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Sambhar Mafia - Cooked To Kill!

Monday, April 10, 2006

FMCG's Fast Mover

C K Ranganathan, CEO of CavinKare is somebody who changed the rules of the FMCG game. Rags-to-riches might be an overused term, but it would be the right way to describe C K Ranganathan. He is widely regarded as the man behind the sachet revolution. The FMCG business is becoming increasingly complicated with the biggie HLL competing with regional players in various parts of India. HLL battles it out with CavinKare in most of the Southern markets. CavinKare has registered tremendous growth and has ambitious plans to expand its product portfolio. CavinKare acquired Ruchi Food Products (known more for their pickles!) about two years ago and is currently making a foray into international markets. Sushila Ravindranath of New Sunday Express caught up with C K Ranganathan recently:

He would never admit to it, but his company was obviously cocking a snook at Lever when it changed its name from Beauty Cosmetics to CavinKare ( CK).

The folks at Calvin Klein, a Unilever brand, were surely not amused. In an earlier interview Ranganathan has said the similarity to the original CK was coincidental though not entirely unwelcome. Says he: “It is a tribute to my father Chinni Krishnan. Also, Cavin in ancient Tamil means beauty and grace. Actually we had a contest in the organisation for new names. The winner came up with this.”

Snippet: Just about a year ago, I happened to see CK Ranganathan at the Lifestyle outlet in Chennai. Lifestyle was running a sale and CKR had come with his family for some good bargains. Although there was quite a bit of crowd, nobody really noticed that a CEO of a Rs. 500 crore company was in their midst.

posted by Kaps at 12:42 AM

6 Comments:

  • an old post on CKR, from my blog archives.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:34 AM  

  • Perhaps, the name Cavin Kare sounded more westernized. Hence, they decided on that name.:)

    By Blogger Indian Blogger, at 3:15 AM  

  • CKR looks very young..

    May be using his own company products... see his hair. :-) :-)

    By Blogger Ram C, at 9:56 AM  

  • Kaps, good post.

    I happened to listen to CKR when he came to ISB campus in 2004. CKR has great learnability. He demonstrated his ability to articulate and this, he said, was purely acquired over a period of time. Though it was an hour long session, I learnt a lot. He is a role model for wannabe entreprenuers.

    Ram, good point there. :)

    CS

    By Blogger Chaitanya Sagar, at 12:44 AM  

  • I actually heard that 'Cavin Kare' is a transformation of 'Kaviyin Kar' which means 'The Poet's Great Tresses'

    By Blogger Unknown, at 12:50 PM  

  • @Prakash,
    Thanks for the link, will check it out

    @Indian Blogger,
    It is quite trendy

    @Ram,
    :-)

    @CS,
    he is quite humble and doesn't boast about his success....he would be a good role model for budding entrepreneurs.

    @Jayan,
    that news to me.

    By Blogger Kaps, at 1:49 AM  

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