Mr. Gnanam hails from a family of business men, his grand father owned rubber estates in Malaysia and his father owned rice mills in South India. He came to Chennai from his native place near Karaikudi and was sent to work in a pharmacy which was owned by a relative. He was there for six months and this instigated him to pursue “Diploma in Pharmacy”. Having gained some experience and backed with a diploma in the medical field, he set out to start his own pharmacy in the year 1970. Professor Anbazhagan, a Senior minister in the Tamilnadu Government was invited to inaugurate the store and he named it ‘Sangam Pharmacy’ and this medical shop in Perambur, Chennai became the foundation for the chain of medical stores, distribution centers, clinical laboratories that he has subsequently started, successfully managed and taken to phenomenal heights in the last forty years.
Mr. Gnanam said “Chain of retail outlets, creating brand name and image were not widely talked about and known concepts in the seventies. I just started one shop, business did well and so after a few years in 1976 started another one at Purasawalkam, which today has an area of around 2600 square feet. I opened a third in 1978 and by 1984, I had about 20 shops. I named them Muthu Pharmacy, only the first one still continues to be Sangam Pharmacy. I established it into Muthu Group, diversifying into related fields like distribution of medicines for pharmaceutical multinationals both Indian and foreign and also setting up clinical laboratories. Incidentally, Muthu Group became the first chain of retail medical outlets in the whole of India.”
Gnanam elaborated on Muthu Group’s work culture saying that they followed work ethics very strictly. They conduct themselves very responsibly being in the medical field and ensure that medicines that have crossed the expiry dates are not sold. They have very large stock holding which ensures that they are able to give their customers all the medicines that they seek. They follow strict quality checks in all their outlets and distribution centers. Their employees are paid well and are treated with dignity and care.
Muthu Group also provides a lot of value added services that the society has benefited from. They have been the trend setters in the door delivery of medicines. They have set up clinical laboratories where blood pressure is checked free of cost for customers. Every month in two of their large pharmacies blood sugar is tested. Their pharmacies in Perambur, Purasawakam and Egmore are open 24 hours to help people to have access to medicines in an emergency. Customers are guided properly on dosage of their medicine and also on storage of medicine. Four times every year they conduct multi-specialty free medical camps. A large number of people are checked for general health, medicines are distributed and even scans and x rays are taken at subsidised rates. Several leading doctors are invited to be a part of this camp. They also provide painkillers and medicines for about 1 lakh pilgrims who undertake walking to Palani on the ‘thai poosam’ festival day.
Apart from the above, Muthu Group also reaches out to the society by helping out with funds for education and marriage to the poor and needy. They have also formed a ‘Muthu Pharmacy Charitable Trust’ which will help more people and they also intend to give awards to contributors in the field of medicine and pharmacy every year.
When I asked him with a lot of reverence as to how he had motivated himself to achieve so much in just four decades he replied, “I started with one shop but having been a very active member in Tamilnadu Chemists and Druggists Association and All India Organisation of Chemists & Druggist, it expanded my mind and propelled me to strive for more. Muthu Group will accelerate speed even further as we have set ourselves a target of 100 retail medical outlets only in Chennai in the near future.”
I left from there with an overwhelming sense of satisfaction having been taken through the journey of an enterprise which has not only expanded their turnover, but have stretched themselves in their service to the society and a human being who lives in accordance to the age old saying, ‘Dream and wake up to achieve your dreams’.
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