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Last week, Pushp Brand, a spice-maker from Indore, filed draft papers with the market regulator Sebi for a Rs 800–1000 crore IPO. 

The brand is little known nationally, but it is a well-established regional player from Madhya Pradesh, with products like “hing” and “achaar masala” as its heroes. 

Started in the 1990s by second-generation entrepreneurs Mahendra Kumar Surana and Surendra Kumar Surana, the founder-brother duo pivoted from their father’s spice-trading business to building a brand under the name Pushp.

Till today, about 96% of its sales come from spices, while spices like chilli and turmeric, and 95% of those sales happen at kiranas. This is as traditional as an FMCG business can get. 

Mumbai-based venture capital firms A91 Partners and Sixth Sense are well aware of it. In 2020, A91 bought a 28% stake in Pushp. Four years later, in 2023, Sixth Sense bought an 8% stake as secondary from A91.

The IPO, entirely an offer for sale, will see both investors and promoters selling some stake. For A91 Partners, they will take home about Rs 450 crore, which translates into returns of about 6.5–8.5X. Sixth Sense is expected to cash out Rs 165 crore, or about 2–3X returns, per back-of-the-envelope calculations done by The Ken.

After the IPO, A91’s share will drop to 5.13% from 20.14%, and Sixth Sense’s to 2.31% from 7.81%.

The listing is expected to get Sebi approval in the next three to four weeks, with the listing planned for around October, a person familiar with the matter told The Ken. 

Why go old school?

What made a kirana-first, big on single-category spice brand from Madhya Pradesh investable to begin with? 

Since Pushp’s legacy business was in spices trading, the founders’ strength lies in knowing what to procure and when, explained an investor in the consumer space. They don’t compete on pricing. This is why they have been able to grow at a 20–25% annually, consistently, with Ebitda margins of 15–20%. 

There has been a broader trend where investors are tracking down old-school businesses that tick two checkmarks.