 |
| M.K.Nair, Mangattuthodi, Koonathara, Palakkad |
With half-a-century of hard work, M.K.Nair, of Mangattuthodi, Koonathara, Palakkad has built the 600-crore Petron Group that has an employee strength of 10000 including 500 engineers. And although the Group which is active in mechanical, electrical, instrumentation and installation fields may not be well known in Kerala, it has its presence in about 10 foreign countries.
The young Nair, who boarded the train to Mumbai after Pre Degree, worked for 5 years in an American company involved in refinery fabrication work. When the company wound up their operation in India, it offered to employ him at their London location. But he chose to work for another 18 years in a British company in India itself. It was at this stage that he decided to start something on his own.
2 other colleagues, R.S.Ambedkar and S.Chakravarthy also joined Nair in the new venture that was christened Petron Group in 1976. The capital for the venture came from Provident Fund amount of Rs.35,000. Starting with small orders, the company grew slowly. And that growth necessitated the expansion of its office space from 350 sq.ft to 1000 sq.ft to the present 20000 sq.ft. The turning point for high growth was the order for designing a Petrochemical plant in Basra, Iraq. This opened up further avenues in the Gulf countries.
His partner Chakravarthy is no more. Ambedkar, who is a director of the company, is stationed in Dubai.
Rukmini is his wife. His daughter Usha is an advocate at Bombay High Court. His son is an entrepreneur in Dubai.
A staunch devotee of Mata Amrithanandamayi Devi, Nair contributes a part of his profit to the renovation of temples in Kerala.
Courtesy:
N.Sreejith, Mathrubhumi, October 23, 2006
Contributed by: Administrator
