S. Viswanathan looks at the two long-standing ‘Make in Tamil Nadu’ units that recently celebrated golden jubilee.

Growing to a billion dollars

N. Sankar

Sanmar Chairman Sankar’s grandfather Sankaralinga Iyer promoted India Cements and the Indo-Commercial Bank. His son K.S. Narayanan and that brilliant find of Sankaralinga Iyer, T.S. Narayanaswamy, launched spectacular expansion of the Group’s activities. In the 1960s, Chemicals and Plastics India Ltd. (Chemplast) pioneered the production of PVC from the renewable agriculture resources of molasses, a by-product of sugar mills.

Sankar joined Chemplast on his return to India after doing an MS in chemical technology at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. He pithily describes the transformation from the day he joined Chemplast on May 4, 1967 to its Golden Jubilee celebrations on May 4, 2017: “It has sustained its growth while being true to its culture of a fair deal for all, innovation and excellence in implementation. If its first year of operation was among the toughest, the Company’s 50th year performance is the best in its history, with record production and sales. The Company which started with an annual capacity of 6,000 tonnes of PVC now has an aggregate capacity of 3.66 lakh tonnes.”

The demise of Narayanaswamy in March 1968 put a lot of load on the young shoulders of Sankar who thereafter steered the Company through the tough, uncertain, controlled years and the more challenging, competitive, liberalised era after 1991.

A major decision was the acquisition of Mettur Chemicals and Industrial Corporation from the Seshasayee Group that was supplying the vital chlor-alkali chemcials needed by Chemplast and also Metchem that pioneered production of silicon wafers in the country. Sanmar Group contributed richly to the prosperity of the Mettur-Salem region with its cluster of factories, constantly expanding capacities and focus on technology. Production activities in diverse fields extended to Cuddalore and Madras.

A special feature of the Group has been the focus on zero liquid discharge. This focus has sharpened and expanded through the decades. As part of its Golden Jubilee celebration, the Company donated a crore of rupees to IIT-Madras to set up a zero liquid discharge laboratory and for research on the vital concept.

M.P. Taparia of Supreme Industries, a large consumer of PVC, said that the present consumption of PVC in India is 3 million tonnes and local production is just 1.3 million tonnes. The industry has been registering a 12 to 15 per cent growth annually and, thus, Chemplast Sanmar has the potential to expand capacity to a million tonnes in quick time.

For 2016-17 Chemplast Sanmar group had a turnover of a billion dollars with the flagship Company clocking nearly half of this. The group is well-poised for quantum growth. (Courtesy: Industrial Economist).

From Lit. to nuts and bolts

Suresh Krishna

My association with Suresh Krishna goes back to the 1960s when I entered journalism. We used to meet at the office of S.N. Ramasami, the brilliant advertising manager of the TVS Group – a freedom fighter in white khadi, a four cubit dhoti and jibba, extremely knowledgeable and with a blunt exterior and a soft heart. Suresh was just back after studying literature (not the traditional Engineering or Accounts common for scions of business families) in Germany.

He describes his entry into business: “Uncle T.S. Srinivasan asked me to take charge of bolts and nuts manufacturing in the small-scale sector at the Ambattur Industrial Estate. I hadn’t the least idea then on the technology or process, but the machinery supplier provided inputs on these. I went into the details, and learned the techniques of cold forging and extrusion by experience and close involvement.”

In those years, the field was dominated by Fit Tight Nuts and Bolts P. Ltd., Bombay, and the British company Guest, Keen, Williams that was supplying bolts and nuts for the Railways and other large customers in the engineering sector. When Fits Tight Nuts and Bolts had a labour problem which led the management to close down the shop, there was a windfall opportunity for Sundaram Fasteners Ltd. (SFL). The Company was alert enough to grab it. SFL built its own plant in the huge Padi complex, thoughtfully conceived and developed by T.S. Srinivasan and in quick time became a dominant supplier of bolts and nuts.

Suresh expanded his horizons, initially as the Chairman of CII Southern Region and, subsequently, as the President of CII at the national level. This provided rich opportunities to interact with policy-makers and also observe business organisations at the national and global level. I remember the punishing schedule of his travelling thousands of miles for almost 24 days a month on CII business. This exposure gave him his credentials as a reliable and effective business leader. Opportunities for expansion increased. General Motors offered him the opportunity to supply radiator caps as original equipment. Suresh transplanted a British plant to Padi and in quick time emerged a prized vendor for GM.

Suresh constantly focused on systems and quality. I remember the passion with which he pursued the Japanese concept of total productivity management (TPM). He invited the TPM guru Yamaguchi from Japan and passionately pursued the TPM concept. I remember his success in taking productivity of machines from around 35 per cent to over 80 per cent, resulting in savings on capital investment and surging profits.

Yet another pioneering contribution of SFL relates to his foray into manufacturing of fasteners in China. SFL was the earliest to make bold to set up a plant in China despite issues relating to language, distance etc. Later, SFL acquired a precision forge unit in the UK. These exposures further helped in the cross-fertilisation of manufacturing practices.

The most notable factor of SFL relates to its man-management. Articulate Suresh spends time liberally addressing his workers in all his plants and establishes close rapport with them. The liberal pay packages and other benefits have built loyalty. Suresh refers with satisfaction to the hundreds of SFL workers providing quality education to their children who are employed today across the globe. The focus on human relations and the paternalistic concerns explain the unit not losing a single day of production due to industrial relations’ issues.

Wife Usha headed with distinction Upasana Finance and has been richly contributing to the growth of SFL and Suresh. Daughters Arathi and Arundathi are now at the helm managing SFL.

During 2016-17 SFL had a turnover of Rs. 3,000 crore with a third of it coming from exports. It has 27 plants employing over 9,000 persons. Suresh and his team certainly know the nuts and bolts of successful entrepreneurship – (Courtesy: Industrial Economist).

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