Queen of Retailing.

When you come from the First Family of Builders, a Construction House so large that it is building townships across the country, you don’t have to work for a living. But Priti Hiranandani thinks differently. An early marriage and three children later, she was comfortable enough in her mind to start working. And what better way than to take charge of some aspect of the family business!

Here then is the story of Priti Surendra Hiranandani. Born in Bombay, nine year old Priti went away to Dubai with her parents, Mona and Ramesh Bhatia. At 15, she returned to Bombay to study Science at Mithibai. In her community 15 was a ripe age for proposals to flow in. And when you look as good as Priti, you get flooded. Except Priti hated it. She resisted it, refused to see the ‘boys’. But had to. And said “No!” to everyone. Then she saw a young lad at a wedding and pointed him to her mother, now there is someone she liked. Unfortunately, the boy was ‘taken’, engaged to someone.

Two years later, her Uncle got her a proposal from a nice family, a boy whose engagement had just broken. Same boy! And Priti was married at 18 to Surendra, son of the famous E & T specialist Dr. L.H. Hiranandani. Also the younger brother of Niranjan, the doyen of all builders! At their first wedding anniversary on March 4, 1985, their daughter, Neha was one month old. When Neha was two, Komal was born and when Komal was three Harsh was born. Sounds like a fairy tale? Yes, but to break the cycle Priti got home a little German Shepherd, who they called Caesar.

With the advantage of early marriage and quick children, responsibilities out of the way, still young enough to celebrate life differently, Priti was carefree again to pursue other ambitions, look at unfulfilled desires.

With a little bit of encouragement from Surendra that is exactly what she did. She took charge of the Marketing and PR divisions of Hiranandani Constructions. Her first assignment: to make the company brochure. That was in 1993. From then till now she has been on the go, flowering into a Retailing Queen. From making site visits, with husband, helmet securely on, climbing umpteen number of Hiranandani buildings, to using their space in the posh Galleria at Powai to launching Teju’s, a designer boutique, understanding nuances like cloth, beads, buttons, lace, embroidery, pricing et al, she moved on to getting greeting card giants Archies and Hallmark into their Powai township. That accomplished, using all her offbeat travel knowledge and contacts with artisans in the interiors of India, she then started Culture Shop, today an 8,000 square foot property which houses cottage industry handicrafts sourced from exotic places like, Rajasthan, Orissa, Kerala, Pondicherry, among others. With a personal commitment of reviving lost art and culture she travels all over, once every three months with a team of staff.

Hakone was another successful project that Priti was responsible for. With the objective of adding facilities at Powai, an entertainment centre was created. There was bowling, go carting, bumper cars, video and cyber games. Hakone was not some fancy Japanese word as generally understood. It was merely the first syllables of her childrens’ names, Harsh, Komal, Neha!

With all these successful operations, finally the magic words, �Let there be food!� was pronounced. And Haiko was born. A supermarket, all of 6,000 sq. ft. full of goodies opened for the comfort of Powai residents. Ultra-modern, based on international patterns of grocery shopping, Haiko was an instant success. Aisles broad enough to wheel three abreast, smooth rolling trolleys, imported from Germany, to shelves laden with all kinds of food and gourmet products, including meat, poultry, vegetables, and other household utility items. Haiko even has fresh bread coming in from the family owned ecotel Rodas, in the neighbourhood. In addition there is a florist and also a chemist within the premises. Then followed Loft, an 18,000 sq. ft. place where you can pick up any kinds of shoes, bags and belts.