Turning laddus into bars: How Usha Shrotriya found business at 62

Until she was 62, Usha Shrotriya’s world centered around her family and their needs. A homemaker, she enjoyed cooking and carefully replicated the recipes handed down from her mother and grandmother, making special delicacies for festivals like Diwali and Shivaratri.

Shrotriya, who was a student, had to give up his ambitions many times. Before she got married, she longed to be a the inspector (a policewoman), and although her father supported her, her mother felt that it was not the right job for a young girl. Later, he wanted to become a teacher but his family did not listen to his wishes.

After marriage, she approached her husband, who was the head of a sugar factory in Uttarakhand, with the idea of ​​starting a transport business. However, it was also shot. They asked who would take care of the family.

Now, Shrotriya is giving wings to his business dreams. She gave a new twist to the laddus she had made over the years and gave birth to Mama Nourish and her laddu bars.

Changing the laddus into bars

While visiting her son Yash Parashar in Mumbai in 2021, she made for her daughter-in-law Apurva who had just given birth to a baby. (Gond laddus are usually made with ghee, wheat flour, edible gum, jaggery and dry fruits and are given to a woman after she gives birth to a child.)

“I don’t have to visit my daughter in Noida, Gond ladus run. She didn’t know how to make laddus and realized that some recipes might not be passed down from one generation to another and talked to Yash and me over the phone,” Shrotriya recalled in an interview with. HerStory.

Also, when her daughter was pregnant, she was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, so making laddus with sugar was out of the question.

I made laddus for him with dates and dry fruits, and everyone loved them. We started discussing how to make these laddus and preserve them. I noticed that Apurva was packing food grains for Yash every day. I thought these healthy laddus would be the best option and started making them in bars,” he says.

Shrotriya was determined and determined to turn laddus into laddu bars. He worked for days to find the right parts and succeeded after about 90 attempts.

Parashar, an NIT and IIM graduate with a successful career at Tata Motors, would watch his mother’s efforts in awe and wonder. He tried different ingredients—moong dal, urad dal and bajra, removed sugar, added dates and dry fruits, reduced ghee until he continued experimenting.

Last year, when the bar finally arrived, Parashar moved it to an office where his colleagues loved it. Intrigued by the interest, he discussed it with his friend and college mate Kunal Goel and the two conducted a survey of 250 people across major cities to gauge the demand for alternative diets. culturally healthy among dual-income urban households.

“Most people in the survey said that there is no reliable name for traditional recipes; they trusted only their mothers,” says Parashar. They consulted food technologists to understand how these laddus can withstand the “bar” test and be produced at scale. The exercise took them six months and in October last year, they managed to crack the perfect recipe.

Parashar and Kunal decided to venture into the laddu bar business full time and the brand Mama Nourish started delivering to customers in January 2024.

Recipes from grandmothers

Shrotriya didn’t want to limit Mama Nourish’s laddu bar to just her recipes, including Gond laddu. He came to two women who were experts in making laddus.

One was a former neighbor, Saroj Madan, who did kamarka (herb) laddus and happily shared a 1,500-year-old recipe. Also included in Mama Nourish’s laddu bar menu is Suman Dhamane’s methi laddu. kiss Aapli Aaji, a 70-year-old grandmother from Ahmednagar, Maharashtra who is also a YouTube star.

Mama Nourish offers a total of 12 SKUs.

Parashar and Goel decided to sell laddu bars on their website before moving to the Amazon marketplace.

Using active marketing tools on Facebook and Google, they succeeded with an inquiry from Netflix within just a month of launch, which led to its first commercial order. They were introduced to Meta by an employee and called the distributor to receive orders. They have also listed Mama Nourish laddu bars on Amazon.

“People in different offices started telling us to get them through vending machines. After the pilot, we are now available in sales channels at four airports – Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad, and at 150 corporate offices across India,” Parashar says.

Although Mama Nourish owns the cosmetics, its production is outsourced to a third-party FSSAI- and FDA-certified facility, and Shrotriya monitors its quality at every step.

Following the feedback, the brand has also introduced the Mini Laddubar – a bite-size bar to fulfill those sweet cravings after a meal. Main bar prices start at Rs 70 and minibar costs as low as Rs 40.

Initially closed, Mama Nourish has already received funding from angel investors. Parashar says it is too early to talk about profits and is optimistic about the future of the brand.

“We have been given a great purpose – to develop grandmother’s recipes for our children to know and enjoy. We will look at more such flavors and see a huge opportunity in the international markets,” he adds.