A91 partners is in advanced stages to invest Rs 175 crore (around $20 million) in Shree Anandhaas Sweets as the Coimbatore-based family-owned business chalks out expansion plans to grow its presence in other southern cities of India, people familiar with the developments told Moneycontrol.
This will be the first time the 27-year-old business is raising an institutional funding round. The company is stitching together a round at a time when private equity (PE) interest in family-owned companies, especially in the food space, is picking up. Last year, Motilal Oswal’s private equity arm, MO Alternates, along with its co-investors, picked up a 25 percent stake in Lal Sweets for Rs 330 crore.
Shree Anandhaas, the sweets and snacks business, started by a group of cousins, currently has 19 outlets in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore, and will use the fresh funds to expand in Chennai and the rest of Tamil Nadu. Apart from its home state, it will also use the money to set up its business in adjoining states such as Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.
Shree Anandhaas started as a restaurant in Coimbatore in 1998 and forayed fully into the business of making and selling fresh sweets in 2017. It sells a mix of ghee, kaju and milk-based sweets and also has a variety of savouries, competing with the likes of A2B, Krishna Sweets, Kanti Sweets, Anand Sweets, among others.
Similar to most family-owned businesses, Shree Anandhaas has so far been bootstrapped and generates profits, too. In FY25, the company clocked revenues of Rs 290 crore and had an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin of 10 percent, as per sources.
While the company's valuation was not immediately known, consumer companies typically get a 4X multiple on revenues, which would likely value Shree Anandhaas at around Rs 1,000-1,200 crore.
A91 Partners and Shree Anandhaas did not offer comments for this story.
New money, new stores
Shree Anandhaas plans to open at least 25-30 outlets in Chennai over the next three years. At the same time, it will also enter cities such as Erode, Kanchipuram. Vellore, Madurai, Tirupati, Kochi and Thrissur, to strengthen its grip in the southern belt of India. To compete more fiercely with national players such as Haldiram’s, and south focussed chains like A2B, Shree Anandhaas will also open stores in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.
Nearly three decades ago, the venture was founded by a family of cousins originally from Tirunelveli who later moved to Coimbatore, inspired by its penchant for trade and business. P.Manikanden, M Amutha Manikanden, K. Venkatesh, N.V. Nammalwar and A. Narayana Ram are the directors of Shree Anandhaas.
Industry play
A91 Partners’ investment into Shree Anandhaas comes months after Motilal Oswal (MO Alts) invested in Lal Sweets as investors bet on a large unorganised industry in India becoming more organised as more and more people alter their purchasing patterns.
While the two investments are in the same industry, their playbooks are different. Unlike Lal Sweets, which is a packaged sweets play that’s sold in modern trade and kiranas, Shree Anandhaas is a bet on the fresh sweets category. However, the larger theme is that PE interest in family-owned businesses is rising, including deals like VIP Industries, Theobroma and several others.
For A91 Partners, this will be yet another consumer play after Blue Tokai, Akshayakalpa, Happilo and several others.
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