KS Thirupathi Raja founded a small store in 1988, and since then, it has grown into India’s largest food chain, serving a wide range of snacks, sweets, pure-vegetarian restaurants and party halls, milk, ice cream, fruits and vegetables, bakery goods, confectionery, and millet food. The store was named after the locality, “Adyar.”
Thirupathi Raja, who passed away thirty years ago, opened a tiny confectionery in Chennai. Currently, this identical store has grown into other locations throughout Chennai and its surrounding areas. K.S. Thirupathi Raja gave his sons, Mr. K.T. Venkatesan and Mr. K.T. Srinivasa Raja, who are currently the driving forces behind A2B, the baton of this lovely legacy.
Adyar Ananda Bhavan is the ideal spot for a fast bite on the go or a family meal because it serves outstanding vegetarian cuisine. To serve the healthiest meals possible, only fresh, pure vegetarian components are used in the preparation of the meal. One of the greatest vegetarian restaurants in India and overseas is Adyar Ananda Bhavan. For their most devoted customers, the restaurant serves fantastic Chinese food, amazing North Indian food, and delicious traditional South Indian food. A2B Restaurant’s hallmarks are flawless service, excellent quality, exquisite flavor, and reasonable prices.
How the trip got started:
An agricultural family in Rajapalayam, south Tamil Nadu, was left bankrupt in the 1970s after a rare dust storm destroyed their farmlands, rendering them unusable.The head of the family, Thirupathi Raja, was devastated. On their eight acres of property, he used to grow sugarcane and paddy. It was only lately that he took out a loan to lease additional land so that he could continue farming.
He established Guru Sweets, a tiny confectionery, in Rajapalayam, Tamil Nadu, a town close to Madurai. Guru Sweets served out dishes such wheat halwa, laddu, jahangir, badusha, and the well-known Mysore pak with the assistance of Raja’s wife Muthu Lakshmi. There were also some savory foods available in the supermarket, like karasev, which is made of gram flour. That was short-lived, though.
The younger son of Thirupathi Raja, KT Srinivasa Raja, states, “My father opened another sweet shop, Srinivasa Sweets, in Bengaluru near Malleshwaram, in 1978.” In contrast to the previous store, Srinivasa Sweets endured for around ten years before Raja took over the management a year after it opened. In Royapuram, Chennai, he writes, “my father and older brother [KT Venkatesan] had opened up another sweets and savory shop, Shri Anand Bhavan, by 1980.”That marked the beginning of Adyar Ananda Bhavan (the name was changed in 1988).
When it came to running the shop, Thirupathi Raja could rely on the help of his wife and two kids who had left school. The family, who lived in a little house with a bedroom, hallway, and kitchen, built the company brick by brick.The family persevered and grew stronger because it appears they were meant to produce mouthwatering candies, open stores across the nation, expand internationally, and provide jobs for thousands of people in exchange for free food and lodging.
According to Srinivasa Raja, who attended a government Tamil-medium school in Rajapalayam, “I stopped my studies after Class 10.” “My mother would assist my father in making the candies. I would walk about delivering candies to local businesses. Our shop was managed by my brother K T Venkatesan, who is older.
The family has gone a long way from such modest beginnings. The family now resides in a spacious three-story home in a wealthy neighborhood in South Chennai that is 12,000 square feet. Among the luxury vehicles that Srinivasa Raja owns, his Volvo XC90 petrol-electric hybrid SUV is his favorite.
According to Srinivasa Raja, “We introduced new varieties of sweets,” which helped them stand out from the competition in the industry. “To make the popular sweets in those places, we brought people from Rajasthan, Bengal, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh, and they became a hit with customers here.”Their revenue surpassed Rs 100 crore by 1994. At present, they employ over 10,000 people and generate ₹800 crore in revenue. The company opened a posh vegetarian restaurant called “A2B” at the beginning of the new millennium. Together, the two brands are present in every Indian location, providing patrons with an exquisite selection of sweets, savory dishes, and solely vegetarian fare.
Currently operating in six countries, A2B hopes to become the most popular South Indian food brand worldwide in the near future by placing a pin in the major cities of every nation on the planet.
In Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh, there are about 25 Adyar Ananda Bhavan locations along national highways. According to Srinivasa Raja, “our goal is to have one of our outlets at every 200 km on all national highways across India.”The two cities where Adyar Ananda Bhavan is most prevalent are Bengaluru and Chennai. Food is produced and distributed to the several outlets from a centrally located kitchen in both cities.
Three decades ago, the late K.S. Thirupathi Raja opened a small sweet shop in the then-metropolitan Chennai, India. Since then, the store has grown to over 120 locations throughout Chennai and its surrounding areas, including the states of Karnataka, Pondicherry, and Delhi, as well as Kanchipuram, Erode, Madurai, Trichy, Coimbatore, and Tripur. As one of the top producers of premium candies and savory snacks in South India, M/s. Adyar Ananda Bhavan Sweets & Snacks is now firmly established. The two brothers, Mr. K.T. Venkatesan and Mr. K.T. Srinivasa Raja, who have taken over their late father K.S. Thirupathi Raja’s rich and delicious history, are the main source of concern at this time.
