CHENNAI: For fluffy idlis and crispy dosas, cooks swear by their maavu recipes, secret ingredients, and of course, their wet grinders. These appliances that churn out smooth batter can be traced back to Coimbatore and have changed over the years. Four decades ago, Sowbaghya Private Enterprises Limited began carving out a space for the sales of these wet grinders and today, the established company has dominated much of the South Indian market. We aim to ensure that every appliance and vessel a woman touches in the kitchen has originated from their T Nagar office, says V Varadharajan, CEO and director of Sowbaghya.
Varadharajan recalls the days when his father, Venkatanarayanan Chettiar, and his brother would strap wet grinders onto their vehicles and attempt to make sales in Erode and some other parts of the Kongu Nadu belt. Fast-forward to now, Sowbaghya has moved from being a wet grinder business to anything kitchen based. Vardaharajan’s office, located on the first floor of a house in T Nagar, is scattered with boxes of their utensils. On the wall, is a copy of the cheque for Rs 4,850 for a wet grinder signed by a customer, former President APJ Abdul Kalam. In a conversation, Varadharajan talks to CE about the origin of the business, the story behind this cheque, his inspirations, and the need to take up opportunities.
Excerpts follow
How did your business originate and grow?
My father Venkatanarayan Chettiar started this company in Erode. I work here along with my brothers who handle accounts and administration. For us, quality is the most important and products should be people-friendly. Whatever we create, we want women to be happy when they use this product. It started with the idea to create products that are used by women. When we started, kitchens were around 600 sq ft and a wet grinder took up around 100 sq ft. Today, people can carry the grinders abroad and meet the luggage weight limits of 20-25 kg. We’ve grown from a small level as around 40 years ago, my father and my brother would go town to town to sell grinders. We would find big shots in a town like owners of theatres, petrol bunks and wedding halls and would show them the grinder and place an order…In India and the world, if it is idli, it should from grinders from Sowbaghya is our aim. We are working towards this.
To move from Erode to Chennai, how was the journey and when did the company move to other appliances?
Even if it’s Erode, we would need to search and find a city to nurture the dream of reaching an export market, of our industry becoming bigger and growing in other states. How I came to Chennai is an interesting story. There was an exhibition at the VGP Group of Companies with a scheme that whatever grinder was sold, you get a commission. To resolve the payment, I stayed back and walked around Chennai and its streets. I discovered how big it was. And now our product has reached global recognition. When we started our business, there was only the grinder and then our children went to the United Kingdom to study. With children’s knowledge and our experience, we started with the idea of making a range of products that a lady would want — from a tumbler, gas stove, cooker, kettle, mixie, and induction stoves. For our industry to grow and start exports, we must search for the city. The children aim for the business to grow even further and they are working towards that.
How do you unwind? What are your hobbies?
I dream that we should be happy and make others happy. In the mornings at around 5 am-6 am, we go play shuttlecock and ring tennis, after that, we go on a small walk. All big shots come for the walk and we try to learn from them whether it’s about family or business. We talk about everything. For everything, God leads the way. For every creation of his, if we spot his path, we can come up in life…My wife’s world revolves around temples and to keep her happy, I take her to temples — starting from Mansarovar’s Shiva temple to the Ganesha temple near our house. I have visited Velankanni too. Churches and masjids are the same, there is a divine superpower above us. We call Him God and salute him.
How was your college phase? What is the story behind the Abdul Kalam cheque?
I went to college by cycle and though we did get better (financially) eventually, there was a struggle…Then, Abdul Kalam got a grinder from us during an event in Erode. The price was Rs 4,850. He said he would buy from us if a cheque was accepted. He presented a cheque and in those days, a cheque could be cashed only till six months, I have kept that cheque as a treasure. At that time, there was a call from Kalama’s PA in Delhi saying that if the cheque was not encashed in the bank, the product would be returned. (Kalam) kept our grinder without using it as the cheque had not been encashed yet. We felt happy that our grinder went with such a wonderful man in 2014. We encashed the cheque later, and kept a copy of it for ourselves. When we were younger, our entire day would be made by just selling a grinder. We wished to go to Bombay, we made inroads there. Then, selling 100 grinders a month was our wish and now we hit those numbers every day. Our present wish is to fill a kitchen with Sowbaghya products. We have products suitable for hotels, we have a chapati maker that makes around 1,000 pieces and an idli maker with a capacity for 1,500…In the hotel industry, Sangeetha and Adyar Ananda Bhavan have our products.
Who are your inspirations? What is some advice for the younger generation?
I follow the footsteps of S Rajarathinam from Saravana Stores, G Rajendran from GRT, Vasanth & Co’s H Vasanthkumar, Premier’s S Sivanesan, and Kuruvilla George from George Enterprises. They have worked hard to reach where they are. As first-generation achievers, they have become strong (businessmen). Vasanth & Co is our dealer and I feel I am so lucky to have met him. All these five people have come up in life and I follow them always…We must never feel like God has never given us this or that. If we sincerely do our hard work, God takes care of our dues. If we work smart, we can come up in life. Why go to a foreign country and work? What is not available in India? Even if you work abroad and earn around Rs 10 lakh, something like Rs 5 lakh or Rs 6 lakh or Rs 7 lakh goes into expenses. We can go, look around and learn…If a person doesn’t do anything wrong but works intelligently, he will flourish.
Have you faced any challenges or roadblocks?
Whenever we go on the streets, there are speed breakers. Why are they there? To reduce our speed. If there is any problem or an issue, it teaches us a lesson. During the pandemic period, was sales tax a problem? Only if we had made some mistakes would there be a problem. If we give whatever is due to the Almighty and the government, we don’t need to fear anything.
What are the future plans for Sowbaghya?
We are present in the market in India and now we want to get the name of Sowbaghya all over the globe.