Acharya Balakrishnan, CEO, Patanjali has just entered the elite club of richest men in the country, surpassing well-known industrialists like Rahul Bajaj of Bajaj Auto, Adi Godrej of Godrej, Ajay Piramal of Piramal Enterprise and Essar's Ravi Ruia.
With a wealth of a whopping Rs 25,600 crore, Balakrishnan is now the 25th richest man in the country, according to Hurun Report India's Hurun India Rich List 2016.
"Yoga Acharya's Patanjali has taken the market by storm and is eating away market share of other multinational FMCG's," said the report.
Patanjali registered a turnover of Rs 5,000 crore and expects to hit Rs 10,000 crore in 2017.
Interestingly, Acharya Balakrishna holds as much as 94 per cent of Patanjali shares and does not accept salary from the company.
Balkrishna, Yoga guru Ramdev 's closest aide, said Patanjali operates at an 8-10 per cent profit margin and profits are reinvested in innovation and capacity expansion to bring prices down even further. While most companies carry out market research before entering new segments, Patanjali, on the other hand, has launched products in multiple categories almost simultaneously - be it toothpaste, biscuit, beauty care or home worship products.
The company, in fact, intends to venture into garments area and has decided to launch 'swadeshi jeans' by end of the year or early next year.
There is a great demand from youths, and therefore Patanjali has decided to launch the Indianised jeans to compete with foreign brands, said Ramdev.