An Interesting Article About Nalli

Article taken from "The Economic Times",Written by Ravi Balakrishnan, TNN Oct 5, 2005, 12.06am IST

Nalli Chinnaswami Chetty more popularly known as Nalli is the stuff of contemporary legend. There's of course the story of a weaver with a single loom operating out of the temple town of Kanchipuram way back in the early 20th century, starting what would eventually become a Rs 350 crore multinational store chain with its own branded line of materials sold at Selfridges. But there are also several new chapters to the legend, spoken of with considerable delight by Dr Nalli Kuppuswami Chetti, the third generation entrepreneur who currently runs Nalli.One of his favourite tales about the store is the time a well-built foreigner strode through it, looked around and then headed to the exit without buying anything. Puzzled, Chetti accosted him only to find he was Thomas G Bata, (the chairman of Bata) who said he'd heard of the Nalli brand and while passing through Chennai, stepped in to see what it was all about. Friends and associates of Chetti speak of the time when, unable to satisfy a customer who wanted a high-end sari (in the price range of Rs 50,000), he sent the disappointed would-be buyer to competitor (and relative by marriage) Kumaran Silks. Many of Chetti's family members also have stores called Nalli, but the three-storey showroom that extends across two streets is the first destination for just about everybody — from shoppers to rickshaw drivers when asked to be taken to Nalli.

Location was of course something that Kuppuswami Chetti's grandfather, Chinnaswami Chetty was quick to grasp. He was a relatively small player in Kanchipuram — others in the town, many of them migrants from Kutch, owned as many as 2,000 looms each. He was, however, the first to move his store and residence to the main street on the way to the Perumal temple Saved the hassle of having to navigate the labyrinthine by-lanes of Kanchipuram, visitors to the town (who invariably had purchasing saris on their agenda) began to patronise Chetty in large numbers. Wedding saris became something of a speciality and Chetty found himself making frequent trips to Chennai to deliver orders, mainly to wealthy patrons in Mylapore. Chetti says of his grandfather, "The main principle was quality at the lowest possible price and delivering the sari on schedule."