Fragile Vermicelli builds a strong empire - Anil Foods
Dindigul a Tier 3 city down south of Tamil Nadu 60 kilometers from Madurai. A silent brand of vermicelli which has made inroads in every household of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh has its roots in this city. Anil Foods who are the market leaders in vermicelli is a great story of a family business which is currently managed by the 2nd generation. Mr. Nagarajan who is the founder of this great brand did not go to any college or management school. He had challenging times when he to study he dropped out of school to support his family and worked in a grocery story. He built a brand by sheer hard work, dedication, and perseverance (Dhool Dhoop Dhakka). Rice was a luxury for the family, they used to have Kanji a porridge made out of rice was their daily meal. He grew to a store manager in the grocery store where he had worked for 15 years. One fine day an opportunity came his way and from there on he did not look back. Even without knowing the making of vermicelli he had to start and he learnt the process from one of his friends.
Customer pain and feedback, observation led to few innovations where they introduced the pre heated vermicelli which had dual benefits
1. For housewives it reduced the preparation time
2. For the stores it gave more shelf life.
Anil Foods a completely driven with Passion, Tradition, and Values. No loan, No Funding and yet they are 250 + Cr company with 75+ SKUs and fast expanding. This speaks about the companies financial discipline and culture. Mr. Nagarajan did not just handover the baton to his children Kamal Hassan and Sugukumar. They had to prove him that they are capable of the managing the business and scaling it up. Both the brothers worked hard to increase the product line, market presence and have introduced professional management to run it more like a professional managed company than an owner owned entity. Their aim is to go for an IPO in the next 3 years and expand their market presence Pan India and abroad.
Every strand of vermicelli and every grain of Ragi matters.
Tradition over generations is one of their tag lines is to attract the millennials to connect to the traditional foods. 90 % of the employees are women. Employee feedback is well appreciated and considered before any product is released in the market. Commitment is a great learning from this story. The founder says, once you have committed stick your commitment this will build trust. Honesty is another trait which the entrepreneurs need to have to build trust in their employees, distributors, bankers and investors.
Read their story in our Amazon Best seller book Dhool Dhoop Dhakka – Entrepreneurship by Design
Watch the videos and tips shared by Mr. N Sugumar.
https://amzn.to/2XEOSNk
Nimish Soni Arjun Ranga Dr Shalini Nalwad Dr Rahul Singh Sardar Anu Meena Mayur Bhuva C K Kumaravel Veena Kumaravel Vikash Mittersain (Business Guru) Rohan Moktali Dr. Radhakrishnan Pillai Sidharth Shah Jayant Hudar Smita Purushottam Teja Gudluru Shriram Singh Prafull Billore Ashutosh G. Dr. D. K. Mishra Arun Lal Viiveck Verma Sanjay Belawal Rishi Raj Shroff Shamshad M Khan
Technical Consultant at Maha varahi
3 年Great