Around Town: How a Class 7 dropout established Thane’s mithai empire Prashant Corner, now selling ‘Suvarna Mithai’ at Rs 50,000 a kilo

Sharing how it was his customers who came to his rescue, he shared: “Customers lent me money, I sold my house and took a loan from the bank, and combined all of it to buy a 300-sq ft pakka shop in Panchpakhadi.” He would deal in dry fruits and a few provisions.

“Khandelwal Mithai, my neighbour, was then a really big name in Thane. I would look at them and think that someday I too would do a business like him,” he recalled, adding that he slowly started trading in mithai. He would procure it from a wholesaler and sell it to his customers.

“Customers have always been very important to us. When they would give feedback, say mithai got soiled or was too hard in texture, I would pass it on to the mithai maker, but in turn he told me, ‘What do you Maharashtrians know about mithai?’”

Naturally, it hurt his pride. By now, Sakpal was doing fine. At least, where they would get their next meal was no longer a concern. So he decided, why not make it themselves?

He began hiring karigars and started making peda, barfi, and laddoos at his home. Parallely, he also embarked on a tour to Delhi, Punjab, Lucknow, Kolkata, and parts of Rajasthan to understand the mithais better. In 2000, he started his first mithai shop in Panchpakhadi with about a dozen mithai options, including his now-popular dry fruit mithai range alongside savouries, with samosa being the first item.

In 2009, it opened its second outlet in Vasant Vihar, Thane, and there has been no stopping since then. Today, it has 17 outlets — 7 owners and 10 franchised, all operated by them, and offering over 200 mithai items alongside savouries. It also boasts a dedicated chaat corner with items like sev puri, bhel, pani puri, and pao bhaji, to name a few. At the entrance of his central facility, one can see photos of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) founder Raj Thackeray visiting Prashant Corner on two separate occasions.

Diwali and ‘Suvarna Mithai’

When asked about the busiest season, he says it’s through the year for different items — santra barfi in winter, gajjak on Sankranti, thandai on Holi, aamras in summer, but the biggest season is Diwali.

Worker giving final touches to a mithai inside Prashant Corner’s 1,00,000 sq ft factory spreading across multiple floors in Wagle Estate.(Express Photo by Deepak Joshi)

“In 10 days of Diwali, we sell in tonnes. This year, we have estimated to sell about 5,00,000 kg of mithai, with a significant portion of it being sugar-free range and dry fruit mithais, including Kaju Katli, for which we are eyeing a sale of 2,00,000 kg,” said Sakpal, adding that one of their most revered items during Diwali is ‘Suvarna Mithai’, which translates to Gold Mithai.

“It is made using purest kesar from Kashmir, Mamra almond, Pishori pistachio, and cardamom. It is topped with 24-carat gold leaves,” he said, adding that it used to retail at Rs 28,000 a kg for the past three years, but the rate has been revised to Rs 50,000 a kg this year. “We sell about 500 kg in a year, mostly on Diwali, it’s for VIPs and VVIPs who need them for gifting,” he added.

The secret sauce and the plan ahead

“The base of anything is good quality raw material. It is where you shouldn’t look at profit or loss,” he said, adding that alongside quality of products, it is all about “making style, ensuring that your staff is happy and taken care of, and rectifying whenever you spot an error. We are on a quest to improve.” Today, they have 1,500 people on payroll. “Staff hai toh hum hai.”

Sakpal gets philosophical when we ask him about the plans in the pipeline, and if he has franchise offers from Mumbai and other cities, he admits that there are, but he isn’t accepting any.

“People will praise you, enough to put you at the top of the pinnacle, but it is you who have to look at your slippers and see how much you can run and how far can you go? If you run very fast, you also get tired faster. I want to run, slowly and mindfully,” he said, adding that he will enter the Mumbai market certainly, but can’t put a timeline to it. “I don’t expand thinking that I should. I do when I see a market and a partner that’s a good fit for us,” he said, adding that the immediate plan is to expand the manufacturing space by another facility of the same size to accommodate the increase in demand.

The next gen has entered

Joining him on this journey is his daughter and only child, Aishwarya, 28, who became part of the business two years ago.

“I’ve been spending my vacations here since I was in Class 9 or 10,” she recalled, adding, “I would pack boxes, sell mithai, interact with customers, and somewhere along the way, I got drawn to the business.”

Her vision now is to expand into more stores, upgrade machinery, improve backend integration, and enhance packaging. Even as the father maintained the silence, the daughter shared that they are looking for spaces to open a store in Mumbai. “But we’ll be able to gauge the situation better after Diwali,” she remarked.