A.Rangaswamy Chettiar was the seventh child of Anganna Chettiar. The Tamil speaking family hails from Sargur near Chamrajnagar ( Mysore ). Rangaswamy Chettiar was a body builder who followed the ancient ' Mysore Garadi Tradition '. He had interned under Ramaswamy Chettiar in the Kumaran Market before setting out on his own as an entrepreneur. Working in the Kumaran Market had given Rangaswamy Chettiar a lot of exposure. His sincerity under his boss Ramaswamy Chettiar helped him to move ahead. The hard work of Rangaswamy Chettiar got him his bride - Gokilambal. They were blessed with Balasundaram, Vanaja Nandakumar, Damodaran, Kanagasabapathy, Vijayakumar and Sujatha Balasubramaniam.
A.Rangaswamy Chettiar was the seventh child of Anganna Chettiar. The Tamil speaking family hails from Sargur near Chamrajnagar ( Mysore ). Rangaswamy Chettiar was a body builder who followed the ancient ' Mysore Garadi Tradition '. He had interned under Ramaswamy Chettiar in the Kumaran Market before setting out on his own as an entrepreneur.
Working in the Kumaran Market had given Rangaswamy Chettiar a lot of exposure. His sincerity under his boss Ramaswamy Chettiar helped him to move ahead. The hard work of Rangaswamy Chettiar got him his bride - Gokilambal. They were blessed with Balasundaram, Vanaja Nandakumar, Damodaran, Kanagasabapathy, Vijayakumar and Sujatha Balasubramaniam.
Work experience made him understand the value of hygiene, cleanliness, quality and the value of nurturing a customer. It was a time when everyone knew everyone in town. Rangaswamy Chettiar and his friend Karunakaran ( Founder of Ayyappa Ghee ) had begun their life by delivering oil and ghee respectively on their bicycles. A.Rangaswamy Chettiar Sons & Co is now managed by R.Balasundaram alongwith his sons Saravanan and Karthik. " Father used to get tamarind from Tumkur. Oil extraction was taken care of by him and the inputs were from Mysore. Manual cleaning preceded oil extraction. Coffee powder was also processed by us. We used to sell ' Monkey Brand ' kersosene at the fair price. If I can remember it was Rs.9.75 per tin. Our ration shop was in 100 feet road and we had a branch of the regular store in Cross Cut road for about 30 years and it had been inaugurated by G.K.Sundaram of Lakshmi Mills. Father used to get naattu malli from Bengaluru. He used to select from 30 or 40 varieties and buy the best.
Our supplier HALT ( Haji Abdul Latif Taif ) used to say ' Dekho Qualitywala ah gaya, acha maal dikhao '. Tumkur G.Rudrappa & Sons was another supplier. Our store had a huge number of Brahmin customers and they used to purchase ' Nellore Melagulugulu Pongal Rice ' ( raw rice ) which was known for its fullness. We used to buy it by the wagons. People used to love it, " recalled R.Balasundaram.
“My brother R. Damodaran was in our business for more than 3 decades. He fully understood the value of the customers. We have a wonderful relationship with him,“ recalls Balasundaram. R
A.Rangaswamy Chettiar Sons & Co had more than 400 account holders who used to settle their bills once in a month. People had to wait for the goods had to be packed. Paper cone styled packing had been the order of the day. Some customers used to settle their bills a bit late and it used to be just once in a way. The home orders were packed and delivered in a hand drawn cart or a tricycle.
Subsequently, Rangaswamy Chettiar began using brown paper covers made by Premier Paper Products for packing the items sold by them. Huntley Palmer biscuits used to come in tins and the store name used to be embossed on them. Horlicks used to be sold on prescription ! Vanaspati was sold in big tins at the time of Diwali. The brand Dalda had been famous. They had promoted the brand by making bajjis in shandies. Those were times when higher officials from leading brands used to come in person. Personal relationship was maintained from the supplier side. They were like a large family.
The pioneering departmental store had started in the year 1937. The son Balasundaram dropped out of his engineering programme ( Tumkur ) in the year 1968 and joined his father. Grandson Saravanan had joined business in 1999. The store was in the same neighbourhood and had shifted to the new place ( current location ) in 1968. It had been inaugurated by S.R.P.Ponnuswamy Chettiar. C.G.Venkataramanan had been the auditor.
"Our store had customers from Valparai, Somanur, Palakkad, Thrissur, Trivandrum , Nilgiris , Sathyamangalam etc., those days. We were number 2 in the cracker business. Father was hardworking and punctual. He used to get up by 5 .30 AM and go for his yoga in Gandhipark. He used to have a big fan following. R.V.T. Ranga Hall Chettiar, Lakshmi Grinder Krishnamurthy were among his friends. He was quite close to A.R.Nagamanickkam, D.S.R ( Ramachandran ) and his mentor was P.T.Ganesh Singh. My father's mentor was a wonderful person and one would feel like talking to him. ARN ( Nagamanickkam Chettiar ) used to ask us to say ' Rama Rama ' instead of ' Aiyoo '. C.R.S.Mannadiar was also well known. Another close person was Kandaswamy Chettiar of the Vijayalakshmi Metal Mart. Father liked learned people and he used to interact with them. Dr.Chandrashekhar ( TNAU ), Dr.Rama Rao ( Sugarcane Breeding Institute ) were among those learned customers. Krishna Vadhiyar was a great client. He was a dedicated and hard working man.
Krishna Vadhiyar used to purchase items for the weddings conducted by him and he used to arrive with a list and give the delivery instructions. Urundai Vellam and Nilakadalai were the snacks found on father's table. Our store did well because of the inputs of the employees. Our accountant Narayanaswamy Chettiar and Rao were among the good people who had worked with us. Father was wedded to the shop. He had bought and sold a number of properties in R.S.Puram. People just sold it to him on their own. Those were times when people sold houses when they got transfers. Integrity was the order of the day. Father knew Hindi, Kannada, Tamil and English , " recalled R.Balasundaram.
Saravanan remembers his grandfather quite well, " He took to me to Vedadri Maharishi when I was just 10 years old. Grandfather had papaya every morning and godhumaravai or avul uppuma in the night. The shop was like a house and the customer was an honoured guest. Over the years we got introduced to the world of Sri Vaishnavism due to influence by K.P.Ramaswamy Chettiar ( Urad dhal merchant ) from Salem.Our Acharyar U.Ve.Gomatam Sri Mukundachariar Swamy stayed in our premises and performed ' Andal Kalyanam '. This took place in ' Ranga Buildings '.
The Kuladeivam had been Ankala Parameswari in Perur and the Ishta Deivam was Karamadai Ranganathar. A.Rangaswamy Chettiar has expanded over the years. It has become a big and reliable store. Balasundaram had always been ahead of his times. It was the first outlet to have an Alpha Numeric cash register in Coimbatore. A.Rangaswamy Chettiar Sons & Co was the mentor for departmental stores business in town and it was early to computerize its operations under the tutelage of Balasundaram, the son of A.Rangaswamy Chettiar.
A.Rangaswamy Chettiar Sons & Co began as a provisions and general stores merchant more than 80 years ago. He worked with change, transition and saw a number of disruptions which ushered in new players, products and technology. However, the personal touch backed by systems and quality has helped them to traverse the depths and succeed.