Nilgiri's celebrates centenary year

‘Ours was the first Indian self-service supermarket’

Even at 86, Muthuswamy Chenniappan, chairman of Nilgiri’s, makes it a point to spend two hours every day at the supermarket chain’s flagship store on Brigade Road, Bangalore. Seated at a small table, he clears bills, listens to customers and gives instructions to staff. Right now, Nilgiri’s plans to celebrate its centenary year get top priority.

The Times of India

My father was born into a poor weaver’s family:

He (Muthuswamy Mudaliar) was in Morattupalayam near Tirupur and studied only up to Class 2. Driven by poverty, he went to the Nilgiris in search of a job. First, he worked as a helper in a shop in Coonoor, and later as a postal runner carrying letters from Wellington to Coonoor. In 1905, there was a shortage of butter supply, and my father and his brothers set up a butter business in Vannarpet near Coonoor. In 1922, the brothers decided to go their different ways and my father moved to Ooty, where he was able to develop his business supplying butter to most institutions in and around Ooty, and butter and cream to maharajas (of Mysore, Jodhpur, Jaipur, etc), nawabs and jamindars, who used to visit Ooty in summer. The main attractions were the horse races, flower shows and dog shows. I used to help my father from the age of 10, delivering butter and fresh cream on my bicycle.

I was asked to handle the Bangalore branch:

In 1939, my father decided to start a branch on Brigade Road in Bangalore, and the following year I was sent to take charge of it. My father gave me one rupee a day for my expenses, but even with that, I would save two or three rupees a month. In Bangalore, I started supplying not just butter and cream, but also a variety of other dairy products, often cycling all the way to Hebbal to repack the butter in various quantities. We also set up a bakery in Bangalore. During World War II, we supplied huge quantities of butter to PoW camps in Jalahalli, where many prisoners and wounded soldiers were lodged. Later, we started a milk processing unit at Erode, which now supplies milk to Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore and Mangalore. We were the first to start large-scale home delivery of milk in Bangalore.

Shop-lifting was a problem initially:


Over time, the Brigade Road facility became a general store with the addition of pickles, personal care and household products. In 1971, a year after my father passed away, I went to England and Europe and happened to see superm a rke t s there. On my return, I converted the Brigade Road store into a self-service supermarket. The customers were happy, but my friends said I was a fool because there would be shoplifting. Initially, there was a lot of it, mostly by well-to-do people and officials. We increased security and gradually it declined.

I was crazy about movies:

I’d go the movies frequently even when I was in school in Ooty. Often without informing my parents. And I would get a beating from my father the next day. I enjoyed Tamil and Hindi movies. But for the last four or five years, I have not gone to a movie hall because the movies now are so bad. You can’t see a movie anymore with the family. Now I watch TV serials.

Billiards was a passion:

In Ooty, I was a sportsman and enjoyed playing hockey and ball badminton. Later in Bangalore, I became interested in billiards. I’m a founder member of the Karnataka State Billiards Association, and from 1949 to 1992, I held various official positions, including that of president. It has the best billiards facility in India and has created champions like Pankaj Advani.

One family but separate businesses:

Ours is a joint family and we have regular meetings. But my four sons and two nephews have been given very separate businesses which they manage independently. All of them have been trained here and abroad in their related fields like bakery, dairy farming, refrigeration and airconditioning.

We want to do things with our own money:

If we borrow from banks, we are 'very clear that the loan must be repaid fast. My son Gopalakrishnan wants to grow the supermarket business rapidly, have about 100 stores through a franchise model. We have no problems with that so long as it does not affect the existing business. We also do not sell tobacco products or alcohol in our stores, except in the one in Coimbatore which is run by one of my brothers.

I’m not afraid of competition:

There is space for everybody to grow. In fact, people from our competitors seek my opinion on various matters. I have a good relationship with them.

Our cake shows have been a huge draw

:
We had the first such show in 1969 in our Brigade Road shop. The Christmas cakes at that time were all rich plum cakes with white icing. We started making cakes in different shapes, colours and almond paste icing. There were cakes shaped like carts, cars, rabbits, aeroplanes and ships. And there would be people queuing up from our shop to St. Joseph’s College of Commerce, some waiting from morning to evening for these cakes. So we moved the event to bigger venues. Once, my eldest son Ramachandran returned from an overseas trip with the idea of having large edible models of prominent landmarks. With that started our large sugar models (using up to 3,000 kgs of sugar) of the Eiffel Tower, London Bridge, Vidhana Soudha, etc. In our 100th year now, we are doing the Jagan Mohana Palace of Mysore.