From brew this group grew

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Twenty-seven years later, the business, now known as the Gopi Group, has six heritage hotels in the state and a turnover of Rs 5 crore.

The group has also ventured into industrial and institutional catering and house-keeping contracts during the last three years.

The group has a few more hotels in their marketing and management franchisee list.

A year after starting the tea stall, Damodar Thakkar opened a paratha house and then a coconut shop, recalls Dilip Thakkar, Damodar's son and owner and director of the Gopi Group.

In 1996, the group entered into the business of heritage hotels, starting with Balaram Palace at Palanpur.

Damodar Thakkar is now the chairman of the Gopi Group and stays at the Balaram Palace with his wife Vasanti Ben, looking after the farm house there.

The Gopi Group, a joint family business, is managed by the two brothers Dilip and Rajendra Thakkar.

The group's hotels in the state are Balaram Palace Resorts at Palanpur, Old Bell Guest House in Rajkot, Rann Riders near Surendranagar, Royal Oasis in Bankaner, Garden Palace in Bala Sinor and Prembhai Palace at Chhotaudaipur, near Vadodara.

Thakkar brothers plan to expand the group's institutional and industrial catering business and add more heritage properties to their chain at Dwarika, Porbandar and Kutch.

The group is also planning to set up a hotel management institute in the city.

There was a time, Dilip recalls, when he attended the school in the mornings and helped his father at the tea stall for the rest of the day.

Dilip believes that hard work, humbleness and an ability to keep good relation with people helped him make it big in the business.

"I have always enjoyed all the success that came my way, and I was never very ambitious," he says.

Dilip hardly gets any leisure and whenever he is able to break free, he would go for a movie with his family or choose to travel and meet people or settle for some reading.

Dilip attributes his success to the guidance and support of his colleague Pallav K Maitra, who was his teacher.