Passion for cooking turns Rajni Bector into Padma Shri awardee!

Turning her small-time home kitchen into one of the leading biscuits and bread manufacturing businesses in the country, Rajni Bector had already a become role model for women across the country. Now, further, her contribution to this business has also turned her into Padma Shri Awardee. She was honored with the coveted Padma Shri award by President Ram Nath Kovind for her contribution to the promotion and sustainable growth of trade and industry.

 

The 79-year-old has thanked the government for the honor and has dedicated this award to her late husband Dharamvir Bector who according to her was her biggest pillar of support during her journey towards success. The President acknowledged her for being a source of women empowerment and an inspiration to many women way back in the 1970s, especially those women who wanted to work but faced strong social pressures to stay home.

 

 

 

Started in 1978 as a small work from home venture, Rajni Bector’s venture over a span of four decades has went on to become a leading company in the non-glucose biscuits and premium breads segment in North India. ‘Mrs. Bector’s Cremica’ and ‘English Oven’ are amongst two most popular brands of Rajni’s company in the biscuits and bakery products segment.

 

 

Ludhiana became a permanent home for Rajni after she was married to Dharam Vir at an early age of 17. During that she was studying at Miranda House in Delhi, where her family had settled after moving from Pakistan post-Partition. She was born in Karachi in 1940 and was brought up in Lahore. Having left her studies midway in Delhi, Rajni completed her graduation after marriage.

 

It was in the mid-70s when all three sons of the Bectors – Ajay, Akshay and Anoop – left them for boarding classes in Mussoorie that Rajni moved out of her house and took up baking classes at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU). Rajni began her in-house baking and ice-cream shop after doing a baking course at PAU. Soon, her businessman husband bought her a professional ice-cream churner by putting in an investment of Rs 20,000 in mid-80s, this tall, fair, and rather impressive woman was yet to earn any profit.

 

 

The Rs 20,000 investment made her business grow by leaps and bounds and in another 5 years, her brand Cremica, which she derived from her lavish use of cream as a key ingredient in her delicacies, grew to a remarkable Rs 5-crore turnover. Bector soon became a household name and her firm clocked a turnover of Rs 20 crore in 1995.

 

Her meteoric rise crossed all boundaries when all leading international and national brands – McDonald’s, Café Coffee Day, Barista, Air India, Indian Railways, Taj Group, Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Spencer’s, Big Bazaar, Mondelez, Domino’s, Papa John’s, Pizza Hut – became her direct customers buying from her — buns, burgers, bread, biscuits, ketchup, dips, spreads et al, widening manifold the horizons of her sales network. On the other hand, she joined the elite club of Ludhiana tycoons after Mittals of Bharti, Munjals of Hero, Oswals of Monte Carlo and Guptas of Trident.

 

 

Bector’s Food Specialities today claims 12 percent share in India’s total biscuit exports. Besides exporting products to 64 countries across 6 continents in the world, the 25-year-old company, established on September 15, 1995, also supplies bakes and cakes to retail consumers in 26 states across India. Up to March 31, the company had a far-reaching supply chain for biscuits and breads through its 196 super-stockists and 748 distributors, further supplying to customers through 4.58 lakh retailers and 4,422 preferred exclusive outlets.

 

Now, from an unknown name to a name that counts today. Such is the success story of this Ludhiana businesswoman who rose from her backyard business with a paltry investment of Rs 300 to successfully raising a whooping Rs 541 crore from the market, and become an undisputed business tycoon. And now she has become Padma Shri Awardee!