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Navas Meeran: a tale of a second generation Entrepreneur

Southern Compass of The Economic Times(19th July '07) carried the profile of Navas Meeran who took over at the helm of Eastern Condiments and Spices from his father.
A second generation entrepreneur, he saw how his father built the business to become a prominent distributor of leading brands in Central Kerala besides building the Eastern Curry Powder Brand.

When after his studies, Mr. Navas Meeran joined the business in 1994, the turnover of the company was in the range of Rs. 10 crore. It did not take long for Navas Meeran to rework the business model and prepare for long-term growth. And, at heart of his business model, was the core competency they had built up - an efficient distribution system. Eastern Curry Powder did not remain in the league of the 'small player' for long.


The company touched a turnover of Rs. 208 crore by 2006-07, and his dream is to touch a turnover of Rs. 2500 crores for the Eastern group, which also is into readymade garments, tread rubber and packaged water.

He attributes the success of Eastern to "ordinary people doing extraordinary work".

Eastern is currently the largest exporter of curry powder. Recently, the Eastern brand emerged as the largest selling curry powder displacing a Pakistani brand.

Click here to download the full article.

Arun Natarajan is the Founder & CEO of Venture Intelligence, the leading provider of information and networking services to the Private Equity and Venture Capital ecosystem in India. View sample issues of Venture Intelligence India newsletters and reports.

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