Mr.Manavalan Pillai - Founder of Sarathas

 People who know trichy will definitely be aware of Sarathas and Mangal & Mangal; Both these shops are pioneers in their field and add pride to Trichy. In this blog I am going to talk about Mr.Manavalan Pillai, founder of Sarathas who passed away on April 30th due to age factor. 

Sarathas is one of India's largest textile showroom started in the year 1969 by Mr.Manavalan. Due to his business acumen he grew the business to great heights thereby making it a one stop shop for all clothing needs. Company has over 1500 employees at NSB road in Trichy (similar to renganathar street in Chennai) which is a very happening place. Dhirubhai Ambani has visited the store in 1980 while he was also into Textile business during that time. Mr.Manavalan who doesn't hold any fancy degree just applied basic ground rules on top of executing some strategies very cleverly which I would like to list one by one. 

Strategy 1:  Mr.Manavalan knew his targeted audience - "Village people"; This is the most common thing in Business which people often overlook. As Kollywood producers often say if movie runs in city it will fetch them profits only to some extent whereas if a movie runs well in B and C centers then that will fetch them more moolah. Trichy is the only place in Tamil nadu where it shares borders with as many as 10 districts ..Thanks to its geographic location. It is bounded in the north by Salem district, Northwest by Namakkal district, in the Northeast by Perambalur District, East by Ariyalur district and Thanjavur District, in the southeast by Pudukkottai district and Sivagangai district, in the south by Madurai district, in the southwest by Dindigul district and, in the west by Karur district. There are countless number of villages in the sub urbs of Trichy and Mr.Manavalan knows what festival goes in what village, what time harvest happens, what time thiruvizha happens and what time people look out to buy new clothes etc., He has this information as knowledge database and makes appropriate moves by advertising at crucial times and pulls the crowd to Sarathas. He will do whatever it takes for village people to come and visit Sarathas. 

Strategy 2: Advertisement is crucial irrespective of times - now its social media, previously it used to be print or through Televisions. One thing people have to keep in mind is cost effectiveness - no point in spending too much money convincing oneself that advertisement will do it for you. Mr.Manavalan never opted advertisement through Televisions (one has to adapt according to changing times but advertising through televisions used to be expensive deal back in 80's and 90's). He always relied on huge paintings in walls with biggest of font sizes. If you enter trichy or exit trichy you will come across many places where you will see "S-A-R-A-T-H-A-S" written both in english and tamil. He will engage local painters and always looks out for walls on appropriate junctions. Mr.Manavalan also picks corner houses in suburbs and convinces house owners to whitewash their wall and have wordings of Sarathas written over it in turn he offers freebies for their clothing needs. This not only makes them come all the way to Sarathas but they also end up buying more clothing seeing hospitality from the owner of the store. By building a goodwill with customers they start to spread the word to their neighbors and fellow village people who in turn start visiting his store regularly. 

Strategy 3: Providing food is one thing which has huge impact which people don't realize. Look at Mr.Vijayakanth - everyone talks about he offering food to people from various walks of life. Similarly Mr.Manavalan used to offer meals to all his employees thereby creating a bond and bringing the attrition rate of the employees. When I took a tour of Google office in California I came to know about the meal offerings to employees and this is a clever ploy from companies to bring employees on time, create a bond among fellow employees thereby improving productivity. Mr.Manavalan offered food to painters and his employees and made sure he retained employees as much as possible. 

Strategy 4: If you visit Surat, Ichalkaranji or any textile corridor in India everyone will recognize Mr.Manavalan and Sarathas - such was his clout amongst Textile sector. He was one person who used to buy in big lots negotiating to maximum extent because he had the ability to sell. As a trader you need to have guts to buy in bulk and that will happen only when you have confidence to sell. "Aadi sales" is a famous season for discounted sales and Sarathas is one shop which benefits maximum from this season and they provided "Katta pai" even in those days thereby making it comfortable for people to buy in bulk. 

Young Entrepreneurs has to learn from people like Mr.Manavalan who created a textile empire after migrating from Sri Lanka. People often think being a manufacturer is more creative than being a trader but being a Merchant Trader can be very interesting on how you engage your  Business model. Mr.Manvalan's contributions to Samayapuram temple is HUGE and he has helped as many as 100 +  temples in and around Trichy area on renovating. His philantrophy activities is also huge and overall he is a big inspiration to young entrepreneurs like me in Trichy and his legacy will continue to shine.