from his village Parauli in Uttar Pradesh with empty pockets. But he carried with him his wife’s delicious laddus, which would go on to change his fortunes.

Ram Avtaar revised his wife’s recipe to sell the laddus in the big city and earn his livelihood. 

But what made him call himself a thug (cheater) considering he named his laddus, Thaggu ke Laddu? 

In an interaction with SMBStory, his grandson, the third generation entrepreneur of the brand, Ravi Pandey, says,

“Our grandfather was the follower of Mahatma Gandhi and was a regular at his public meetings. He would get motivated by listening to the Mahatma’s speeches. Once, Gandhiji referred to sugar as white poison. His words put our grandfather in a dilemma. As a follower of Gandhi, he wondered how he would prepare laddu without sugar? So he decided to be true to his customers and named his product Thaggu ke Laddu, implying that he was a cheat because he was using sugar in his laddus.

The brand name now comes with his popular line: “Aisa koi saga nahi jisko humne thaga nahi (there is no relative remaining whom we have not cheated).”

Humble beginnings

Besides the delicious laddus, Ram Avtar had a knack for storytelling and drawing attention to his products using humour and wit.  

In today’s world where entrepreneurs spend large amounts of money in marketing and promotions, Ram Avtar had his own marketing strategy. Ravi says,

“Our grandfather was a firm believer that you cannot sell something in a straight-forward way. People like a twist in the tale.” 

For example, he also used to sell puris in a neighbourhood of Kanpur that was associated with cloth mill unions. He named his puris ‘communist puri’ made from “apraadhi atta”. 

Later, he rented a small shop in Meston Road, Kanpur, which in the 60s was also known as Neta Bazaar, as it had the official residences of ministers. His laddus in this market were known as ‘Neta Bazaar ke laddu’ and went with the tagline: ‘dikhane mein kuch aur, khane mein kuch aur’ (not what it looks like) as a dig at the politicians. 

In 1973, after having saved up some money, he bought a small shop in Parade area of Kanpur and named it Thaggu ke Laddu. However, after a few years, the shop accidentally caught fire following riots in the region.

Though this was one of the toughest phases of Ram Avtar’s life, good luck knocked on the door again after sometime when he was given a shop in Bada Chauraha, Kanpur, as compensation by the government.

In 1990, he opened this shop and since then there has been no looking back.

Talking about his grandmother’s laddus that his grandfather capitalised upon, Ravi says that they do not have any secret recipe. The laddus are made of simple ingredients, including khoya, suji, gond, desi ghee, cardamom, and sugar. They have two variants of laddu -- kaju laddu and special laddu. They also have doodh peda which is seasonal and badnaam kulfi. 

He also mentions that most of their labourers are from their village and they train them on the laddu making recipe. “We provide them and their families accommodation near our manufacturing facility located in Doodhwala Bangla, Kanpur,” says Ravi. 

Becoming a destination brand

When Ram Avtar opened the shop in Bada Chauraha, his sons Rajesh Kr Pandey and Prakash Pandey also joined him. 

“After our parents, I too entered the business in 1998. And in 2012, my younger brother Adarsh Pandey also joined the business. The business ethics and values were poured down to us by our grandfather and father to which we still abide by.”

The self-deprecating humour in the brand’s tagline and the delicious taste has made Thaggu ke Laddu the most sought-after to all those who love this traditional sweet. 

Though the brand was famous all over Kanpur, it instantly hit the limelight when in 2004, actors Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee hit the spot to shoot for their movie Bunty aur Babli. 

Ravi says after the movie became a hit, many other movies and serials were shot at the shop. Any director or producer who wanted to show Kanpur in their production showcased their brand name and gradually, Thaggu ke Laddu became a destination brand. 

Recently released movie Pati, Patni aur Woh also has a scene from the shop.

“Our shop has been highlighted in SAB TV and Doordarshan serials like ‘Lapata Ganj’ and ‘Rag Rag Mein’. Even Bollywood celebs like Ranjeet, Saurabh Shukla, and Rajeev Khandelwal have visited our shops to taste the authentic laddu,”  Ravi says.

These highlights in the serials and movies undoubtedly increase Thaggu ke Laddu’s visibility, Ravi says, adding that now whenever Kanpur is talked about, Thaggu ke Laddu becomes the centre of discussion even after our grandfather left us in 2015. 

Since the last eight years, Thaggu ke Laddu has expanded in four locations in Kanpur, including Kakadeo, Express Road, and Govind Nagar.  Recently, Ravi and Adarsh came up with the idea to target the young population of Kanpur and opened Cafe by Thaggu in the Tilak Nagar area. 

The company rakes in Rs 4 crore annual turnover. 

“We have expanded our retail outlets in the city but were planning to open a cafe also with plans to enter the restaurant segment,” Adarsh says. 

When expansion itself is a challenge

Earning so much recognition in the city, the brothers’ duo decided to expand outside the city and under the franchise model, opened an outlet in Gurugram in 2018. Adarsh says,

“Initially, the business was running fine in the Gurugram outlet, however, the footfalls were not as expected and we realised that being a destination brand, it is becoming a challenge for us to survive outside the Kanpur market.”

He adds that being a destination brand has its own pros and cons. For Thaggu ke Laddu, moving outside Kanpur make people sceptical on the authentic taste of the brand. Thus, they put a halt on the Gurugram outlet. 

“Our grandfather always said: ‘bech ke pachtao, rakh ke nahi’ (regret selling, not keeping), and so we decided to put a stop on our expansion model outside Kanpur for a while,” Adarsh says.

Ravi and Adarsh try to play with the SKUs by bringing in more variety of sweets, however, as they are known for their laddus, keeping any other items did not gain them anything.

Talking about the competition, Ravi and Adarsh say there are various other old laddu brands in the city like Banarasi Laddu, however they are famous for boondi laddu. Thus, they claim there is no other who keep the same laddu as Thaggu ke Laddu. 

The thagna continues

Throwing light on their future plans, the duo says they are planning to open more outlets in Kanpur in the coming years and are also brainstorming with a strategy to expand outside the city. 

“Aur baki hum logo ko thagte rahenge” (we will continue to cheat people [through laddus]), they say in jest. 

(Website)

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