Min Bahadur Gurung, the chairman and managing director of Bhat-Bhateni Group, is known for turning a small grocery store into a retail giant. He found both fame and fortune with his supermarket and departmental store chain Bhat-Bhateni. In his early twenties, Gurung, a master’s degree holder in economics, had a banking job at Nepal Bank Ltd and was stationed at Nepalgunj. In 1984, Gurung started Bhatbhateni Cold Store, a small retail grocery shop with an initial investment of NRs 35,000 which laid the foundation of his future as one of the successful businessmen in Nepal. 

Gurung who was juggling the obligations of his banking job in Nepalgunj and his store in Kathmandu until 1992 finally gave up his banking career to fully focus on his business which he believed had immense possibilities. By that time, he already had expanded his cold store to the second floor of the building where he operated his cold store on the first floor. His hard work paid off and Bhat-Bhateni became a leading supermarket and departmental store of Nepal. 

In the last decade, Bhat-Bhateni has been in a massive expansion spree and has opened 13 stores beginning from one at Maharajgunj of Kathmandu in 2008. These stores are located at various convenient parts of Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Pokhara, Chitwan, Dharan and Butwal. It is estimated that there is a daily combined footfall of more than 50,000 people in these stores making Bhat-Bhateni a leading retail chain of Nepal with an estimated daily annual turnover of USD 350,000. Min Bahadur Gurung has further diversified his business interest with investments in the 42 MW Mistri Khola Hydropower Project developed by Robust Energy and Chandragiri Hills Pvt Ltd.