Accordingly the ‘Nirma’ success story of how an Indian Entrepreneur took on the big MNCs and rewrote the rules of business. Meanwhile it was in 1969 that Dr. Karsanbhai Patel started Nirma and went on to create a whole new segment in the Indian domestic detergent market. Furthermore during that time the domestic detergent market only had the premium segment and there were very few companies, mainly the MNCs, which were into this business.
Reportedly Karsanbhai Patel used to make detergent powder in the backyard of his house in Ahmedabad and then carry out door to door selling of his hand made product. Apparently he gave a money back guarantee with every pack that was sold and Karsanbhai Patel managed to offer his detergent powder for Rs. 3 per kg when the cheapest detergent at that time was Rs.13 per kg and so he was able to successfully target the middle and lower middle income segment.
Further Nirma became a huge success and all this was a result of Karsanbhai Patel’s entrepreneurial skills. Moreover the best case of Give your consumer what he wants, when he wants, where he wants and at the price he wants, selling will be done quite automatically, which is the marketing ‘mantra’ of Nirma.
Reportedly the company that was started in 1969 with just one man who used to deliver his product from one house to the other,today employs around 14 thousand people and has a turnover of more than $ 500 million. Previously in 2004 Nirma’s annual sales were as high as 800000 tonnes. Moreover Forbes stated that in 2005 Karsanbhai Patel’s net worth was $640 million and it’s going to touch the $1000 million mark soon.
