S.G. Jayaraj Nadar & Son (SGJ Group of companies) is an established name in the automotive industry in Tirunelveli. It all started way back in the early 20th century when the late S.G. Jayaraj Nadar began his career as a general merchant in Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu. Sincere, honest and hard working by nature, Nadar grew up to great heights in his profession and diversified in to transport business. Fully understanding the transport service needs in the Kodai hills those days, he started his own Nadar Motor Service in 1924 which was purely a taxi service running up and down the hills. Subsequently, this got converted into a bus transport service with the intervention of the Britishers.
In the full know of the industry needs, Jayaraj Nadar then got into automotive sales and service in the early 1950s. Soon it was awarded the dealership of Hillmann and Commer vans and buses. With the acquisition of the Hindustan Motors franchise for Bedford trucks (to cover from DINDIGUL to KANYAKUMARI DISTRICTS), Jayaraj Nadar had a chain of BURMA SHELL petrol pumps from Palani to Tirunelveli. The SHELL brand was later changed to Indian Oil in the wake of the fuel crisis in the mid 1960’s.
The business at Tirunelveli came down to Mr. G.J. Rathinasamy’s family from the larger SGJ Joint family in 1971.
In an exclusive interview to MOTORINDIA, Mr. R. Jayakumar Jayaraj, who is the eldest grandson of the late Jayaraj Nadar and the eldest son of Mr. G.J. Rathinasamy and now the Managing Partner of S.G. Jayaraj Nadar & Son group of companies, Tirunelveli, gave a brief account of his business and its journey till date. He said: “I joined our family business in the mid-1970s after completing my engineering at Regional Engineering College, Trichy, to support my father. My father had bagged the dealership for TAFE tractors in 1972 and we took up Mahindra & Mahindra LCVs and jeeps dealership in 1986. With the country’s economy expanding our business expanded to handle Mahindra SUV’s, MUV’s, UV’s, Cars, heavy, medium and Micro commercial vehicles. We are proud to have registered a turnover of Rs. 170 crores last year even after a major drop in turnovers due to the draught situation and economical slow down.”
Since expansion is the only means of business sustenance, Mr. Jayakumar Jayaraj took up franchises for CASE construction equipment for backhoes, Cooper generators and Kubota mini excavators, TAFE harvesters, they also deal with Honda two-wheelers for Tuticorin; and distribution for Veedol lubricants and TAFE tractor spare parts.
“Since customer service is the very essence of business – Apart from three locations of activities at our head office in Tirunelveli, we have thirteen more branches in the southern three districts and also branch at Madurai and Chennai.
Mr. Jayakumar Jayaraj added that currently, the company has its major dealership outlets at the heart of the Tirunelveli city which includes the IOC petrol pump, wheel alignment centre, etc.
With almost 90 years of experience in the automotive field and with over 450 people working for it, the company has bagged numerous Awards for its sales and customer service performance from OEMs like Mahindra and Tafe.
Asked about his future plans and diversifications if any, Mr. Jayakumar Jayaraj said: “With the kind of reach we have, we expect to double our turnover every two years once the recession abates and when there is an economic upturn. We are planning to diversify into fields other than automobiles which are more remunerative also. Further to achieve the ambition and dream I am being ably assisted by my two sons Ranjit Zachariah and Ajit Christopher”.