ELK GROVE VILLAGE, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--House of Spices (HOS) is a family business, with every member to thank for where it is today. From one store in Jackson Heights, NY, to an empire that spans various industrial sectors, HOS has remained committed to providing top quality products since its inception in 1970. With 11 warehouses throughout the United States, their unofficial slogan is, “If we don’t have a product, you don’t need it.” The newest warehouse opened on May 8, 2015, to much fanfare. The 130,000 sq. ft. warehouse is the largest operated by any South Asian distributor in the United States. HOS plans on continuing to build their brand throughout 2015 and beyond.
The HOS story began in 1964 when G.L. Soni came to the U.S as an engineering graduate student. Unlike most college students, G.L‘s lack of food choices did not come from lack of funds, but from lack of options. Stores in the small college town seldom carried any of the ingredients needed for traditional Indian cuisine. He and a small group of Indian friends survived on yellow split peas until graduation. “Nobody even knew about yogurt,” G.L. recalls about his early years in the United States. Five years later, G.L. and his wife, Sobhana, were still having a difficult time procuring ingredients for traditional Indian meals even though they lived in New York. It was at that point, G.L. got the idea for a store that carried top quality spices and ingredients for Indian cooking.
He reached out to his older brother in Mumbai who was a broker on the cotton exchange at the time. G.L.’s older brother asked around about getting suppliers for his brother in the United States and shortly thereafter connected G.L. and his wife to Heralal Parikh who supplied them with various South Asian spices and ingredients. Kenya Millers in Nairobi, Kenya, was used to supply dals because dals could not be imported from India to the United States at the time. The suppliers were in place but money was tight. G.L. only had $200 in the bank, so he borrowed money from friends. Some friends even took out bank loans to help. In total, he had $2,000 to start his business. At the same time a coffee shop across from his home in Jackson Heights, NY, was closing. G.L. and Sobhana took over the store, cleaned it, and completed the construction on their own. They used the $2000 to purchase dals from Kenya. However, they had no more money to get the spices and other ingredients from Heralal Parikh, so G.L. went to the consulate of India in New York and asked about a letter of credit. They looked at him and laughed and said, “You are going into the food business and don’t know what a letter of credit is?” G.L. replied, “I don’t know, but I can learn. This is America where if you work hard, you can achieve and learn anything.” From there he went to a local bank and they extended him a letter of credit and purchased the goods from Mumbai. On October 10, 1970, G.L’s birthday and Vijayadashami Day, their first store opened. Word spread fast amongst New York’s growing Indian population and soon G.L. asked his newly unemployed brother Kumar to run the store. An influx of Indian professionals began migrating to the U.S and as more stores opened the brothers began not only selling goods but supplying stores with products.
G.L. soon realized that supplying the goods was the way to go. By 1970, the Soni family was renting a small garage to store goods. By 1972 the Soni family opened their first warehouse. HOS was born. As the Soni family business continued to grow, G.L. began receiving calls from other states asking for products and in 1982 their second warehouse opened in Houston. Today, HOS has warehouses in New York, Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orlando, Boston, and Canada. In addition to simple retail shops and distributing, the HOS empire has entered the importing, exporting, manufacturing, hospitality, and logistics sectors and creates and distributes their very own Laxmi food product brand. In addition, they have exclusive partnerships with several popular Indian food brands. With approximately 350 employees, HOS remains a family run business with G.L. Soni’s son, Neil Soni as President and his daughter, Amrapali Soni as Treasurer.
On May 8, 2015, HOS opened a brand new state of the art warehouse located at 2121 Touhy Ave, Elk Grove Village, IL. The 130,000 sq. ft. warehouse is the largest warehouse operated by any South Asian food distributor in the U.S. HOS employees from all over the country flew in to be a part of the day’s festivities. The day began with religious rituals and prayers conducted by a Hindu priest. Then guests were invited to tour the new state of the art facility complete with a 15,000 sq. ft. CO2 refrigerated section. CO2 refrigerants are a more environmentally sustainable option to the traditional hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants typically utilized in commercial refrigeration systems. CO2 refrigeration has become increasingly popular in the UK and Australia, but HOS is only the second company in the U.S. to utilize this “greener” refrigeration system. HOS also has plans to use a portion of the warehouse to produce their own line of ice cream and ghee.
HOS is projecting huge growth this year with plans to expand and renovate warehouses in New Jersey, DC, and San Francisco. For more information about House of Spices please visit www.hosindia.com.
