GR Balasubramaniam, founder of GRB Dairy Foods, began his journey from a very humble background. Today, his brand is on the course of clocking Rs 1,400 crore revenue, but he once started his entrepreneurship path with just Rs 6,000 savings.
Balasubramaniam, who hailed from a small village in Tamil Nadu, was the son of an ordinary man. His father earned a living by selling pulses and other produce on a bicycle. At the age of 13, his family decided to pull him out of school so that he could go to Bengaluru to help his sister and brother-in-law run their butter business.
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He spent the next 14 years in that business, learning everything there was about the business. In 1984, after a misunderstanding with his brother-in-law, he decided to start his own business. At the time, he left with just Rs 6,000 in savings.
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“I had no other option,” he says. “My father could not take me back. So I told myself, this is my life now. And because I threw myself into it fully, I learned everything. That involvement for those 14 years is the reason I am where I am today,” he told YouStory, noting that he walked out of that family business just six months after his wedding in 1984.
Since he knew everything about the butter business, he decided to raise money and start his own brand. His first stock consisted of 75 kg of butter, which he began delivering to customers across Bengaluru.
From that venture, he soon learned that butter spoiled more quickly and saw the demand for ghee. Subsequently, he started making ghee himself with help from his wife. He started his business with Rs 3,000 in a small rented shop. He named his product GRB using his initials and focused on maintaining high quality.
In 1993, he expanded to Chennai under the brand name Udhayam. Despite facing rejection from shopkeepers, he continued convincing them to try his ghee. Eventually, customers came back for his good quality ghee and the brand's sales increased.
He built a distribution network by appointing distributors and salesmen who regularly visited retail shops. He also expanded manufacturing, setting up factories in Bengaluru, Dindigul and Hosur.
Today, GRB Dairy Foods sells ghee, sweets, snacks and spices in more than 40 countries. It employs around 2,500 people and achieved revenue of Rs 1,000 crore two years ago in FY23-24. The report added that the company is projected to reach Rs 1,400 crore in annual revenue soon, with Balasubramaniam's two sons, now at the helm of the business operations.
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