An Article
From Our Building and Construction,
March 2013
Plumbing has seen many developments over the
past. Until the nineties, the plumbing lines have been fitted with cast iron
pipes and brass pipes have also been used in some critical points. But the last
decade of the 20th century witnessed revolution in the piping system with
plastics replacing these metals. Plastics started dominating all the areas of
plumbing department and slowly other metals vanished. During this
transformation, many dealers of older version have also disappeared from the
scene. But one of those few names that did not only stand the storm, but also
continued to dominate the market. The entity, ALS, is still a well-known name
in the pipes and hardware market
ALS Pipe Enterprises Group, having diversified from cotton business
to hardware in 1960 under the aegis of Mr. A.L.
Singaram, grew magnificently as the sole authorised distributor in south India
for Zenith Birla (India) Ltd of GD Birla Group thanks to its integrity,
trustworthiness,loyalty and hard work. Zenith Birla has also just started their GI and MS
pipe manufacture only in that year.
And the baton is
in the hands of third generation of the family. There is no doubt Alagappan and
his family are carrying his father’s legacy on to future generations of their
family tree.
Basically a
mechanical engineer, Alagappan was inducted circumstantially
into the
business by his father immediately upon completing his studies. At that
instance itself, he was asked to choose between Tamil Nadu and Kerala for
marketing and he chose the former, saying his father had more knowledge on
Kerala than him.
He has brought
up this company, under his father’s tutelage, through sheer hard work and long
travels. The trade, entirely new to their family business, was built brick
by brick.
Original plan of Mr. Alagappan was to develop motors and pumps manufacturing
business with his friend but it did not materialize for extraneous reasons. In
the early years of pipes business, he used to travel extensively as his father
handed over to him the marketing responsibility. He was also enthusiastic that
the Birla company entrusted Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh areas for marketing to
ALS. Not stopping at that, they increased the commission rates to 2 percent
from 1 percent.
Here, Mr.
Alagappan recalls an emotional incidence with his father. “On one occasion, my
parents had gone to Tapovanam for a week. At that time, I was looking after the
business. I worked entire shifts
dedicatedly and
achieved a volume of around 1,100 tonnes compared to around 760 tonnes done so
far.
When I reported
this to my father on his return, he just asked, “Only this much?” I was upset
and was
emotionally
crying almost throughout the day. When my mother enquired on seeing me crying,
I vented
my feelings and
she revealed my father had all the praise for me but did not want me to know
that as he felt it would be dangerous if I took it to head.”
Thus ALS became the sole authorized distributor of Zenith pipes for south
India. Until 1991, Alagappan and his younger brother were looking after the
business since his father’s demise in 1975.
By the time the
brothers mutually split in 1991, area of operation of ALS has shrunk driven by
the huge volume of business in Tamil Nadu alone and manpower shortage. It was
also the period of vigorous entry of plastic pipes as a cheaper substitute for
metals.
Mr. Alagappan is
of the view that “it would be adequate if we concentrated on the current
business.”
As a part of
split, it was decided that Alagappan would cover areas - Coimbatore, Chennai,
Erode and Trichy. He also got authorised distributorship of
Zenith Birla. Now they are
also authorised distributors for Finolex, Astral, Sintex and other brands for products like pipes and fittings, water
meter, tanks,
and valves and cocks.
Dwelling on the trend for pipes and fittings and
construction sector,
Alagappan commented that the market for pipes were good after 2005 and is weak
for the past 6 months. It was a steady growth since 1991 and by 2005 the market
grew phenomenally.
“We have
achieved a turnover of Rs. 60 crore in the
current year. We have fixed a target of Rs.
75 crore over the next 5
years. However, targets are fixed to us by the companies
and accordingly
we do business.”
ALS - How it all
happened…
Alagappan sums
up the story of ALS Enterprises in his own
words:
My father
started the company in 1938 for trading in cotton textiles. Earlier, having
completed his education in Galle, the southern most part of Ceylon (now Sri
Lanka), he came to India. My grandfather was in the business of importing and
exporting textiles.
He and Dr. Alagappa Chettiar were friends and the latter
asked my grandfather to suggest a person to look after his textile business in
Trichur, Kerala. And my grandfather suggested my father’s name highlighting his
typewriting and shorthand skills.
And he instantly
accepted the reference and took away my father immediately in his car.
My father joined
him for Rs 18 a month salary. During his tenure with Dr Alagappa Chettiar’s
company, my
father impres sed his boss with his self-interest and
learning
attitude that the Chettiar asked the newspaper boy to charge the
company for The
Hindu bought by my father.
Before doing
that, he asked my fatherwhy he is buying the newspaper for himself. He got satisfied with imposing reply from
my father. My father said information on trading and price trends apart from
manufacturing techniques were regularly published in the newspaper.
After some time,
my father desired to settle in Coimbatore than in Trichur. He loved this place
for its
ideal business
and climatic conditions. He had been frequenting the place often in the past
from Trichur
for cotton and
yarn trades.
He informed his
employer about his wish,while the latter suggested my father stayed with the
company for his character. However, my father replied that he is interested
only in trading and would stay with the company operating from Coimbatore.
Until 1937, he
was shunting between Trichur and our native; I was born in
Trichur in 1938.
We moved to Coimbatore in 1938 and my father started cotton broking
business. He was
a very big cotton broker and ALS was a renowned name in the business in those
days.
Given
speculative nature of the cotton trade at that time, he switched to
yarn trade
.
Between 1939 and
1959, he was doing the yarn business. He was associated with GD Birla Group
during this period and was known for his integrity, trustworthiness, loyalty
and hard work. One particular instance would exemplify these characters of my
father.
Once, my father went to the Zenith office in Mumbai. An arm
folded around
his shoulder, as he was waiting at the executive chamber of GD Birla. When he
looked back, he found a short figure asking whom he was waiting for.
And he introduced himself only to find the man to be Birla himself.
When the
marketing manager Suresh Dalal officially introduced him, Birla quipped, “I have
not seen him but I have seen his work.”
But unethical
trade practices in the textile market – he experienced it with his cousin
itself – forced him
to think of
quitting this business and was searching for an alternative.
That was when my
father was offered Zenith brand pipes business. Thus the
association with the Group continued and extended beyond textile business. He
also had the good climate and support from noble friends as also the blessings
of his spiritual guru Srilasri Gnananandagiri Swamigal of Tapovanam in
Thirukkoilur.
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