Sumeet Mixer Grinder Story

 

I am going to put forward yet another Childhood memory of mine which is still very fresh in my mind and this memory leads me to write an article which attempts to narrate how one of the India's best Mixer Grinder brand born and took the stride to become essential part of Indian Kitchen since more than 5 decades.

We used to visit Pandharpur a famous pilgrimage place in southern Maharashtra where my cousins stay. My aunt has prepared Dosa and green chutney for breakfast to all the guests. My granny asked my aunt how you managed all this grinding the Dosa batter and preparing coconut chutney in so large quantity which was enough to all and that too so early in the morning. My aunt showed "Sumeet" mixer and said its because of this can do all these things so fast as this appliance is very efficient. Otherwise normal household ladies used to make this manually in grinding stone. That was the first sight of this great appliance that I had. Later, I realised it’s really an efficient and because of this every house used to have and made it clear that its proven product. 

So, I would like to let you know little bit about its birth, where it started its journey, who made this, where its journey started and how it has taken the Indian market by storm and became the leader in home appliances.

It is said that need is the mother of all inventions. This applies aptly to renowned mixer and grinder brand for Indian kitchen called 'Sumeet' Mixer and Grinder. The Sumeet brand Legacy in food mixers started 50 years back when Mr. SatyaPrakash. P. Mathur who was a specialist at 'Siemens' a German company worldwide, designed and prepared a model of mixer and grinder out of sheer love for his better half. The couple used to live in Mumbai Maharashtra. Mrs. Mathur had brought Braun Mixer and Grinder from Germany when she visited the country along with her husband. She was quite used to this product as it was efficiently performed in her kitchen. One fine day when she was preparing garam masala in her kitchen, Braun's mixer grinder motor got burnt and Mrs Mathur's kitchen chores got affected. To repair her mixer, she was trying to find the Braun’s service centre and alas she could not get any service centre which can repair her mixer. So, she thought she will seek Mr. Mathur's help to repair the machine, so that she can continue to use her Braun mixer and grinder.

Mr. Mathur responded to his wife's challenge and attempted to fix the mixer and grinder, but somehow could not succeed. He decided to design another food mixer and grinder which is as good as Braun and could crush the hard ingredients and perform tedious tasks of Indian cooking like extreme crushing for masalas or wet pounding for idly glues or just mixing juices or foamy milkshakes than its western brands such as Braun and others. Satya Prakash Mathur has not only became successful in design and gifting a new mixer to his wife but also ventured out to make a factory for Indian made Mixers suitable for the Indian Kitchen. In 1963 Mr. Mathur floated a company called ‘Power Control and Appliances Company’. 4 other employees of Siemens India also joined Mr. Mathur. As they started official production of the appliance they christened his new creation as 'Sumeet' which in Sanskrit language signifies 'Old buddy'. Sumeet Mixer-Grinder could do any task with ease due to its powerful motor, it soon made a permanent place in Indian kitchen soon after its birth. 

By 1965 they had a good design of a workable small electric motor for the mixer. By 1970 they designed a single jar for both dry mixing and wet grinding. By 1980 Sumeet were selling about 50,000 Mixers every month. For a long time Sumeet was the only Mixer available in India and it was the dream of every Indian Housewife to own a Sumeet Mixer. After the death of Mr. Satya Prakash Mathur, the Company’s fortunes declined, and the Sumeet Mixer design was copied by other start-up companies and Sumeet sort of disappeared from the market.