1. C16 – May 22, 2015 – INDIA-WEST
ELK GROVE VILLAGE, IL
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
eleven warehouses throughout
the United States, their unof-
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
recalls about his early years in the
United States. 5 years later, G.L.
and his wife, Sobhana, were still
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
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, had no
more money to get the spices and
other ingredients from Heralal
Parikh. So, G.L. went to the
consulate of India in NY and
asked about a letter of credit.
They looked at him and laughed
and said you are going into the
what a letter of credit is? G.L.
learn. This is America where if
you work hard, you can achieve
went to a local bank and they
extended him a letter of credit
and purchased the goods from
Mumbai. On October 10, 1970,
Day, their first store opened.
Word spread fast amongst New
and soon G.L. asked his newly
unemployed brother Kumar to
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.soonrealizedthatsupplying
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
the Soni familybusinesscontinued
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,
FL, 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
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. The
130,000 sq. ft. warehouse is the
largest warehouse operated by
any South Asian food distributor
in the U.S. HOS employees from
The day began with religious
rituals and prayers conducted by
a Hindu priest. Then guests were
invited to tour the new state of
House of Spices opens state of the art warehouse in Elk Grove Village, IL
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
refrigeration system. HOS also
has plans to use a portion of the
warehouse produce their own line
of ice cream and ghee.
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.
ADVERTORIAL
TC Gan, Neil Soni, GL Soni, Girdhar Assar
House of Spices new 130,000 sq. ft. state of the art Chicago warehouse
Abraham Philip, Neil Soni, GL Soni, TC Gan, Timothy Tan, Sobhana Soni
House of Spices team performing a Hindu prayer for the inauguration of their
new Chicago warehouse.
Raj Sodhia, Pravin Parikh, GL Soni, TC Gan, John Vagn, Neil Soni, Timothy Tan,
Shreyas Shah, Girdhar Assar
Manjeet Singh, Mukesh Chandan, Shreyas Shah, GL Soni, Manish Patel,
Pranay Patel