Patanjali Ayurved: The rise and rise of India's homegrown FMCG giant
In the mid-eighties, a homegrown detergent manufacturer managed to give brand managers at Hindustan Unilever (then called Hindustan Lever) many sleepless nights. Karsanbhai Patel, a small time entrepreneur from the western Indian state of Gujarat, launched his detergent powder called Nirma in 1969 from inside a tiny shed. He then went on to grab an estimated 60% market share in the eighties, caused a huge dent in the sales of Surf, Lever's best selling brand at the time, before eventually fading to 10% market share today.
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