If you’re preparing creamy butter chicken for the family at home, enjoying the harmonious blend of ginger, cinnamon and cardamom in a pho bo soup at a Vietnamese restaurant or picking up some mango chutney at your Globus market, it’s almost certainly thanks to Aggarwal AG, and ultimately to the parents of company founder Ghansham Aggarwal.

After Ghansham Aggarwal’s move to Basel with his wife Francine, who is Swiss, his parents decided to come for a visit. The Aggarwal family realized that Indian products were difficult if not impossible to find here. And so the idea of importing exotic foods was born.

From niche player to market leader

Ghansham and Francine founded a sole proprietorship to import, package and sell fine Indian foods. And customers kept coming back for more. The business didn’t just simmer, it started coming to the boil. The first shop opened was in Muri (canton of Bern), followed by a branch in Bern city center, a shop in Zurich and a restaurant in Bern’s Wittigkofen district, as well as the warehouse and offices in Burgdorf. By the time the company moved into its own logistics center and offices in Langenthal (canton of Bern) in 2007, it was clear: once a niche player and pioneer in the import of exotic fine foods, it had become a major market leader. Aggarwal subsequently continued its expansion, growing into what is now an impressive company with four flagship shops in Basel, Bern, Zurich and Baden and 32 staff at its Langenthal headquarters.

We support the family business

The Aggarwals haven’t run the business by themselves for a long time now. Ghansham’s brother Dinesh became part of the team in the very early stages, and son-in-law Karan, nephew Amrit and two daughters, Sangeeta and Chetna, are now also involved in the management of the company. PostFinance supports the family business with services such as in-store and online shop payments, foreign exchange trading, international payment transactions and cash management. For Aggarwal, the tipping point for the switch to PostFinance was problems with card payments, for which PostFinance had a quick and straightforward solution. Since then, PostFinance has been the company’s main bank.

More branches expected to follow

When asked where Aggarwal is now heading, Ghansham’s reply is assured: “We want to open more branches throughout Switzerland in the future.” So Aggarwal’s future will still have the scent of fine curry powder, sweet mangos, entrepreneurial success – and will possibly also have an imminent new generation in management. And lovers of exotic fine foods can continue to look forward to them.