The Hundred, Part One: Things Homes and Shops Use Up

Thursday at the kirana shop

Thursday afternoon is restocking day at the kirana shop at the end of my lane in Bhosari. The owner, whom I will call Dattatray (not his real name), sits on an upturned crate with a ruled notebook and reads out what he needs to the distributor's boy on the phone. I stood there one Thursday last October while he did it and counted. Twenty-two lines. Haldi in 200-gram packets, two cartons. Urad papad, one carton. Phenyl, the black bottle and the white one. Agarbatti, three brands, because his customers are loyal to brands of incense in a way they are not loyal to anything else. Matchboxes. Cotton buds. Paper cups for the tea stall next door. Not one item on that list was something a family decides to buy. They simply run out.

Dattatray's order was worth ₹14,600 that week. He places one like it every Thursday of the year, including the weeks in 2020 when the shutter was half down and he served people through the gap.

Most of the fifty businesses in this part of the book make something on that list, or the box, pouch or bottle it arrives in. Before the entries begin, it helps to know how each one is built, because I have squeezed a lot into very few lines.

The four things every entry tells you

Each entry has the same four parts, and I chose them because they are the four questions I ask first when someone walks up the stairs to my office with a plan.

• Capital range. This is the rupee figure, in lakh, to get the unit producing and selling: machinery, installation, electrical work, a rented shed's deposit and roughly three months of working capital. It leaves out land, because most of you should not be buying land yet. The prices are what I and the people I advise were quoted in 2024–25, mostly in Pune, Rajkot and Coimbatore. Used machines bring the bottom of the range down; a new automatic line pushes past the top. If an entry says ₹8–25 lakh, someone has done it on eight, and they were busy.
• Pollution colour. The Central Pollution Control Board sorts industries into white, green, orange and red. White units barely touch the environment and in most states need no consent at all. Green and orange need consent from the state pollution board, with more paperwork the further up you go. Red units, the dyeing, electroplating and solvent-heavy work, belong only in notified industrial areas and take months to clear. I give the colour as most states list it, but state lists differ and they change, so check your own board's current list before you pay a deposit on anything.
• Key machine. One machine sets the speed of every one of these units. In a namkeen plant it is the fryer; in a box plant it is the corrugator. That is the machine you inspect hardest when buying used, the one whose hourly output decides your capacity, and the one whose breakdown stops your dispatches. When you reach the costing chapter, it is also the machine your contribution per hour is measured against.
• Main risk. One risk, never a list. Every business has thirty things that can go wrong. I name the one that has actually closed the newcomers I have known, the thing that sank them in year two or three while the order book still looked fine.

Crowded and open

I have also added a plain note where it matters on how full the field is. Some of these businesses have a unit in every second shed of every estate in Maharashtra, and a newcomer competes on price from the first day. Others still have room, usually because the product is boring, or the buyers are fussy, or the work is dirty enough that clever people walk past it. I would rather you knew that before you fell in love with a machine catalogue.

I made my own first decision with none of this written down. I bought a slotter because it was cheap and the seller was desperate, and I worked out the rest over about four years and roughly ₹6 lakh of mistakes. Dattatray, when I told him I was writing this, looked up from his notebook and said, "Write the ones that people buy on credit and still pay for." Then he went back to his order. He was on line nineteen, the phenyl.

Fifteen things India eats from a packet

Food is where most first-time founders want to start, and I understand why. Everybody eats, the machines are small, and your mother's recipe feels like a competitive advantage. It is not. What separates a food unit that earns from one that sells at cost is the licence on its label, and I put that before the entries because it changes how you should read them.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, FSSAI, gives a small maker one of three permissions. Below ₹12 lakh of annual turnover you need only a basic registration, which costs ₹100 a year. Between ₹12 lakh and ₹20 crore you need a state licence, with an inspection, a water test and a named person responsible for food safety. Above that, a central licence. Those were the thresholds in 2025; check them before you file, because fees and limits have moved twice since I started paying attention.

Here is why it decides your margin. With basic registration and a printed label you can sell to kirana shops like Dattatray's, who pay ₹42 for a 200-gram packet of namkeen that retails at ₹50. With a state licence, a shelf-life report from an accredited laboratory (about ₹6,000 a product) and proper batch coding, you can supply a supermarket chain or a hotel kitchen, where the same packet fetches more and the orders arrive weekly. Without them, the purchase manager will not take your sample out of its bag.

1. Papad. ₹3–10 lakh. White. Key machine: the papad-pressing and drying line. Main risk: monsoon humidity, which turns a week's stock soft if you have no dryer.
2. Namkeen and farsan. ₹10–40 lakh. Green. Key machine: the continuous fryer. Main risk: oil cost, which is half your raw material bill and moves monthly. Crowded.
3. Cold-pressed oil. ₹6–20 lakh. Green. Key machine: the wooden or steel kachi ghani (cold expeller). Main risk: buyers who will not pay the premium once they see the price beside refined oil.
4. Spice grinding and packing. ₹5–25 lakh. White. Key machine: the pulveriser. Main risk: adulteration in bought chilli and turmeric, which becomes your failed lab report.
5. Packaged atta and besan. ₹8–30 lakh. White. Key machine: the stone or roller mill. Main risk: thin margins against national brands. Crowded in cities, open in district towns.
6. Pickles. ₹3–12 lakh. White. Key machine: the cutting and mixing vessel. Main risk: fungus and leaking jars returned in the first summer.
7. Rusk and toast. ₹12–35 lakh. Green. Key machine: the rotary rack oven. Main risk: bakery workers who leave in the wedding season.
8. Vermicelli and macaroni. ₹10–30 lakh. Green. Key machine: the extruder. Main risk: running one shape when shops want five.
9. Poha and murmura (puffed rice). ₹8–25 lakh. Green. Key machine: the roaster and flaker. Main risk: paddy prices after a bad monsoon. Open outside Madhya Pradesh.
10. Ginger-garlic paste. ₹6–18 lakh. Green. Key machine: the colloid mill. Main risk: shelf life, which most newcomers claim without testing.
11. Peanut chikki. ₹4–12 lakh. White. Key machine: the jaggery cooking kettle. Main risk: a product sold mainly from October to February.
12. Ready-mix batters and instant flours. ₹5–15 lakh. White. Key machine: the ribbon blender. Main risk: getting into shops at all, because shelf space is the real price.
13. Packaged drinking water. ₹25–60 lakh. Green. Key machine: the RO and filling line. Main risk: BIS certification, which is compulsory and slow. Very crowded.
14. Soya chunks. ₹30–80 lakh. Green. Key machine: the extruder-dryer. Main risk: a buyer who has never heard of you.
15. Jaggery powder. ₹8–25 lakh. Green. Key machine: the evaporating pan. Main risk: sugarcane arrives for five months, so cash goes out in a lump. Room left.

On the Floor: Indore

A woman I will call Sapna (not her real name) ran a namkeen unit in Sanwer Road, Indore, on basic registration for three years, selling sev and mixture to about sixty shops at ₹180 a kilo. In 2022 she spent ₹2.4 lakh on a state licence, lab reports and a nitrogen-flushing pack machine. A hotel caterer in Ujjain now takes 400 kilos a month at ₹235. Same recipe, same fryer. When I asked what had changed, she said, "They read the back of the packet."

Thirteen things every other factory wraps itself in

Every packet in the list above leaves its factory inside something else. Sapna's 400 kilos for Ujjain travel in corrugated cartons, sealed with tape, labelled by someone who owns a flexo press. Packaging is the business behind every other business, and its demand rises and falls with everyone else's output rather than with any single taste or fashion. When biscuit sales dip three per cent, box orders dip three per cent. They do not vanish.

I should declare an interest. I make boxes, so I am biased about entry sixteen, and I have tried to correct for it by being harder on it than on the others.

One warning applies to the whole family. Packaging buyers are factories, and factories pay late. A namkeen shop pays Dattatray in cash on Saturday. A pharma company pays a carton maker on day sixty if the accounts clerk is in a good mood. I was that clerk once, in Chinchwad, and I know how long a supplier's invoice can sit in a tray.

16. Corrugated boxes. ₹25–150 lakh. Green (white in some states if you run no boiler). Key machine: the single-facer corrugator. Main risk: kraft paper prices, which can move eleven per cent in six weeks while your customer holds you to last quarter's rate. Crowded around Pune and Chakan, open in district towns.
17. Paper cups and plates. ₹8–25 lakh. White. Key machine: the cup-forming machine. Main risk: a cheap machine that wastes one cup in eight and a market full of people who bought the same machine. Very crowded.
18. PET preforms. ₹40–150 lakh. Green. Key machine: the injection moulder with a multi-cavity mould. Main risk: two or three bottlers taking all your output and setting your price.
19. HDPE and PP woven sacks. ₹60–200 lakh. Green. Key machine: the circular loom. Main risk: cement and fertiliser companies that buy by tender, to the paisa.
20. Kraft paper bags. ₹5–15 lakh. White. Key machine: the automatic bag-making machine. Main risk: shopkeepers go straight back to plastic the month enforcement of the ban slackens.
21. Printed labels and stickers. ₹10–40 lakh. Green. Key machine: the narrow-web flexo press. Main risk: one artwork error on 50,000 labels, and the bill is yours.
22. BOPP adhesive tape. ₹15–50 lakh. Green. Key machine: the slitter-rewinder. Main risk: you are cutting someone else's jumbo rolls, so your margin is whatever they leave you. Crowded.
23. Stretch and shrink film. ₹30–90 lakh. Green. Key machine: the blown-film extruder. Main risk: polymer prices that change every fortnight.
24. Moulded pulp egg trays. ₹20–60 lakh. Orange. Key machine: the pulp-moulding and drying line. Main risk: drying fuel, which can eat a third of your cost if you guess it wrong. Room left, especially near poultry belts in Namakkal and Hyderabad.
25. Printed mono cartons. ₹30–100 lakh. Green. Key machine: the die-punching machine (the offset press can come later; outsource printing first). Main risk: pharma buyers who reject a whole lot for a colour shift you can barely see.
26. Aluminium foil containers. ₹10–30 lakh. White. Key machine: the power press with container dies. Main risk: aluminium prices, and dies that cost more than the press. Growing with food delivery.
27. Air-bubble film. ₹20–50 lakh. Green. Key machine: the bubble-film extruder. Main risk: bulky, light stock that fills your shed long before it fills your bank account.
28. Wooden pallets. ₹8–25 lakh. White. Key machine: the nailing table and a cross-cut saw. Main risk: wet timber, and export buyers who need heat treatment to the ISPM-15 standard, which you will not have. Open, and nobody clever wants it.

On the Floor: the box I almost refused

In 2006 a man came up my stairs with a sample of his poha packet and asked for 2,000 small cartons a month. It was a fiddly size and a tiny order, and Ganesh, then still a helper, was the only one free to set the slotter for it. I nearly sent the poha man to someone else.

He now takes 31,000 cartons a month from us. He has paid within thirty days for nineteen years, and the only argument we have ever had was about the shade of yellow on his logo.

Last Tuesday his truck was at my gate at seven in the morning, before my own supervisor had arrived.

Twenty-two things that get used up at home and in hospitals

The last family on this half of the list is the one machine sellers love most, because the products look simple and the demand is obvious. Everyone buys soap. That is exactly the trouble.

29. Detergent powder. ₹5–20 lakh. Green for dry mixing (spray-drying is a different factory). Key machine: the ribbon blender. Main risk: national brands that give the shopkeeper a scheme you cannot match. Very crowded.
30. Washing soap cakes. ₹10–30 lakh. Green. Key machine: the plodder. Main risk: palm oil prices. Crowded.
31. Dishwash bar and liquid. ₹4–15 lakh. Green. Key machine: the mixing tank and bar press. Main risk: margins of a rupee or two per unit, which only work at volume.
32. Phenyl and floor cleaner. ₹3–10 lakh. Orange in most states. Key machine: stirrer tanks and a bottle filler. Main risk: institutional buyers who choose by price alone. Crowded in shops, room in hospitals and housing societies.
33. Acid toilet cleaner. ₹5–15 lakh. Orange. Key machine: lined mixing tanks. Main risk: one acid burn on your floor, and your insurance and your conscience.
34. Liquid hand wash. ₹5–15 lakh. Green. Key machine: the filling and capping line. Main risk: it needs a cosmetic licence from the state drug controller, which newcomers forget.
35. Agarbatti. ₹3–15 lakh. White. Key machine: the automatic stick machine. Main risk: sellers who promise to buy back everything you make. They will not. Very crowded at raw batti, room in scenting and packing.
36. Dhoop and sambrani cups. ₹3–10 lakh. White. Key machine: the cone press. Main risk: half your year's sales fall between Ganesh Chaturthi and Diwali.
37. Camphor tablets. ₹5–20 lakh. Green. Key machine: the tablet press. Main risk: competitors who cut their camphor with wax and undercut you by twenty per cent.
38. Candles. ₹2–8 lakh. White. Key machine: moulds. Main risk: wax prices and a single festival.
39. Tissue and napkin converting. ₹15–50 lakh. White. Key machine: the rewinder and napkin folder. Main risk: the mill sets your parent-roll price. Growing.
40. Sanitary napkins. ₹10–40 lakh, semi-automatic. White. Key machine: the core-forming unit. Main risk: free government distribution in some states. Room left in small towns.
41. Baby and adult diapers. ₹1–3 crore. Green. Key machine: the full converting line. Main risk: you are fighting multinationals for shelf space with no advertising budget.
42. Wet wipes. ₹20–60 lakh. Green. Key machine: the folding and packing machine. Main risk: cheap imported wipes.
43. Garbage bags. ₹15–40 lakh. Green. Key machine: the blown-film extruder with a bag sealer. Main risk: thickness rules under the plastic waste regulations, which change.
44. Cotton buds. ₹5–15 lakh. White. Key machine: the automatic bud machine. Main risk: plastic sticks are banned, so budget for paper ones.
45. Absorbent cotton. ₹30–80 lakh. Orange, because of bleaching. Key machine: the bleaching kier. Main risk: effluent treatment.
46. Surgical gauze and bandages. ₹10–40 lakh. White if you buy bleached cloth, orange if you bleach. Key machine: the gauze folding and cutting machine. Main risk: medical device registration with CDSCO, the central drugs regulator, now applies to small makers too.
47. Crepe bandages. ₹15–40 lakh. White. Key machine: the narrow-fabric loom. Main risk: an established Tamil Nadu cluster that already supplies the distributors.
48. Disposable face masks. ₹10–30 lakh. White. Key machine: the mask-making line. Main risk: the 2020 buyers have gone and their machines are still for sale. Stay away.
49. Disposable underpads and bed sheets. ₹8–25 lakh. White. Key machine: ultrasonic non-woven cutting. Main risk: hospital tenders decided on price.
50. Surgical caps, gowns and shoe covers. ₹10–30 lakh. White. Key machine: the ultrasonic sealer. Main risk: thin margins that only survive on repeat hospital contracts.

On the Floor: Coimbatore

A man I will call Senthil (not his real name) bought a gauze folding machine in 2019 and set up near Kurichi. Before he signed for it, he asked the seller for the names of the last ten buyers in the district. The seller gave him seven. Senthil visited four of them, found two struggling, and changed his plan: he sold folded gauze to those two instead of competing with them, then added CDSCO registration in 2023 and went to the hospitals himself. He said, "The machine man told me how many he sold. Nobody told me that before."

The crowding problem

Count the bold words. Nine of these fifty entries are very crowded, and I would guess most first-time founders reading this list will circle at least two of them. The reason is plain. You can see detergent and agarbatti and paper cups. You have never once in your life thought about who makes the rubber gasket inside your pressure cooker lid.

A crowded product is not forbidden. It means the machine is cheap, the recipe is known and the seller has a waiting list of buyers in your district. Before you choose one, ring the raw material dealer within fifty kilometres and ask how many units buy from him. He will tell you. Dealers love to talk about their customers.

The poha man's truck that waits at my gate carries cartons to a factory. That factory buys sacks, film, labels, pallets, nut-and-bolt fixings for its packing machine and a drum of adhesive every month. None of those suppliers has a brand anyone outside the purchase office would recognise.

That is where the second fifty begin.