P.B.Krishnamurthy was the son of Balasundaram and Sri
Lakshmi who was born in Bhavani sagar. Due to the inundation caused by
construction of the Bhavani sagar dam, his family relocated to the city of
Coimbatore.
P.B.Krishnamurthy was the son of Balasundaram and Sri
Lakshmi who was born in Bhavani sagar. Due to the inundation caused by
construction of the Bhavani sagar dam, his family relocated to the city of
Coimbatore.
A young Krishnamurthy pursued his schooling at the City
Municipal High School and had to quit due to financial constraints. Hence,
Krishnamurthy joined the commercial tax office and worked there for about 3
months. It was at that time, an aspiration to step foot in the world of
commerce got seeded in Krishnamurthy who shortly set up a provision store at
the buzzing Poo Market area. He was then engaged full-time in managing his shop
"Swami & Murthy" along with his cousin brother Karuppuswamy.
Though life went on smooth, Krishnamurthy's interest in
'engineering' kindled him to do something innovative in that domain.
K.Ravi, son of P.B.Krishnamurthy talks about the break
through journey in his father's life, while offering some hot filter coffee at
his office in Hotel Karpagam in Ram Nagar.
"It all started in the year 1963, when my father was
inspired to make a wet grinder for his friend whose wife was unable to make
idly batter due to severe back pain. The whole idea was conceived by my father
whose grinders then came with a huge grinding stone which constantly moved on
all sides to make a smooth idly batter. People looked up to the product with
awe.
The product was very unique and he sold the first piece for
Rs.540, with a profit of Rs.120/- a princely sum those days!. Just after the
sale, my father was very anxious to know the feedback from the lady to whom he
sold his first piece. Though the lady of the house was extremely happy and
relieved, the noise made by the motor was of a great concern to her.
The rest is history...my father, P.B.Krishnamurthy became
the first to commercialise the wet grinder. Of course, after several attempts
of fine tuning, at last he created the perfect grinder which was used in every
single household".
Sri Lakshmi Wet Grinders hit the road to success with a
number of hotels becoming their early clients. A number of VIP households
including that of LMW, P.A.Raju Chettiar, K.Damodaraswamy Naidu of Sree
Annapoorna Hotels and N.Mahalingam became the customers of Krishnamurthy.
All the grinders belonging to the restaurant chain, Sree
Annapoorna Hotels were supplied and serviced by him. In fact, he made a slow
functioning grinders especially to K.Damodaraswamy Naidu, who felt that the
motor heat would make idlis harder and alter the consistency.
Initially Lakshmi Grinders used motors from Suguna Motors,
until Balaji Motors promoted by Gopal got into a long association with
P.B.Krishnamurthy, Founder of Lakshmi Grinders.
The famous industrial scientist G.D.Naidu used to visit
Krishnamurthy during the early days and offer words of encouragement.
Sivakumar of Suguna Automobiles shares some nostalgic
memories about the first motor he designed for Lakshmi Grinders, "We
purchased a Lakshmi grinder in the year 1968. One of my tenant Irudayaswamy
used our grinder once a week for making idly batter for his family. We are one
of the age old customers of Lakshmi Grinders.
P.B.Krishnamurthy was one of the Founders of Codissia and
now his son K.Ravi is in the Executive Committee of the organisation. Ravi also
shares some interesting fact about his father other than his wet grinder story
"My father was a fun loving person and he used to practise yoga everyday.
He used to play billiards for years at the R.S.Puram Club. My father loved good
filter coffee and he used to visit Sree Annapoorna for relishing his favourite
beverage several times a day and also a chat with K.Damodaraswamy Naidu on a
number of subjects. Perhaps he was the second person to have coffee at Sree
Annapoorna after Udayam Pandu Chettiar everyday.
He was on excellent terms with Meenu Mix Balakrishna Pillai
and his entire family. Whenever Meenu Mix inaugurated a new showroom, the first
bill was written by him and the first sale was to Chinnaswamy of Pazhamudir
Nilayam, be it their Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai or Kochi showrooms".
"Business boomed for about 3 decades. As we had not
taken steps to protect our innovations, the market started to brim with
duplicates. But at no point we compromised on the quality. Faith and the future
are our all time pillars", said Ravi.
Presently there are 700 plus wet grinder manufacturers in
and around Coimbatore, and today grinders are also part of the social welfare
schemes offered by the Government of Tamilnadu.
But undeniably, it was P.B.Krishnamurthy (1932 - 2006)
Founder of Sri Lakshmi Grinders because of whom Coimbatore was identified as a
Grinder City.
Source: http://simpli-city.in
Comments