What is the beginning of the Monginis story and what is its status today?

The nation's No. 1 cake brand - MONGINIS, traces its roots back to a time when it was a favorite with the Europeans in Mumbai. Run as it was by two Italian brothers, Monginis was a must at every celebration. In the 1970s, Monginis was bought over by the Khorakiwala family. By 1971, the idea of having a nationwide franchise network and reaching out to customers in their neighborhoods was born.

Today, Monginis is the national leader in cakes and the largest food store chain in the country. It has expanded from 37 to almost 407 cake shops nationwide. In addition, it has established 11 manufacturing units across India.

What is the most challenging part of your business?

The most challenging aspect of our business is delivering highly perishable products to the customer absolutely fresh. To achieve this, we have an excellent distribution network. Fresh products are delivered early morning daily to each Monginis Cake Shop through this system.

For the retail market the company has also launched packaged cakes divisions, such as slice cakes, bar cakes, cup cakes, etc. with a long shelf life. This is extensively distributed through our chain of stockists across 8000 outlets in the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Delhi, West Bengal & Hyderabad. Today the name and brand of Monginis is recognized almost throughout the whole nation. Can u give us a brief outline as to how you (and your brothers) have achieved this?

With the dua mubarak of Aqua Maula ^(TUS), our franchising concept has lead us to success. The nitty-gritty details of retailing and day-to-day management has been franchised out. As a result the company can focus fully on manufacturing quality products. The company is able to expand rapidly without a large capital outlay. The Cake Shop owner in turn is fully motivated because the more he sells, the more he earns. Being a local person he establishes a good will among his neighboring customers. Similarly, when proposals came from other cities we franchised the manufacturing activity itself. In this model, the manufacturing franchisee invests in the factory and the equipments. He in turn appoints retail franchisees. The company gives him full support in terms of training, manufacturing processes, recipes, systems, and so on.

Monginis is not only based in India but has a considerable presence in Cairo too. Do both countries deal in the same products? As per the wishes of Aqua Maula ^(TUS) we opened a branch in Cairo. Here again there are 2 divisions. One is the Bake Shops, where some part of the baking & finishing of cakes is done in the presence of customers. We have our presence in many of the supermarkets also. We have about 12 Bake Shops in Cairo. In addition, Monginis also has launched packaged cakes with a long shelf life for the open market.

The business model in Cairo is different and most of these are our managed outlets. Slowly the brand is gaining recognition and we hope to franchise out many of these activities.

Recently Maula ^(TUS) has instructed you to set up a hardware business in Dubai. This is completely different to your present line of business-- what do you see coming out of it?

In Maula's ^(TUS) there is always hikmet and with that belief we are proceeding with conviction. It will give us exposure to a totally new way of doing business--not only in terms of practices but also in terms of a different line.

Dubai is an international supermarket for many of the third world countries and it will open our eyes to the opportunities of trading worldwide with Dubai as a base. It will broaden our experience and make us a more diversified group.

Do you have any special experiences you could share with us on how Maula's ^(TUS) bayaan and hidayat have helped you face challenges in the course of your life?

After the family division in business, we first freed ourselves from the clutches of interest in 1996 in accordance with Maula's ^(TUS) directions. His dua from the takht on Yaume Mab'as, "May Allah shower you with barakaat" still rings in our ears. Aqua Maula's ^(TUS) nazar on us increased manifold and has been a constant moral and spiritual support for us during adverse times.

In today's tough and competitive business world, what would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs?

Recently, as per the wishes of Aqua Maula ^(TUS), we have switched to cash business. Maula ^(TUS) has often expressed that "Our predecessors based their business on cash transactions" We have been able to save quite a lot in our purchases by switching to this system. We are also attempting to sell our products with very little credit so that our need for working capital is minimized as we expand our business. My advice to all would be to follow the path directed by Maula ^(TUS) as fortunes lie at his feet.