Ajit & Lata Mody

(From L to R) Sachin Mody, Late Narender Patel, Ajit Modi, Lata Mody, Varsha Patel, Ranjit Kaur, Sanjiv Mody

The very enterprising Ajit and Lata Mody talk about how they started their very popular mithai brand Rajbhog and more...

Tell us a little about your background. Which city/state of India do you hail from?

Mr Ajit: We hail from the hustling bustling city of Mumbai and had a busy life there before we made the decision of moving base to the USA. I have studied from the prestigious K.C College in Mumbai and did my Bachelors of Engineering from Manipal Engineering College. At that time, our family had a business of electrical supplies there. We got married there in Mumbai. But then after a few years I planned on pursuing my studies in the USA to eventually settle down. At that time, the trend of migrating to the USA had just begun, people had started planning and thinking of a future in other countries. I had planned to go alone, and then I had called Lata there after I settled in a little. Things were not this easy back in those days, migrating was much difficult. Mrs. Lata: I am a BSE major in Microbiology and was working in Mumbai at that time. Looking for opportunities lead us to take a leap of faith and we made the move. It has been a beautiful ride. Little did we know, that we will end up building this big an empire here.

Which year did you come to USA?

Mr. Ajit: We came to the USA in January 1968. It was studies first that attracted me and brought me here. I struggled for the first few months, and tried to settle down with the help of my relatives. Lata joined me later when we got her visa. Back in that time, there were F1 visas for students and F2 for spouses.

Tell us about the struggle and the hard work that you put in to be successful.

Mr. Ajit: It was very cold! As we came here, the weather caught us off guard. It was really difficult to adjust to this extreme cold. You could 20

just see snow when you look around. Just a white canvas made by nature. It is beautiful, but for a person who came from the tropical temperature of Mumbai, it was really inconvenient. Another troublesome concern was that I had only $8 when I came here, as the Government at that time just exchanged that much amount. That’s quite less! Like I said before, at first, I stayed with my relatives who helped me settle in. Then I started my program in Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. Lata joined me in October 1968.

Mrs. Lata: I had my share of struggles. Not just different aspects of it, but our whole lives were changing. I studied Microbiology and after moving to the USA, I had to switch my career path. I studied accounts at the night school and then worked for JP Morgan. Studying after growing up is a tedious task. I can relate to parents that are going to school, working studying and managing the family. But it had to be done! Other than that, there were many other things I was involved in.

Another day-to-day struggle that I faced was that I had no friends around. Most of my husband’s friends were single at that time which meant I could not meet new people with similar likings and interests in our own circle. I had to get out! But we did have a great time. His friends used to come during the weekends, and we used to host them for meals, that was nice. Some memories are still fresh in my mind! After a few years, I did make quite a few friends. We used to spend time, share responsibilities, especially in case of children, we used look after each other’s children when the other one is working or is busy.

Whose idea was it to open the first sweet or snack shop in Jackson Heights? Was it Ajit bhai or Lata ben?

Mr. Ajit: The opening of the first Rajbhog store has an interesting story of its own. Back in early 80s, I was already working. I had graduated from Pratt Institute, he was an engineer, and his full-time job was working for the board of education in structural engineering.

Mrs. Lata: Like I said, I was working in J.P Morgan after doing my night classes. I did a couple of other things too for a few years. I worked at radio stations where I fell in love with ‘70s American music. I still have the records (LP) from those days. Mr. Ajit: And she made her mark there too! She’s familiar with the ‘60s-‘70s music and is an expert in those songs. She loved The Beatles and all those. She still has an LP record that she won’t give away. Haha!

Mrs. Lata: Yes, I did! So, during the time from India to here to the store, a lot of life changes had happened. We had our jobs, but we always had the entrepreneurial passion in us, I think it’s inherited with us! We kept a look out for entrepreneurial opportunities to start a business of our own, or to invest somewhere.

Mr. Ajit: At that time, we wanted to invest in a business. It was out of our entrepreneurial spirit and also the passion to get the rest of our family here. I should enlighten you, at that time, if you had ownership in businesses, you would get a visa because of the partnership. I wanted to get my brothers here and that is why we had our eyes and ears open for something to invest in.

So, with a few friends in partnership, we invested in a business. We invested and became owners of the news-stand candy stores in the train stations. These were small newsstand candy stores that sold candies, cigarettes, and other such things.

We started with one stand. It was very successful. Fast-moving products, prime locations and other things gave us a great response. Soon, we owned around 40 news-stands that were running successfully. The company was called Maya Cigarette and Candy. With the help of these news-stands, I could call all my brothers her to the US. It was that fruitful! They handled these candy stores, I handled too, but I had still retained by job as an engineer.

Mrs. Lata: All my brothers-in-law had come here and we were helping them settle. It was nice to have family here. Life started changing again, for better!

Mr. Ajit: Then finally, my father came here too! It was great. Business was boosting, job was working fine, family was here, what else does a man need? Moving on! We were all blessed with the entrepreneurial spirit and we wanted to grow and excel. We then decided to take a step forward and started our own distribution center. So, what we did was, instead of buying from vendors, we decided to supply these products to ourselves and the other news-stand owners in the city. So, we started buying in bulk and supplied it around.

It was all going fine, until we hit a difficult spot. We faced some challenges with our news-stand business and distribution and we decided to take another leap and change our business. We decided to convert this into Maya Groceries. We started distributing to a lot of major stores, but eventually, we realized we need a store of our own. This is when we started our own brands of Dana Bazaar and Anda Bhanda. Gradually, we had more relatives who came here and joined the business. It was a hit, and we had around seven Dana Bazaar stores throughout the North East region located at cities like New York, New Jersey, Washington D.C., Atlanta (Georgia), Maryland, and more.

Mrs. Lata: One of the turning points in our life was when Ajitji’s friend came here from India to set up a confectionery business. He was sent by the Taj Group, and was supposed to start a retail store for Indian mithai and namkeen under the name of Shamiana. This was a very famous, literally world-famous name for them and they were about to start a branch in the US.

Mr. Ajit: He stayed with us for a couple of weeks, I introduced him to many people but nothing clicked. Coincidentally, three days before his departure, there was a fire at our store in Jackson Heights and it burned down. Quite a loss for us. Little did we know that this adversity got along a great opportunity. I told him, here is your store! We set up the Shamiana store with us in partnership.

Mrs. Lata: So, since its inception 1981 to 1987s, our sweets’ shop was called Shamiana. Eventually, the brand Shamiana dissolved; but from its ashes, rose Rajbhog Foods. The store is the exact one that is our Rajbhog Foods’ flagship store. We converted that store into Rajbhog Foods. The design changed, the look changed, the mithai and the people remained the same.

Please explain the circumstances then that inspired you to start the business.

Mr. Ajit: I had taken a part-time job when I was in college, so I was always on the lookout for something more. Actually, more than anything else, it’s the inherent urge and passion for entrepreneurship that lead us to start our own business.

Mrs. Lata: For me, it started with the need to find Indian products here. It was really, really difficult. I was a housewife and a mother by that time, and I wanted to provide my family with the best of Indian food. But there were no options which made it really, really difficult for us to enjoy Indian food. And of course, as my husband said, the passion for having our own business inspired us to do this.

What was the market demand like for Indian products during that time?

Mr. Ajit: Honestly, the market was not that great at that time. The Indians living here did not earn that well that they could pay for expensive Indian ingredients. They used to be students or young professionals who did not make a lot of money. But yes, the demand was quite a lot, as there was no one in the market offering Indian products.

Jackson Heights, Queens, was an Indian hotspot filled with North Indians – mostly Gujaratis and Punjabis. People use to settle here as it was close to the airport as well as the train, and was a cost-effective place to live in. The most important part was that it was the real market at that time. The only one. The only market in New York at that time was Jackson heights, which meant that students and families would travel every weekend, from far or near, to shop for Indian products.

People wanted Indian mithai and namkeen, but no one had that much strength or support from India to set up a business in importing. Most of the business started when people started making in the USA.

Mrs. Lata: This is actually why we became very popular and strong. Because our food was typical ‘homestyle’ food. So, there was a huge demand, and when we started, and it picked up, it was very popular.

Mr. Ajit: It was ‘the thing’ like people these days call it. People were lining up and craving to have mithais made by Lata. She is very dynamic, and that lead us to becoming what we are now. The company was on her shoulders, and eventually, she became synonymous with Rajbhog. When we were traveling anywhere, people wouldn’t recognize me, they would recognize Lata Ben from Rajbhog. It started getting distinguished as Lata ben’s Rajbhog. We are all so proud of her!

When did you start wholesale distribution of mithai and other products? And how did you develop it?

Mr. Ajit: In 1987, the brand Shamiana started dwindling in their ability to produce and give us products. They were planning to dissolve the brand and get out of the market. At

that time, we had two choices. Either we close down this store, or we start producing on our own. It was a tough choice; I have to tell you. Production is another the game altogether. It’s a very big investment and decision. What about the customers? What if this fails? We could be responsible for a lot of losses. It definitely was a risk.

At that time, we had many grocery stores like Dana Bazaar, and others. We had one in New Jersey too, and during this crisis, I was spending a lot of time helping develop this New Jersey store. Next to it, there was a retail store about 1000 sq. feet that became available. It was an old restaurant and we rented it.

So, we started producing there. When we started this manufacturing, I had only one customer – Lata. It was big client, Rajbhog was doing very well, but to sustain our production business and the unit, we needed more customers who we could distribute to. We faced a lot of challenges, we struggled for two years like this. We were doing fine but this production business was struggling for sure, as the supply was limited to the Jackson Heights store Rajbhog. But then, the opportunity came in late ‘80s, my oldest brother was looking around for a place and ended up looking at a place in Flushing, New York. He called me and told me that I should have a look at this kitchen facility. It was huge. I’ll be honest, my mind was blown away. It had a kitchen, all the equipment, and it was 18,000 sq. feet. That’s huge! For someone who was barely holding it together, this looked like a very big investment and risk too. But my brother was confident. He said, ‘Ajit, this is going to be your spot!’ I was shocked, but I did trust his gut and we took the lease. It was more than the rent we were paying at the old space, it was closer to home, so we took the decision and moved our manufacturing to Flushing. And today, after 30 years, it is still home to our sweet manufacturing business.

Mrs. Lata: We were blessed. From that facility, Rajbhog had 45 customers, overnight! In that market, at that time, as Jackson Heights grew and people started outgrowing places, the space was limited. People started moving to Flushing as it was closer to Manhattan, basically four stops away by train to Jackson Heights. pends a lot on travel, especially in our kind of business. So, we had a lot of our customers in a line there. They were literally two minutes away by drive. Like I said, that was an Indian hotspot, Indians everywhere, and all the Indians were our potential customers. The guy selling the peanuts was Indian, the retail Indian stores, someone was selling sarees, someone had music and video stores, some provided money transfer services.

Mr. Ajit: Within a year started suppling to cities like Dallas, Atlanta, Charlotte…and of course all of Tri State grocery stores.

Then, years passed by. We grew. Our sons Sanjiv and Sachin join the business in 1996 and 1997 respectively. Since then, till today we have four manufacturing plants and five nationwide distribution centers. We have retail outlets in Atlanta, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.

What were the difficulties that you encountered during the time you were building up the business?

Mrs. Lata: It was difficult at first. We had a small staff and I had to be involved in the daily workings at the store. I used to make sweets with my own hands. We handmade our sweets for quite some time before we started the manufacturing units. I used to bring the kids in the store to look over them and manage the store too. They used to do their homework, help me and then Ajit used to come and help us out.

Please tell us about your line of ready to eat products?

Mr. Ajit: We believe in proving fresh flavorful food. So, we manufacture in the USA to ensure our food is fresh, that’s one of our plus points. Our specialty is Indian food filled with authentic flavors. Our line of products includes all North Indian, Gujarati, South Indian ready to eat food. We have also ventured in the fusion foods with Indian Chinese, Thai, and more flavors. Our specialty is Indian sweets. We also offer ice creams, desserts, beverages like lassis. We are also into catering personal or commercial events.

Are you still involved in the business today? If yes, what is your normal work day like?

Mr. Ajit: Yes, we are actively involved in Rajbhog’s day-to-day happenings. Not Monday to Friday, but it’s more like Monday to Sunday for us.

Mrs. Lata: Yes, we have two hobbies, one is Rajbhog and another is meeting our friends and spending time with them. Mr. Ajit: Not to boast, but we work more than 9 to 5. Sometimes we are catering an event, and we have to be out and about at 5 am, we’re there. In these times, we were stuck at home, but we did work from our home office. The work must never stop! Rajbhog is our business, our livelihood, recreation and our hobby, all in one.

Mrs. Lata: I would agree. Our sons have taken the responsibility but we actively manage everything. Especially, our first location of Flushing in New York. Because of COVID, we were all under a lockdown for a month or so, and Ajit was desperately waiting to open the manufacturing unit. On the first day of reopening, Ajit and three employees fired up the stoves again. With the best 120 pound mithai produced, we were back in business! We are both very passionate about Rajbhog, it’s a very integral part of our lives.

What are you plans for 2021?

Mr. Ajit: Retiring! Well, we’re still going to be a part of it no matter what! Our most important plan for 2021 would be introducing new products. My children are growing this business far and wide, and they have already brought in a number of new and fast-running products that are liked by this generation.

Mrs. Lata: We’ve come a long way with a beautiful journey, but like Ajit said, Rajbhog will always have a special place in our hearts. And we will always be actively involved. What’s exciting now is that after our sons, the third generation is gearing up to join our legacy. Yes, our granddaughter is studying business and soon will be a part of the family business. We’re looking forward to that!

How will business shape up post Covid 19? What are the changes you foresee?

Mr. Ajit: The pandemic has changed everyone’s lives, and it is natural that businesses have changed too. The business is slow at this time, that is there. But I am pretty sure it will pick up in the next 4-5 months. It will come back to normal, but people are going to be more conscious about what they eat, where they buy food from, and what are the ingredients. Lucky for us, we produce in the US under the guidelines of the USDA. Mr. Ajit: We have two children, our sons, Sanjiv and Sachin. Sanjiv is an electric engineer from RPI university and Sachin has an accounting degree from NYU. They are both great in their fields but they have taken over the family business and are growing it leaps and bounds.

Mrs. Lata: They are doing great and making their parents proud. I still remember when we used to run the store back in the day with very little staff, I used to get the kids to the shop. They used to help me with work too, sometimes frying samosas, sometimes making sweets. Those are memories I cherish! Our grandchildren are young but in future God willing will flourish our business.

What is your success mantra?

Mr. Ajit: Sell only what you yourself can eat. Mrs. Lata: The customer is always right.

Your advice to younger generation to become successful?

Mr. Ajit: No one can stop you from being successful if you do your work with good intention, consistency and put in 100% of our hard work.

What are the things that keep you going every day?

Mr. Ajit: Work, family and some FaceTime calls with friends. I have a group of school and college friends and we FaceTime each other every day!

Mrs. Lata: For me there’s work, my children, and my Indian daily soaps that keep me entertained.

What is your key to happiness?

Mrs. Lata: Our sons! Mr. Ajit: Yes, she’ll be the happiest if she gets a call from her sons every day!

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