Three Haldiram's: how one family name became three companies, a 24-year trademark fight and a $10 billion merger

In October 2015, a judge of the Delhi High Court ended a 24-year dispute between two branches of one family with a sentence that family businesses would do well to remember. "This case," wrote Justice V.K. Shali, "has become a classic case of a snake and ladder game and the family feud for sharing the trade name only with a lust to gain more money on both the sides." The trade name was Haldiram Bhujiawala. The two sides were the grandsons of the man who made the first packet of Bikaneri bhujia under that name.

Haldiram's is one of the most recognised food brands in India, and it has never been one company. For most of its life it has been three businesses, run by three branches of the Agarwal family out of Delhi, Nagpur and Kolkata, divided by a deed signed in 1974. In 2025 two of the three merged into a single company that Temasek valued at about $10 billion. The third still sells bhujia under the name Haldiram Bhujiawala in the east. The story is the best answer we have for clients who ask whether a trademark is really worth the fee.

Who owns Haldiram's?

As of 2026, the Haldiram's brand is owned by three separate groups of companies controlled by three branches of one family, and the trademark rights are split by territory.

The Delhi branch runs Haldiram Snacks Pvt Ltd (packaged snacks) and Haldiram India Pvt Ltd (restaurants, about 40 outlets in Delhi-NCR). The Nagpur branch runs Haldiram Foods International Pvt Ltd. In 2025 the packaged food businesses of these two branches were merged into a single company, Haldiram Snacks Food Pvt Ltd, with the Delhi family holding 56 percent and the Nagpur family 44 percent. Temasek agreed in March 2025 to buy a stake of just under 10 percent at a valuation of about $10 billion, a purchase the Competition Commission cleared in May, and Alpha Wave Global and Abu Dhabi's IHC together took about 6 percent soon after. By reported figures the merged group had FY24 revenue of around ₹12,800 crore, with some reports putting the combined business closer to ₹14,000 crore, and an EBITDA margin above 20 percent.

The Kolkata branch is a separate business altogether. Haldiram Bhujiawala Ltd, which trades under the Prabhuji brand, is run by the descendants of the founder's son Rameshwar Lal, and holds the right to use the Haldiram Bhujiawala name in West Bengal.

Where did the three branches come from?

Ganga Bishan Agarwal, known as Haldiram, sold bhujia from a shop in Bikaner. The family and the press date the shop to 1937; the Supreme Court's record says the name was used "since 1941". His innovation was in the recipe, a bhujia made from moth dal rather than besan and extruded thinner than the local standard.

The business grew as the family did. In 1956 a partnership was formed under the name Chand Mal Ganga Bishan. Around 1957 or 1958 one of the sons, Rameshwar Lal, moved to Calcutta and opened a shop there. In 1965 the firm adopted the "V"-shaped logo that still appears on packets. In 1970 the family opened its first full production unit in Nagpur, which became the base of the branch run by Shiv Kishan Agarwal. In December 1972 the firm applied to register the Haldiram Bhujiawala trademark, and the registration was granted in January 1981.

On 16 November 1974 the partnership was dissolved by a deed, and that deed has shaped everything since. It said that the trademark "HRB - HALDIRAM BHUJIAWALA" would be used by one party "throughout India except in the territory of West Bengal". The West Bengal rights went to Kamla Devi, the wife of Rameshwar Lal, whose branch had built the Calcutta business. A later declaration by Rameshwar Lal, dated the same day, stated that the name, "originally adopted and used by my father since 1941 shall remain the sole property to my brother Mool Chand".

The founder himself signed an affidavit in June 1976 saying that "the trade name HALDIRAM BHUJIAWALA is presently being used by my sons at Bikaner and Calcutta". He died in February 1980; Moolchand died in 1985; Rameshwar Lal in March 1991. The Delhi shop at Chandni Chowk opened in 1983 and, together with the family's apartment above it, was destroyed in the 1984 riots before being rebuilt.

The widely reported three-way split of markets among the grandsons, north to the Delhi family, south and west to Nagpur, east to Kolkata, is a family arrangement. The only division that appears in a court-recognised document is the 1974 line between West Bengal and the rest of India.

How did a family deed turn into 24 years of litigation?

In 1991 the Kolkata branch opened a shop in Delhi, on Arya Samaj Road in Karol Bagh, selling bhujia under the Haldiram Bhujiawala name. The Delhi family's firm filed suit on 10 December 1991. The case did not end until 19 October 2015.

Every delay came from paperwork.

The first fight was about standing. The Delhi plaintiff was an unregistered partnership firm at the time the suit was filed; it registered only in May 1992. The defendants argued that Section 69(2) of the Partnership Act barred an unregistered firm from suing. The matter went all the way to the Supreme Court, which held in Haldiram Bhujiawala v. Anand Kumar Deepak Kumar (2000), nine years after the suit was filed, that the bar does not apply to a suit enforcing a statutory or common-law right such as trademark infringement or passing off.

Next came the 1974 deed itself. The trial court granted an interim injunction in May 1999. The Kolkata side alleged that the deed was forged. In 2008 the Supreme Court permitted an additional written statement on the forgery point. In June 2010 a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court set aside the injunction and sent the case back for the forgery question to be tried. The injunction was granted again in September 2012.

The registry was the third front. The Kolkata branch had separately applied for its own registration of the mark in November 1977 and obtained it in September 1980. The Intellectual Property Appellate Board cancelled that registration in April 2013.

In October 2015, Justice Shali dismissed the Kolkata branch's appeal and affirmed the order restraining it from using the Haldiram Bhujiawala name and the "V" logo outside West Bengal, twenty-four years after the Karol Bagh shop opened.

The next case was against outsiders. In April 2024 the Delhi High Court, in Haldiram India Pvt Ltd v. Berachah Sales Corporation, declared HALDIRAM and its oval logo well-known trademarks for food, restaurants and eateries across India, expressly "including the state of West Bengal". The defendants had incorporated a company called Haldiram Restro Pvt Ltd in Ambala in February 2019 and were selling mustard oil, salt, atta, ghee and packaged water under "Haldiram Bhujiawala" through a website and a Facebook page. A court-appointed commissioner found 600 cartons of mustard oil at the premises. The court granted a permanent injunction, ₹50 lakh in damages and ₹2 lakh in costs. The judgment records the plaintiff's sales growing from ₹49.2 crore in FY08 to ₹200.4 crore in FY18, and group sales of over ₹5,000 crore a year.

What the Haldiram's story teaches about owning a brand

Five lessons follow, and they apply as much to a family running two restaurants as to one running a ₹12,000 crore snacks business.

A trademark needs one owner with a clean chain of title

For most of its life the Haldiram Bhujiawala mark had an owner defined by a partnership that had been dissolved, a deed whose authenticity was disputed, and a rival registration that stood on the register for 33 years before it was cancelled. Every one of those facts had to be litigated before the question of who could sell bhujia in Delhi could be answered.

Register the mark in the name of the entity that will own the business long term, usually a holding company rather than an individual or a partnership firm. If the mark is held personally, write down the licence to the operating company. When ownership changes, record the assignment with the Trade Marks Registry on Form TM-P; Section 45 of the Trade Marks Act 1999 requires it, and an unrecorded assignment is not admitted as evidence of title unless the court directs otherwise.

Family settlements must be registered, specific and recorded

The 1974 deed divided India into two territories with one sentence. Section 41 of the Trade Marks Act 1999 deals with exactly this situation: an assignment that would create exclusive rights in different parts of India in different persons is not registered unless the Registrar is satisfied that it is not contrary to the public interest. A settlement that splits a brand by geography has to be drafted with that section in mind, executed by every party, and lodged with the registry, or it becomes a disputed piece of paper that a grandson can call a forgery 25 years later.

Family settlements also need to say what happens to the mark on the death of a party. The founder's affidavit of 1976 contradicted the 1974 declaration, and both documents were signed by people who were no longer alive when the case was finally heard.

Register early, in every class you will trade in, and renew

The firm applied for the mark in 1972 and got it in 1981. The Kolkata branch filed its own application in 1977 and had a registration by 1980. For 32 years two registrations of the same name coexisted on the register. A business that applies early, in the right classes, and opposes conflicting applications within the four-month window after journal publication, avoids most of what the Haldiram family went through.

A trademark registration is valid for ten years and renewable indefinitely under Section 25. The official fee for a new application is ₹4,500 per class for individuals, startups and small enterprises registered under Udyam, and ₹9,000 per class for everyone else. For a brand that has become well known, Rule 124 of the Trade Marks Rules 2017 allows a request for inclusion in the Registrar's list of well-known marks for a fee of ₹1 lakh. The 2024 judgment gave Haldiram's that status through litigation; a Rule 124 request costs far less than a suit.

Separate the brand from the businesses that use it

The 2025 merger was possible because the Delhi and Nagpur families had kept their packaged food businesses in distinct companies, separate from restaurants and other activities. Haldiram Snacks Food Pvt Ltd was incorporated in December 2022, the Competition Commission approved the combination in April 2023, the NCLT at Chandigarh ordered shareholder meetings in January 2024 with an appointed date of 1 April 2024, and the chief executive announced the merger as effective in April 2025. The share exchange ratios (2,538 shares of the merged company for every 100 shares of the Delhi company and 5,594 for every 100 of the Nagpur company) could be calculated because each side's FMCG business had its own accounts.

A family business that mixes restaurants, snacks, real estate and personal assets in one entity cannot take in an outside investor without first untangling them. Temasek, Alpha Wave and IHC bought into a clean company that owned exactly the snacks business and nothing else.

Budget for enforcement before you need it

The Ambala case took five years and a court commissioner to decide, against a defendant that had registered a company name, built a website and printed cartons. A brand with an established reputation attracts imitators. The owner needs a watch on new trademark applications and new company names, and a standing budget for cease-and-desist letters and the occasional suit. Section 16 of the Companies Act 2013 lets a registered trademark proprietor apply, within three years of a company's incorporation, to have a too-similar company name changed, which is a cheaper first step than an infringement suit.

Why the merger happened now

Reports of a sale had circulated for years. In September 2023 Reuters reported talks with Tata Consumer for a 51 percent stake at a $10 billion valuation, which Tata Consumer denied. In May 2024 there were reports of a non-binding offer from Bain and Temasek at $8 to $8.5 billion and a rival bid from Blackstone, ADIA and GIC for up to 76 percent. Manoharlal Agarwal of the Delhi family had once described turning down PepsiCo in the early 1990s with the words "I refused to give up our brand, our dream".

In the end the families merged their businesses, sold minority stakes to long-term investors, and kept control of the brand. Temasek's purchase was described by PwC as the largest private equity consumer deal in India. By October 2025 the board was reported to be discussing an IPO of ₹4,000 to ₹5,000 crore. The company exports to more than 80 countries, began exporting to the United States in 1993 and opened a factory in the United Kingdom in 2016. At home, Forbes India once noted that the ₹5 bhujia packet is used by shopkeepers as a substitute for loose change. The 2015 judgment and the 2024 well-known mark declaration gave the merged company a brand it could put on a balance sheet and in a prospectus; with the trademark still in dispute, no investor would have signed.

A short checklist for a family business

Register the brand in the name of a company, not a person, and in every class you trade in (for food businesses that usually means at least classes 29, 30 and 43). Write a family agreement that says who owns the mark, who may use it, where, and what happens on a death or a split, and execute it formally. Record every assignment and licence with the registry. Put each business line in its own entity so that one can be sold, merged or funded without the others. Oppose conflicting applications within four months of publication. Watch the companies register as well as the trademark journal. And budget for enforcement before you need it.

Frequently asked questions

Why are there three Haldiram's?

The founder's family split the business among branches in Delhi, Nagpur and Kolkata. A 1974 deed gave the Haldiram Bhujiawala trademark to one branch for all of India except West Bengal, where the Kolkata branch kept it. The Delhi and Nagpur packaged food businesses merged in 2025; the Kolkata business, trading as Prabhuji, remains separate.

What was the Haldiram's trademark case about?

The Kolkata branch opened a shop in Delhi in 1991 using the Haldiram Bhujiawala name. The Delhi family sued in December 1991. After a Supreme Court ruling in 2000 on whether an unregistered firm could sue, a disputed forgery allegation over the 1974 deed, and the cancellation of the Kolkata branch's own registration in 2013, the Delhi High Court in October 2015 restrained the Kolkata branch from using the name outside West Bengal.

Is Haldiram a well-known trademark in India?

Yes. On 2 April 2024 the Delhi High Court declared HALDIRAM and its oval logo well-known marks for food, restaurants and eateries across India, in a case against a company that had incorporated Haldiram Restro Pvt Ltd and sold mustard oil and groceries under the name.

Who invested in Haldiram's in 2025?

Temasek bought a stake of just under 10 percent in Haldiram Snacks Food Pvt Ltd at a valuation of about $10 billion in March 2025, and Alpha Wave Global and IHC of Abu Dhabi took a combined stake of about 6 percent. The Competition Commission of India approved Temasek's purchase in May 2025.

How can a family business protect its brand from a split?

Register the mark in the name of a holding company, record every assignment and licence with the Trade Marks Registry, write a family agreement that sets out ownership, territories and succession, and keep each business line in a separate entity. Section 41 of the Trade Marks Act 1999 governs assignments that divide rights by territory within India.

How much does trademark registration cost in India?

The official fee is ₹4,500 per class for individuals, startups and Udyam-registered small enterprises filing online, and ₹9,000 per class for other applicants. Registration lasts ten years and can be renewed for further ten-year periods.

Sources

Haldiram Bhujiawala v. Anand Kumar Deepak Kumar, (2000) 3 SCC 250; Delhi High Court judgments of 3 June 2010 and 19 October 2015 (FAO 470/2012); Haldiram India Pvt Ltd v. Berachah Sales Corporation, CS(COMM) 495/2019, judgment of 2 April 2024; Competition Commission of India press release of April 2023 on the Haldiram Snacks Food combination; notice and explanatory statement for the NCLT Chandigarh shareholder meetings (2024); Business Standard reports on the Temasek, Alpha Wave and IHC investments (January to May 2025) and on the family's history (September 2023, May 2024); Forbes India, India Rich List 2019; Trade Marks Act 1999, Sections 2(1)(zg), 11, 25, 29, 41 and 45; Trade Marks Rules 2017, First Schedule and Rule 124; Companies Act 2013, Section 16.