Made in Madras 2025

On 4 June 2001, I formally began my first job as a Retail Management Trainee with India’s first organised retail chain, the RPG Group. 

On the first day at work, I recall vividly riding in my humble TVS Max 100 R motorcycle from home to Spencers Plaza, where the HQ was located. 

I had been there before, countless times, but as an onlooker, as a consumer business enthusiast and a window shopper at best. Little did I know, that I would end up working in the same building one day.

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25 years later, on 31 Aug. ’25, I had the chance to host an interesting evening with a handful of doyens of the Indian Retail Industry’s eponymous journey – spanning as late as 1859.

Miles2Go Consulting Services, the Management Advisory firm that I founded in 2014, hosted its first ever event on Retail, as well as to celebrate “Madras Day” – the date of 22 Aug. when the city of Madras was officially created.

What began as a seed of an idea, grew into a full-fledged, power packed event, with 8 powerful speakers spanning over 150 mins, with just 3 weeks of preparation.

Mr.Mahalingam Balasubramaniam and Ashwin Balasubramaniam, Directors of Mangathirth Estates, the promoters of Spencers Plaza spoke about the glory of the place and how it all started.

The connection between Retailing and the erstwhile Madras that is called Chennai today, dates back almost two centuries behind us.

The first ever full-fledged Department Store – “Spencers”, offering Food & Grocery products once upon a time stood here – where the mall is now located, as early as 1859. 

This was a time when the gloried Harrods was not even in existence in London, the seat of the Queen and the East India Company!

Mr. Balasubramaniam spoke about how the mall was once upon a time, the largest building in India and was also the largest mall in all of Asia, during the late 90s.

In the next session, Mafoi Mr. K. Pandiarajan, Chairman & Managing Director CIEL HR, spoke about the hiring trends during the 90s and early 2000s in a candid chat with Prof. Giridhar Ramachandran, Ph. D., Associate Dean at XLRI Jamshedpur. 

He also stressed about the great opportunity ahead of us for young professionals in the Indian Retail Industry.

During the Panel Discussion about the great transition of retailers and customers from the 20th Century Madras to 21st Century Chennai, Ms. Thangamalar Jaganath, Managing Partner, Vasanth & Co., spoke in detail about her Late father, Mr. Vasanth, the founder of the Consumer Durables chain and the discipline that he instilled and the processes he brought in to the business, due to which the company has not just scaled over the years, but also grown leaps and bounds.

Mr. Harris Abdulla MK, the Founder of Fruit Shop on Greams Road shared about the first organised and formal juice shop of Madras during the early 90s, the hardships that he faced and what it was to convince consumers to pay for high quality, fresh fruit juices.

Mr. Balachander R, Director of the Biriyani chain Junior Kupanna spoke about team management, retaining and hiring staff, ensuring operational SoPs and most importantly, how Chennai remains the Biriyani Capital of India.

In the final session of the day, a tetè-á-tete with MS Bharath, Lawyer, Supreme Court of India and Founder, KRIA Law, Vummidi Mr. Balaji, Managing Partner of VBC Jewellery spoke about transitioning legacy over 125 years, ever since the Vummidi House of Jewellery came in to existence in the year 1900. 

In the grand finale of his chat, he spoke about how the glory of the SENGOL was discovered by well wishers two years ago, the interesting tid-bit that was passed on to the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India and eventually, the new Sengol – a device passed on from one ruler to the other during the days of the Chola reign in Southern India – was placed at the new Parliament building in New Delhi last year.

We were humbled and honoured to present our first “Lifetime Achievement Award” to the House of Vummidi at this event, as a mark of respect to salute the brand which has been a stupendous inspiration for over 4 generations of entrepreneurs. 

It was a momentous occassion for me, even as I stood in surprise, silence and satisfaction that a young boy who went about buying his first ever pair of denims from the Levis Store that once operated from this mall, with money earned from part-time gigs during the college days of 90s, was now grown up enough professionally to organise such an event of yore!

Interestingly, not only my first professional role, managing operations at RPG Retail’s Musicworld Kolkata & later at Foodworld stores across Chennai originated here, but also the interview and the confirmation for my second job with Pantaloon Retail (later The Future Group) also happened at the same building at the Pantaloons Store.

As I always say, even as I germinated in my mother’s womb over 4 decades back, my professional life began at Spencers Plaza, which for me is as sacred.

Cannot thank my Almighty, my parents, my family, my friends, former and current professional colleagues and well-wishers, without who’s support I would not have been standing on this stage today to celebrate Retail and my lovely city, Madras aka Chennai.

I would like to sincerely thank M/s Mangalthirth Estates, BESPOKE, a premium gent’s salon from Naturals, Brown Tree, Kesar Gifts, IBC Tamil and KRIA Law for their unstinted support in conducting this event. A special mention to all the staff of M/s Mangalthirth who gave their best for the sake of the event’s success. 

This is the first of many more events to come. 

Do visit www.MilestoGo.in, even as we aspire to become the first ever Management Consulting Firm in India to go public by 2030. 

We have, after all, Miles to Go…

10 years in Madras - A recap

It was on this day 10 years back I returned to Madras (by then it was renamed Chennai) - where I have grown up all my life, after a long stay and various stints in Bangalore city since 2004. On 2 Aug. 2012 I joined Royal Enfield Motorcycles as General Manager – Business Development. Over the next 2 years, I would set up 160 dealerships across India for the niche motorcycle brand. I was also responsible for working closely with the Management and the Design Agency on-board to implement the new Retail identity of the brand, which included the new look and feel of the store interiors – from transforming the dealership as an automobile showroom to a lifestyle-led format. In those 24 months, I travelled extensively across India, as always Wed – Fri. every week, 40+ weeks a year, first flight out, last flight-in. I would have travelled more to Tier 2/3/4 towns, especially across Northern India where the brand had a brilliant parentage and was well received. Forget discounts on bikes, my first and second degree connections would just have one request – if deliveries can be shortened, from a usual 6-9 months to a little less than 3 months. Thanks to a supportive Sales Team, I guess we did manage to deliver a few such instances.

It was a revelation to see how the vehicle meant different things to different people. For a metro male, it was upgrading his lifestyle from a humble scooter or a motorcycle to a macho Royal Enfield; for a student who has just passed out his UG (or one in the making), it was a reward from his lovely family; for a groom-to be, it was a gift from his parents or in-laws to be; and in one such instance, the wife of a good friend of mine gave him a surprise on his 40^th birthday with a Thunderbird 350cc. Lovely memories that I carry from those times. 

We also set-up a first of its kind Royal Enfield showroom at the tony “Saket” locality in South Delhi at the Select Citywalk Mall. Technically, the store was located outside the mall precincts and there was a road dividing the two, so we got the best of both – passersby to the Mall as well as serious patrons of the brand.

For the record, Royal Enfield is the world’s oldest and continuous-in production automobile brand in the world, now over 120 years old. The brand, which was born in the UK found its home in India, at the erstwhile state of Madras in the late 1950s when a city based entrepreneur purchased the rights of the brand as well as to retail the machines – Made like a Gun – as its tagline goes, the bikes which were used in World War 1 & 2. Over time, the brand died a natural death with the advent of Japanese bikes as well as home-grown ones including Hero, Kinetic, Bajaj and TVS Motors. 

In the mid- to late 90s, the brand was on the verge of closure, which is when the new owner Eicher Motors acquired the cult brand to turn it around. They struggled for a few years, but eventually cracked the market and broke records. As per today’s report in the media, the company sold 55,555 bikes in July 2022 incl. exports while the domestic sales at the dealer level was 50,265 units. The company is expected to launch new models later this month. A decade back, the company would produce / bill to dealers around 11,000 units pm! The only thing that hasn’t changed then and now – the craze for the brand and it’s waiting period. 

My aunt, who bought me up since I was one-year old was diagnosed with a rare type of carcinoma in Nov. 2013 – Uterian, Ovarian cancer which is quite uncommon in India. Among women, it is the 7^th most common type of cancer worldwide and 8^th most common cause of death from cancer. Like millions, she too succumbed after fighting the disease for 4 years. Upon the discovery of her ailment, my fledgling retail career came to a standstill. There were days when I shuddered the thought of waking up the next day, wondering what to do without a proper job, a full time career, a sagging start-up I had adventured and piling debts and EMIs. Life moved on. And I survived all these years, to write this column today. 

Life moves on, will keep moving, just like the arms of a clock. But over these years, I have grown wiser, most probably, if anything. A proud Madrasi that I am, I am sure I will make my hometown proud.