Atul V Bedekar, the spice and pickles king, and Director of the V. P. Bedekar & Sons group, passed away following a prolonged illness early on Friday, family sources said here.

He was 56 and breathed his last around 12.30 a.m. at a private hospital after long fight with cancer.

Bedekar’s last rites were performed a crematorium in south Mumbai.

All shops and outlets of the 113-year-old Bedekar group remained close as a mark of respect for Atul Bedekar, the fourth generation scion of the business enterprise selling its products worldwide.

The late V. P. Bedekar initiated the Bedekar group and the traditions of spices, pickles, papads, ready-mixes, etc. as a modest grocery shop in Girguam in 1910.

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To remain relevant and competitive in the business, his teenaged son V. V. Bedekar launched a range of spices in 1917 and pickles in 1921, which caught the eyes and taste of the connoisseurs.

This led to an expansion of the Bedekar shops at Thakurdwar, Parel, Dadar and Fort and the clientele expanded in leaps in bounds.

To cope with the growing demands, he added five new manufacturing units and formed it as a private limited company in 1943, with current turnover exceeding over Rs 100 crore.

The Bedekar brand and products are virtually household names in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and available on shelves in the US, Canada, Middle East, Australia, Europe and far eastern countries.