BANGALORE BAZAAR - XV
Slice of history
In our series on home-grown retail brands, we feature today The Bangalore Ham Shop, whose attention to quality and hygiene makes it the preferred choice for ham for the city’s best restaurants
A Debanish Singh | TNN


The MG Road Boulevard is no more. Many shops on the other side of the road have had to pull down their shutters. The cheese has moved for many business folk on MG Road. But for The Bangalore Ham Shop, which opened eight decades ago, the ham has not moved and never will, going by how the owners have managed to keep their sails intact even after years of sailing in rough waters.
B A Govardhan, 48, the current owner, took charge of the business from his father in 1970. He had to discontinue studies in 1967 from a Kannada medium school while in the seventh standard to manage the shop. Two Britons, Mitchell and C M Ross, opened Bangalore Ham Shop at the ground
floor of Andrews Building in 1928.
Govardhan’s father, B Anjinappa, then just 8 years old, worked at the shop as a helper. “Even today I use the methods taught to me by dad. I still manage the supply chain as he would decades ago,” Govardhan remembers. The shop procured meat from a farm at Koramangala, then an area with few settlements.
The two Britons left India in 1936 and the shop’s fate depended on how Anjinappa planned to take the business forward. “My dad was an honest man. They (the Britons) didn’t charge anything for the shop; they just gave him the ownership. They liked the way he worked,” Govardhan says. Since then, Bangalore Ham Shop has been selling meat to many big names in the restaurant industry as well as individual customers. Even today, most customers are either foreigners or people who know what good ham is from bad ones.
ENSURING HYGIENE
“Our specialities are smoked leg ham, bacon and Goa sausages. If you ask why we are doing great over the years,” he says, “it’s because the meat we sell is hygienic.”
The shop used to run a pig farm at Kailasandra Halli on Hennur Main Road, around 11 km from MG Road. It was a two-acre enclosed site that housed machines to slice ham and other equipment to preserve meat. “Running our own farm was economical. Transport cost was under control and prices of meat was unaffected,” he explains. The scene changed after the BBMP told Govardhan to shut down the farm. This because the city was expanding and many developmental works were coming up. The village where the farm stood is now known as BIA Link Road. “We hired livestock farmers to do the job for us, which increased cost,” he says. According to him, finding labour is the biggest challenge. Many panchayat heads object to running pig farms at most villages in and around Bangalore. Maintaining a farm far away from the city means having to shell out extra for transport and facing uncertain supply.
On an average, it takes Rs 30 a day to feed just one pig. Their meal consists of a mixture of groundnut cakes and other vegetables, which has to be fed in a consistent manner for at least a year. The pigs are taken to a government slaughterhouse in the outskirts once they are a year old. Veterinary doctors have to check their health and issue permission before the meat manufacturing process starts. “We follow this procedure every day. I ask my brother, V A Laxman, who’s heading our branch at Hutchin’s Road to supply a certain quantity of meat in the morning. Sometimes we have surplus meat, around 3 to 5 kg a day. This we convert into smoked ham or cooked sausage to make them last for a few months,” Govardhan says.
December is the busiest time for Govardhan. Although the shop’s door is only as wide as an arm’s length and a few steps forward is all it takes to bump on the rear wall, customers don’t mind the absence of swanky glass windows and other decorations. Marilyn Abraham from the UK, who came to Bangalore recently, said the first store that comes to her mind when she wants some ham is Govardhan’s tiny cabin. “My friend in Malaysia told me to visit this shop. It was worth the search,” she says, smiling. Another regular, Sunil George, says he visits the shop once a week. “The meat is clean. It’s hard to find good meat in Bangalore since most sellers don’t pay attention to hygiene,” he says.
CUSTOMERS ADVERTISE
Bangalore Ham Shop does not need to advertise; its customers are the publicists. “People in Malaysia or France who have been to Bangalore tell their friends to buy from me. Their friends tell their friends and so on. It’s funny, our teenagers who eat at Leela Palace don’t know what and where Bangalore Ham Shop is, although they come to MG Road every weekend,” Govardhan says.
Taj Residency, The Taj West End, The Leela Palace, Koshy’s and Tiffany’s are some establishments that have been procuring meat from his shop. “We supply good meat, nothing fancy,” he says. Prem Koshy, owner of Koshy’s restaurant and bar, confirms the best sausages in the city come from Bangalore Ham Shop. “Our relationship with the shop runs three generations deep. My father also used to buy from there,” he says. “We trust their product. It’s more than business; it’s a bond.”
Owner of Tiffany’s, Blaise D’Souza, feels good restaurants will find it difficult to procure quality meat if Bangalore Ham Shop was not there to fill the gap: “My customers like the sausages I provide, which come from Govardhan’s little store. I’m sure everybody will say the same in all the good restaurants in the city.” Bangalore Ham Shop employs 15 people. Frank Anthony, 58, is the oldest worker. He joined the shop way back with Govardhan’s father. Anthony cuts the meat neatly into small cubes and puts them into the freezer before he wipes the counter clean with detergent and calls it a day.
What’s the future of the shop? “I have no idea,” says Govardhan. “I plan to expand it but I need more money. All I know is I left school to help my father and now the shop is doing great. I guess honesty in business will keep me going, even if MG Road ceases to exist.”
debanish.achom@timesgroup.com

Govardhan, second generation proprietor of The Bangalore Ham Shop




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