Dreams Are Forever: Tale Of A Peon Who Used To Sleep In A Warehouse Became India’s 45th Richest Man With A Net Worth Of Rs 88,000 Crore

New Delhi: People without a strong sense of self-worth always attribute their failure to bad luck and other people. You must read about Balvant Parekh, known as “India’s Fevicol Man,” if you want to learn how to achieve success against all odds and challenges. One of the first-generation businesspeople in India after independence, Balvant Parekh helped to improve the country’s economic standing.

Who Is Balvant Parekh?

In Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district, in the little town of Mahuva, Balvant Parekh was born. Balvant aspired to start his own business as many Gujaratis did, but his parents preferred that he pursue a legal career. Balvant Parekh relocated to Mumbai to attend the Government Law College as a result of intense family pressure.

Participated In Quit India Movement

At Mumbai’s Government Law College, Balvant Parekh pursued his education. It was a time when Mahatma Gandhi’s ideas influenced practically the entire nation. Balvant Parekh joined the Quit India Movement alongside many other members of the younger generation, quitting his education in the process.

He initially stayed in Gujarat, his hometown, and took part in several social campaigns for India’s freedom. Later, he returned to Mumbai to finish his degree.

Was Balvant Parekh Advocate?

Like his grandfather, Balvant Parekh’s father desired for him to pursue a career in law. But he had no desire to pursue it as a career. His thoughts were fixed on succeeding in Mumbai, the city of dreams.

He didn’t study business, and neither did his family, yet he managed to amass fortune by working hard and creating a legendary brand. over earning his law degree and passing the bar council examinations, he resigned the profession due to his discomfort with the myriad of lies that came with it, over the opposition of his family.

 

Balvant married Kantaben without having any work to his name and soon found himself in debt. Thus, in order to support himself, he first worked at a printing and dyeing press before joining a wood trader’s office as a peon.

Failures And Upsets Galore

He had to fend for himself and exist without any help, which made it difficult for him. Balvant and his wife were residing in a friend’s warehouse at the time. Peon’s employment was not working out for him, and he was looking for a better chance.

Here, he had started making contacts and had started giving the appropriate businessmen a list of import-export commodities. Balvant was given the chance to visit Germany thanks to one of these connections. He picked up business hints and tips while on his journey abroad, which later helped.

 

While working for a company that represented Hoechst in India, Parekh received his first significant break. Later, in 1954, he established his business in Mumbai’s Jacob Circle with Parekh Dyechem Industries. Here, Balvant Parekh and his brother Sushil Parekh began producing pigment emulsions for textile printing.

Since adhesives were being marketed unbranded at the time, Pidilite was founded later, in 1959, as an industrial chemicals company. Since that time, Fevicol has come to be associated with glue, and Indian carpenters are devoted users.

Fevicol Pidilite Industries, which had only one little shop at its inception and produced just one product, quickly found success in the Indian market after Fevicol was successful in establishing a monopoly in the adhesive industry.

After that, Pidilite introduced two other products, Feviquick and M-Seal, which went on to amass market shares of roughly 70 percent apiece, making Pidilite the well-known and preferred brand of adhesives in the nation.