One Man many heritage-From Sugar business (Parry's Coffee Bite) to an AgroGiant in Making.
Coincidentally most of the business is now run by an equally amazing business Group. An 🧵on Mr. Parry of Parry's Cornerwale

Parrys as a surname was due to the fact that he belonged to a family that used to once rule, Powys (in Wales). The flat fertile land there was ideal for farming, which ensured his family richness. Thomas Parry arrived in Madras in 1788 and was licensed as a free merchant.
While most other Englishmen involved in the Trading in those time were either Writer or Cadet of EIC. Been a Free agent, gave give freedom, but also some problems. Madras had grown from Fort St George, and had Portuguese, French, Dutch, Jews also doing the Trading.
Soon, he felt that he needed some local support, so in 1789 he took Chase (an ex Civil servant of EIC) as a partner, and they started as real estate agents. They then sold lottery tickets, discounted Navy bills, sold passages in Europe-bound ships and also distributed books.
In 1805, he established a tannery in San Thomé near his castle, and this gradually grew into an establishment employing 300 men and exporting its products – boots and army leather-goods-to the rest of the Engish World.
By 1819, Mr. John Dare became his partner and they started expanding into other business. First was coffee plantations in Wayanadm followed by sugar and spirits. Though Mr. Parry died in 1824, but business was growing quite well under Mr. Dare.
By 1897-The East India Distilleries and Sugar Factories Limited (EID) was formed in London. Today's Chennai has a landmark named after both of them- junction, where the business got started, is Parry’s Corner. Dare House, the HQ at Parry’s Corner, was built in the late 1930s.
The ‘Manure’ residual of their Sugar business gave them the idea of getting into fertilizers business in 1906. And then in the next decade, they were asked by South Indian Railway(SIR) to run their own private Rail line-Kulasekharapatnam Tissianvillai Light Railway.
The railway business got them into ‘New Maladabar Timber Yards and Saw Mills Ltd’ at Kallai near Calicut. The timber being obtained from the surrounding hills and was used for making, railway sleepers, and planks.
As they were expanding into other Farm inputs, they need more of Sulphuric acid which was used in the production of these fertilisers. And for that ceramic product (jars) were been made by them to store this acid. It is this division that went on to become Parryware in 1952.
Then came Parry Agro Industries and Parry’s Confectionery-famous for their Parry's Coffee Bite and the tag line “the argument continues”. Though the business is now part of Lotte. However, by 1960s Parry’s started to show signs of decline. In 1976, it was Indianised.
British Firms were not interested in putting more capital for their growth and while there were many Suiter, somehow the asking price was not matching. And business was on a deathbed by 1980. R Venkataraman the then Finance minister, tried to be a matchmaker for this Iconic firm.
Commonwealth Development Finance Corporation and Pearl General Insurance, two London based organizations decided to sell their stake to Murugappa group .
A.M.M. Murugappa Chettiar, the founder of the group, was a financier who built a robust business in Burma first in 1900, and then spread all over South-East Asia. After the anti-Indian riots in Burma, they decided to be back to their roots.
Today, their Agrobusiness is the most important pillar in their business empire, contributing about 50% of the group revenue. They are indeed the able successor of the Man in whose name many companies are still run.

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I just finished Eric Adler's The Battle of the Classics, and wanted to say something about Joel Christiansen's review linked below. I am not sure what motivates the review (I speculate a bit below), but it gives a very misleading impression of the book. 1/x


The meat of the criticism is that the history Adler gives is insufficiently critical. Adler describes a few figures who had a great influence on how the modern US university was formed. It's certainly critical: it focuses on the social Darwinism of these figures. 2/x

Other insinuations and suggestions in the review seem wildly off the mark, distorted, or inappropriate-- for example, that the book is clickbaity (it is scholarly) or conservative (hardly) or connected to the events at the Capitol (give me a break). 3/x

The core question: in what sense is classics inherently racist? Classics is old. On Adler's account, it begins in ancient Rome and is revived in the Renaissance. Slavery (Christiansen's primary concern) is also very old. Let's say classics is an education for slaveowners. 4/x

It's worth remembering that literacy itself is elite throughout most of this history. Literacy is, then, also the education of slaveowners. We can honor oral and musical traditions without denying that literacy is, generally, good. 5/x
“We don’t negotiate salaries” is a negotiation tactic.

Always. No, your company is not an exception.

A tactic I don’t appreciate at all because of how unfairly it penalizes low-leverage, junior employees, and those loyal enough not to question it, but that’s negotiation for you after all. Weaponized information asymmetry.

Listen to Aditya


And by the way, you should never be worried that an offer would be withdrawn if you politely negotiate.

I have seen this happen *extremely* rarely, mostly to women, and anyway is a giant red flag. It suggests you probably didn’t want to work there.

You wish there was no negotiating so it would all be more fair? I feel you, but it’s not happening.

Instead, negotiate hard, use your privilege, and then go and share numbers with your underrepresented and underpaid colleagues. […]
1/ Some initial thoughts on personal moats:

Like company moats, your personal moat should be a competitive advantage that is not only durable—it should also compound over time.

Characteristics of a personal moat below:


2/ Like a company moat, you want to build career capital while you sleep.

As Andrew Chen noted:


3/ You don’t want to build a competitive advantage that is fleeting or that will get commoditized

Things that might get commoditized over time (some longer than


4/ Before the arrival of recorded music, what used to be scarce was the actual music itself — required an in-person artist.

After recorded music, the music itself became abundant and what became scarce was curation, distribution, and self space.

5/ Similarly, in careers, what used to be (more) scarce were things like ideas, money, and exclusive relationships.

In the internet economy, what has become scarce are things like specific knowledge, rare & valuable skills, and great reputations.