P.B.Krishnamurthy was the son of Balasundaram and Sri Lakshmi who was born in Bhavani sagar. Due to the inundation caused by construction of the Bhavani sagar dam, his family relocated to the city of Coimbatore.P.B.Krishnamurthy was the son of Balasundaram and Sri Lakshmi who was born in Bhavani sagar. Due to the inundation caused by construction of the Bhavani sagar dam, his family relocated to the city of Coimbatore.
A young Krishnamurthy pursued his schooling at the City Municipal High School and had to quit due to financial constraints. Hence, Krishnamurthy joined the commercial tax office and worked there for about 3 months. It was at that time, an aspiration to step foot in the world of commerce got seeded in Krishnamurthy who shortly set up a provision store at the buzzing Poo Market area. He was then engaged full-time in managing his shop "Swami & Murthy" along with his cousin brother Karuppuswamy.
Though life went on smooth, Krishnamurthy's interest in 'engineering' kindled him to do something innovative in that domain.
K.Ravi, son of P.B.Krishnamurthy talks about the break through journey in his father's life, while offering some hot filter coffee at his office in Hotel Karpagam in Ram Nagar.
"It all started in the year 1963, when my father was inspired to make a wet grinder for his friend whose wife was unable to make idly batter due to severe back pain. The whole idea was conceived by my father whose grinders then came with a huge grinding stone which constantly moved on all sides to make a smooth idly batter. People looked up to the product with awe.
The product was very unique and he sold the first piece for Rs.540, with a profit of Rs.120/- a princely sum those days!. Just after the sale, my father was very anxious to know the feedback from the lady to whom he sold his first piece. Though the lady of the house was extremely happy and relieved, the noise made by the motor was of a great concern to her.
The rest is history...my father, P.B.Krishnamurthy became the first to commercialise the wet grinder. Of course, after several attempts of fine tuning, at last he created the perfect grinder which was used in every single household".
Sri Lakshmi Wet Grinders hit the road to success with a number of hotels becoming their early clients. A number of VIP households including that of LMW, P.A.Raju Chettiar, K.Damodaraswamy Naidu of Sree Annapoorna Hotels and N.Mahalingam became the customers of Krishnamurthy.
All the grinders belonging to the restaurant chain, Sree Annapoorna Hotels were supplied and serviced by him. In fact, he made a slow functioning grinders especially to K.Damodaraswamy Naidu, who felt that the motor heat would make idlis harder and alter the consistency.
Initially Lakshmi Grinders used motors from Suguna Motors, until Balaji Motors promoted by Gopal got into a long association with P.B.Krishnamurthy, Founder of Lakshmi Grinders.
The famous industrial scientist G.D.Naidu used to visit Krishnamurthy during the early days and offer words of encouragement.
Sivakumar of Suguna Automobiles shares some nostalgic memories about the first motor he designed for Lakshmi Grinders, "We purchased a Lakshmi grinder in the year 1968. One of my tenant Irudayaswamy used our grinder once a week for making idly batter for his family. We are one of the age old customers of Lakshmi Grinders.
P.B.Krishnamurthy was one of the Founders of Codissia and now his son K.Ravi is in the Executive Committee of the organisation. Ravi also shares some interesting fact about his father other than his wet grinder story "My father was a fun loving person and he used to practise yoga everyday. He used to play billiards for years at the R.S.Puram Club. My father loved good filter coffee and he used to visit Sree Annapoorna for relishing his favourite beverage several times a day and also a chat with K.Damodaraswamy Naidu on a number of subjects. Perhaps he was the second person to have coffee at Sree Annapoorna after Udayam Pandu Chettiar everyday.
He was on excellent terms with Meenu Mix Balakrishna Pillai and his entire family. Whenever Meenu Mix inaugurated a new showroom, the first bill was written by him and the first sale was to Chinnaswamy of Pazhamudir Nilayam, be it their Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai or Kochi showrooms".
"Business boomed for about 3 decades. As we had not taken steps to protect our innovations, the market started to brim with duplicates. But at no point we compromised on the quality. Faith and the future are our all time pillars", said Ravi.
Presently there are 700 plus wet grinder manufacturers in and around Coimbatore, and today grinders are also part of the social welfare schemes offered by the Government of Tamilnadu.
But undeniably, it was P.B.Krishnamurthy (1932 - 2006) Founder of Sri Lakshmi Grinders because of whom Coimbatore was identified as a Grinder City.
Source: http://simpli-city.in