Double Chabi is an esteemed brand in the production and distribution of rice, and has been active for over seventy years in the commercial space, with no sign of slowing down any time soon. In fact, with the fourth generation of the founding Goyal family having joined the workforce, Double Chabi's success is all but assured.
The company had been founded in 1959 by Kashmiri Lal Satpal, the patriarch of the family, in Taraori, Haryana, on a fertile patch of land across the Yamuna. From the very beginning Double Chabi was dedicated to providing the best possible product to the consumers. Established during the second five year plan of the Indian government, Double Chabi took advantage of the developmental initiatives and investments the newly independent Indian government was making in agriculture and industry, and blossomed into an extremely successful business over the years.
Till the 90s Double Chabi functioned within the boundaries of the nation, gradually expanding its business from one state to another. But in the last decade of the 20th century, as India liberalized its economy and opened up the possibilities of international trade, Double Chabi began exporting its products. Currently about 40% of their output is exported across five different continents.
The export section of the business was started during the 3rd generation of the family, by Brij Bhushan Goyal, who has been leading the company for the last three decades with the help of his brothers Jitendar and Pankaj Goyal. It is only recently that the aforementioned fourth generation of the family has joined Double Chabi's management with Pushkar Goyal, whose youthful earnestness and energy has added a new dimension to the company's activities.
An alumni of IILM Gurugram, where he studied BBA, Pushkar did a detailed survey of his family business as well as the circumstances of grain production and distribution in the subcontinent, before joining it and working his way to the top.
An ambitious millennial, Pushkar expressed a need to get good quality machinery for expansion of production. Double Chabi had always invested in the cutting edge technology to ease the burden of workers, and produce the best products in the world. Pushkar pushed that habit to the limit, importing sorting and processing machinery, and introducing food grade packaging to the industry.
Export had been an integral part of Double Chabi's business mantra for over two decades now, but Pushkar expanded their scope much further, including Australia in the list of countries who imported their product.
The mill unit at Taraori is a multi functioning space where there are separate state of the art machines engaged in processing, length grading and de-husking the rice grains. Such immaculate breakdown of the process makes quality control a much simpler prospect for the business, whose production limit has increased from 600 bags of rice in the beginning, to 20 lakh bags in the present day.
Despite taking immense pride in their export capacity, the management of Double Chabi is intent on being recognized as an Indian company first and foremost. The company maintains a parity between grains for international and national distribution. After all, although Double Chabi is a brand to be reckoned with in the world market, the company's primary market is still India. And the authorities plan to maintain that bias going forward.
This reverence for the nation is perhaps evident in their choice of product. They produce about 10 different varieties of Basmati rice, which is considered the best kind of rice grown in the country. Rice itself is the staple diet of many communities in India. The first paddy harvest of the year is celebrated across the length and breadth of the nation. Communities offer worship to the deities of their choice and cook special recipes involving rice to mark the occasion.
Pushkar Goyal likes to believe that Double Chabi is an extension of this dietary association into the industrial age. To that effect, the company has taken initiatives to educate farmers in scientific farming, to increase the quality and quantity of their yields.
The keen attention that Double Chabi gives to every stage of processing is also being given to the harvesting of rice. Seeds are selected and refined first, before being sowed in a controlled nursery area, as fields are furrowed and prepared with irrigation and fertilization for the ultimate transplantation.
From beginning to end the production process is dotted by a minute surveillance that ensures brand quality. It is further aged for a year before being released to the market so that it has the idyllic taste and texture that sets Double Chabi Basmati Rice apart from its competition.
All in all, Double Chabi lives up to its nomenclature. The quality of the product is indeed doubly locked, to appease the worldwide market they serve. And with the fourth generation's enthusiastic participation in the business, the future of the family company is absolutely secure.