CHENNAI: Gem Group of Companies Chairman R Veeramani needs no introduction to the corporate circle in India.
A pioneer in granite business in this part of the country, he has seen many ups and downs in his life as a businessman in the last three decades or so though his inclination as a lawyer in the initial years of his life had made him embellish his argumentative skill and come up with a defence mechanism that had the capacity to absorb all types of shocks, both in business and personal life (Veeramani’s first son, who was retarded, died of brain fever, at the age of 23.) At a monthly breakfast meeting ‘Meet Success First Hand’ organised by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (Tamil Nadu branch) here on Tuesday, Veeramani told the gathering that he had to face several hardships and come to terms with failures before he could script his success story as an enterprising entrepreneur in the world of granite business.
“I had to encounter failures in many of my business activities. But I was undaunted,” he said and added that his training in judo had made him enjoy the physical and mental endurance to face all types of problems in life.
Going down the memory lane, Veeramani recalled how as a 14-year-old boy he ran away from his home town in Tiruchengode to Ooty in search of a job. He sought a stone breaking job at the Kunta dam site though the engineer stationed there had his own reservations about giving him a job. At that time, his strict father, who was doing peanut oil business, was contesting the Assembly elections and he was not at all bothered about his son. Then Veeramani reluctantly returned home to see his mother in tears. He first did some odd jobs like beekeeping to remain independent in life and the honey collected from the bees was sold to the Gandhi Ashram in Tiruchengode. This saw the first spark of business activity in him.
Then came the turning point in Veeramani’s life.
He went to Salem and studied Maths and Statistics for his graduation. After that, he obtained a law degree and started practising in the High Court of Madras.
“When there was a downfall in my father’s oil business, I took up granite business with a local man after getting a quarry site on lease. Then I established contacts with Japan and did a roaring business exporting polished granites. But the oil crisis in the early 70s made my contacts with Japan go for a toss,” he said.
Then Veeramani tried his hand in potato chip business and magnetic iron business, but both of them collapsed.
“Then the time came for reviving the granite business in 1976, the year I suspended my legal practice,” he said and added, “I had to face another problem when the action of the Government made me suspend the quarry business. But, I went to court and revoked the quarry suspension with the help of Union Minister P Chidambaram, who was a practising lawyer then.” Veeramani then narrated his story so vividly how a business tie-up with a Karnataka friend made him develop the mines in the neighbouring State. Then there was no looking back after he started obtaining mining leases in other states also.
“I founded the All India Granites Association to help those in the stone business. The granite business, which was $15 million once, now stood at $1.2 billion,” he said.
“Now, Gem Granites stones are used by 60 countries in the world and several top buildings, monuments and memorials in Japan, the US, Dubai, Canada, Frankfurt and other European nations carry the granites in their structures supplied by the company,” he proudly said.
US Consul General in Chennai Andrew T Simkin, who spoke on the occasion, was all praise for Veeramani’s achievements in business, and described him as an extraordinary individual who had made several Indo-US business tie-ups a reality.