Millions of aspirant Indian women entrepreneurs are inspired by her story.
During the partition, Rajni Bector, who was born in Karachi, moved to Ludhiana. She married into a local business family at the age of barely 17. Rajni decided to take advantage of the chance to join a baking course at Punjab Agricultural University while her kids were away at boarding school.
She started a modest company when her ice cream and pastry dishes gained popularity among her friends. She started manufacturing ice cream in her garden using an oven she bought with an initial cost of Rs 300. However, the company eventually ran into financial problems. In 1978, Rajni’s husband Dharamvir helped her launch an ice cream manufacturing company by providing her with Rs 20,000.
Inspired by the Hindi phrase “cream ka” (made of cream), she gave her brand the name Cremica. Rajni began by selling ice cream and then grew the company. With her family’s help, Rajni flourished in spite of the difficulties of the 1980s and made Cremica a success.
Cremica is reportedly the second-biggest biscuit exporter from India, and its goods are sold in more than 60 nations. Additionally, most weddings in North India want to have their Western sweets provided by this particular brand. Cremica has a remarkable yearly revenue of Rs 7,000 crore.
Millions of aspirational Indian women entrepreneurs are inspired by her story.
Diligently working
As an adherent of Aurobindo and The Mother, Bector believes that there is no short route to success. “Work is prayer.” Through her works, Mother teaches us that. It’s what I’ve always done. She reminisces about her 16-hour workdays, saying, “I had sent my kids to boarding schools.” I used to quit working when they got back so they had enough time. The third generation has joined her company as of late. They are undoubtedly taking Bector’s advise to uphold excellence at all costs to heart. “The food industry is highly complex, and safety regulations must be strictly adhered to.
When my grandson was visiting lately, we spoke about how a bug got into one of our bread packages in the Delhi market. When bread is offered at fruit and vegetable counters, this usually occurs. Our personnel visited the complainant’s home right away and handled the situation,” she claims.
When she first started working, she encountered criticism from society, but her spouse encouraged her to disregard the doubters. It was unusual for women to work in Ludhiana back then. Thus, it undoubtedly caused some controversy, but Bector claims that envy was the main cause. She believes that when a company grows, managing its workforce may become difficult. “Be kind to them, but firm when necessary,” she advises. Bector is still interested in the goods even though she stopped actively managing the company ten years ago. “My taste senses and my love of food have carried me this far. She beams brightly, “I still taste, choose, and approve recipes for our items.
