MTR: the restaurant that became a packaged food brand because of a government emergency

Mavalli Tiffin Rooms (MTR) opened in Bangalore in 1924, founded by Parampalli Yagnanarayana Maiya and his brothers. The restaurant was known for its high-quality South Indian vegetarian food. For 50 years, it was a successful restaurant business — nothing more. The Maiya family had no plans to enter the packaged food industry.

In 1975, the Indian government declared a national Emergency. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's government imposed the Food Control Act, which mandated that food be sold at very low prices. The regulation made it impossible for MTR to maintain its quality standards while remaining profitable. The restaurant was forced to close.

To save the jobs of their employees, the Maiya family looked for another way to generate income. They started selling packaged spices and ready-to-eat snack mixes — chutneys, rasams, and roasted flour mixes. The packaged food business was a survival move, not a strategic expansion. The first products were simple spice blends that the restaurant had been making for its own kitchen.

The packaged food business grew. By 1984, MTR had expanded beyond Karnataka to Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. In 2007, the Norwegian company Orkla acquired MTR Foods for $80 million. The restaurant itself survived and now has 17 locations across India and overseas. A government regulation that forced a restaurant to close had accidentally created one of India's best-known packaged food brands.