After doing MBA from Harvard, Lavanya Chettiar is working with McKinsey. But her best teacher continues to be her grandfather, Nalli Kuppuswamy Chettiar.
Under the watchful eyes of the owner of Nalli, which is a household name for its famous Kanchipuram silk sarees, Lavanya has set up two stores in Bangalore and Chennai which sell hand-crafted high-end sarees.
That’s the third and the latest format for Nalli stores and the doting grandfather has named it Lavanya Nalli. The first is called just Nalli, which stocks silk sarees, dress materials and ready-stitched garments, and the second is Nalli Next, which has slightly higher-end furnishings, apparel & accessories for women.
Nalli is now worth Rs 550 crore. That isn’t great for a brand that was launched 83 years ago in the temple town of Kancheepuram. Kuppuswamy Chettiar knows that and is banking on his granddaughter to take Nalli to the next level. “Yes, we have been conservative, but it may change during my granddaughter’s time”.
But Kuppuswamy Chettiar is being modest, as Nalli has indeed been innovating to keep pace with changing times —something that he learnt quite early in life from his grandfather who was the first one to introduce artificial dye way back in 1921-22. The dyes were manufactured by a Switzerland-based company.
Since then Nalli has forayed into everything — starting from lightweight sarees like, crepe, chiffons to designer sarees to traditional sarees. It boasts of a clothing-line for women as well as ready-to-wear menswear with a private label, costume jewellery, soft furnishings, and accessories.
The Nalli owner thinks these have helped the brand survive in the face of increasing competition from within the family as well. Nalli’s neighbour in T Nagar, Chennai — Kumaran Silks — is founded by P Chengalvaraya Chettiar, a relative of Kuppusamy Chettiar. The other competitors include RMKV, Sundari Silks, Saravana Stores and Pothys.
What has added to the brand equity is that Nalli has never given any price discounts in its keenness to be known as a ‘quality retailer’. For example, the month of ‘aadi’ in the Tamil calender (from mid July to mid August) is considered inauspicious. Most shops and retailers across the state sell at huge discounts during this month to keep sales going. But Nalli takes pride in the fact that it doesn’t follow the crowd.
Chettiar attributes Nalli’s success to two other things — timely delivery and additional yardage (9.75 yards, against 9 yards that was the norm).
HISTORY
Nalli was started by Nalli Chinnasami Chettiar, a famous weaver of silk sarees in Kancheepuram who carried on his family business – that of weaving since 1900. He even gifted a Kanchipuram saree as a souvenir to George V during his visit to India in 1911.
In 1923 he started a Depot in Madras (now Chennai.) Later, in 1928 he started business at TNagar, which is the city’s most famous shopping area. The history of T Nagar itself has a lot to do with Nalli. The establishment of Nalli set the ball rolling for T Nagar to become a shopping hub - with Nalli becoming an iconic building in this area.
Kuppuswamy Chettiar says he has sold wedding sarees to many families for four generations.
Also, the brand has expanded across geographies. Apart from Chennai, it is present in Vishakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi and has branches in Singapore and the US as well.
