Om Sweets built a mithai empire by refusing to abandon their Rs 25 bowl of chole for the working class. Now, the Kathuria brothers are expanding with the next-gen in charge.
New Delhi, Gurugram: Under the scorching heat, 18-year-old Vishal Jaiswal pushes his fruit cart through the lanes of Arjun Nagar in Old Gurugram. It’s a daily grind, but there’s one thing that lifts his mood: Om Sweets, where even the city’s riches pull up their BMWs and Mercedes.
In the crowded desi snacks industry dominated by Haldiram’s, Bikanervala, and Aggarwal Sweets, Om Sweets is an audacious, nimble disruptor with hustle and ambition. And it has been trying to chip away at the edges of the Rs 1.5 lakh crore market pie—cutting into both the poor and the wealthy end of the consumer segment.
“It’s cheap and the best,” said Vishal. “I go there for pav bhaji and chole bhature. And the air conditioning is quite a luxury for people like me.”
But Om Sweets, started in 1960 by the Kathuria brothers—Om Prakash, Pushpender, and Sunil Dutt—is more than just an option for affordable, comfort food. It is a Partition story where recipes travelled all the way from Pakistan into tiny wicker baskets in Delhi and underwent a name change here.
“Our parents had no significant education or money. All they knew was to make sohan halwa, and they relied on that skill to earn a living here. The decision turned out to be a gift that is paying off to date,” said Sunil, the managing director of Om Sweets.
The culture at Om Sweets is a bit of a class jugaad. It’s at the crossroad where two contrasting worlds of Gurugram collide. The working class bring their rotis and buy a bowl of chole for Rs 25. On the opposite counter, the city’s elite drop Rs 80 for a single biscoff barfi or buy gift hampers priced at Rs 9,000.
"Our parents had no significant education or money. All they knew was to make sohan halwa, and they relied on that skill to earn a living here. The decision turned out to be a gift that is paying off to date"
India’s organised namkeen and mithai industry is booming, and projected to grow at 10–12 per cent year-on-year, according to Firoz Haider Naqvi, director general of the Federation of Sweets and Namkeen Manufacturers (FSNM). He also said that packaged sweets, in particular, have seen a post-Covid surge.
Giants like Haldiram’s and Bikaji rule the Indian snacking empire, boasting a pan-India reach and turnovers of Rs 15,000 crore and Rs 2,000 crore. In contrast, Om Sweets has a turnover of Rs 600 crore. But this family-run business with 20 outlets in Delhi-NCR is scripting its own success story one outlet at a time. Naqvi, who has tracked the industry closely for a decade, calls Om Sweets “a case study in itself.”
“Their turnover suggests that every location is profitable, something no other brand has achieved,” he said.
