Chennai
Nothing in his youth prepared him for a job in marketing. A native of Kerala, Anoop recalls, “My father’s fond wish was that I join government service as in the late 1970s and early ‘80s, this was the preferred form of employment.” As his chances of getting a job were good, he started chasing the necessary papers at Tiruvananthapuram in Kerala.
It was then that fate stepped in: his uncle, Dr VP Siddhan, wrote and asked him to come and make his Medimix soap a success. Launched in 1969, his uncle was finding it difficult to market a new product in Chennai. Anoop says, “I have gone out selling the soap locally and so I know what marketing is all about and what customers prefer.”
His perseverance paid off and today Medimix is the flagship brand of his AVA Group. The soap is handmade, and consists of 18 herbs from ayurveda and is a trusted brand today. A survey in 2013 voted it 13th among personal care brands and 56th among the ‘Most Trusted Brands’ in India.
His family did not approve of his move at first as this was a business venture, but he made up his mind and arrived in Chennai in 1983. Success with Medimix did not come easy. When demand increased, he wondered whether they would be able to hand-make 5000 units a month. “This manual process continued as machines do not achieve the same quality as a handmade product does,” he says.
But some shrewd thinking resulted in the soap touching a production target of 900 tonnes per month at Chennai, Dindigul and Puducherry where it was being made. This success led them to launch ‘Divine’, a soap with herbal formulations. Anoop’s products today reach more than 4,000 hotels, with the hotel’s name and logo being printed on the packet at no extra cost.
Business apart, Anoop had always been interested in acting right from his college days. As acting opportunities were plentiful in Chennai, with a knowledgeable audience to boot, he took to it enthusiastically. A follower of Narayana Guru, Kerala’s social reformer, he wanted to propagate his ideals and produced his first movie, Yuga Purush, in 2010. Anoop has also produced three Tamil movies and won awards for his work, including the Kerala State Award. “All my movies have social messages and are also platforms to provide my ayurvedic products some much needed publicity,” he adds.
He also acquired the quarter-century-old Melam, a brand which makes authentic masalas, traditional pickles, sweets and snacks, and breakfast mixes. He had the foresight to make this acquisition at an opportune time as the “food industry grows fast and has global exposure,” he points out.
His consultative management practices at work have ensured that attrition is practically nil among his 1,000 employees. When he began his venture, he had asked his workers for ideas; he does so even today. “We get nearly 100 ideas a month from workers,” he says. And good ideas lead to rewards. His sticking to manual production with Medimix when consultants advised him to opt for mechanisation has seen this decision pay dividends.
Anoop first became interested in Medimix after reading all that was available on the subject – and even obtained a PhD from the Medicina Alternativa Institute, affiliated to the Open International University for Complementary Medicine at Colombo, Sri Lanka.
What advice would he give young entrepreneurs? “Start from scratch to understand the business fully. Be ready for hard work as there are no short cuts to success in business.” Anoop’s family includes his wife, two daughters and two granddaughters.
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