Nilgiris Supermarket and the Brand Nilgiris
This resource is about Nilgiris Supermarket which has been there for more than a century. They started of as a small enterprise in Nilgris to help the Britishers who were staying there and now a chain of supermarkets in Tamilnadu and Karnataka. To know more about them read through.
Nilgiris Supermarket is 104 years old. It was started by Muthusamy Mudaliar, who was just a mail runner for the British.
He used to take letters and cheques from down Mettupalayam to the British living in Connoor and Ooty. While taking mails he will be asked to get butter, dairy products and many other items from Mettuppalayam town to the British at Ooty and Coonoor.Starting of the brand Nilgiris Brand
While he was doing just that, he started a small bunk shop in Ooty in the year 1905 there for selling his items. That was the beginning of the Nilgiris Group. He bought a butter business from an Englishman in vannarpet and soon "The Nilgiri Dairy Farm Ltd." was opened there. In 1936 he shifted to a new shop in Brigade Road, Bangalore. The shop specialized in dairy, dairy products, bakery and chocolates which are the best products of Coonoor and Ooty even now. They started selling their own products with Nilgiris as their brand name.
The advent of Supermarket in India
When his son Chenniappan took over, he expanded his father's shop to include many more products and it became a supermarket. Chenniappan was influenced by the supermarket concept during his visit to the United States and Europe. Though he liked their concept he modified the plans as to fit into Indian culture and also set guidelines as to how it should be grown. Their first branch came up in Chennai, then Erode and Coimbatore.
"Quality products at competitive rates, all under one roof" was what that drove them. Mr. Chenniappan also reinforced what already existed — a very clear code of conduct, which guides the entire family when they come together to run Nilgiris, India's first supermarket with self-service facilities. Nilgiris Supermarket in Chennai
The Chennai Stores started in the sixties. P.M. Natarajan started the small Madras Farm Agencies at the Everest Building near Rippon Buildings and with the support of Mr.Chenniappan became the first major milk suppliers of Chennai. Then they bought land at Radhakrishnan Salai and set up amfull fledged shop. The Chennai Nilgiris opened formally in 1981. This is the only nigiris in Chennai and all the others are franchises controlled by the head-office based Franchisee DivisionUK Groups' stake in Nilgiris Supermarket
In 2006 Actis a UK based private equity investor invested 65 million US dollars in the Nilgiris Group in order to strengthen their franchising and the manufacturing operations. Now Actis has 51% stake in Nilgiris Group.
Nilgiris, which turned 100 in 2005, is a big supermarket chain known for its quality dairy, bakery and confectionery products and for meeting the daily needs of customers with a range of products. They went on to pioneer the supermarket concept in India and was the first to introduce bar coding for food retailing in the whole of India. Now they are adding franchisee shops not only in different parts of Bangalore, Chennai and Coimbatore but also in other places in South India.
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Hai mam,
It is a very interesting article because i heard Nilgri Supermarket but its time i read all about Nilgri. It is very useful to all members about Nilgri.