About Us

Legacy of Nilgiri's Family Trust

Within every successful entrepreneur lies an unquenchable desire for success, and no one better exemplified this than Muthuswamy Muthaliar. More than a century ago, Muthuswamy Mudaliar left his family profession of weaving for greener pastures and joined the postal department as runner. When an opportunity to takeover a creamery presented itself, he grabbed it and revamped it with imported high quality equipment. Along with two brothers, he began selling cream and then butter. Determined to succeed, he took the cream right to the doors of customers, trekking regularly between the hills of Wellington and Coonoor. A hallmark for quality resulted in his butter becoming so popular that he started getting orders from even the Bangalore Cantonment.

To meet the surge in demand and oversee the supply of butter, he sent his son, Chenniappan to Bangalore in 1939. Chenniappan carried on the legacy started by his father by cycling regularly to Jalahalli and delivering butter to the British soldiers there. He displayed his entrepreneurial flair with the launch of a new coffee cafe - Nilgiris, in Brigade Road that offered dairy products, baked snacks and coffee. The quality of the products was such that it went on to become a household name and soon expanded to include grocery products and more.

In 1971, M. Chenniappan and his brothers introduced the supermarket concept in Bangalore that changed the face of retailing in India forever. To ensure optimum customer satisfaction, the supermarkets were always personally supervised and managed by members of the family.

In the 80s, the Group adopted the concept of Franchising to further expand on this system of retailing; the basic principle being that the owner of the store was at hand to ensure high standards of quality and service.

The Group is currently headed by Mr C. Gopalakrishnan, son of Mr. M Chenniappan, who has over 3 decades of experience in retailing. Mr C. Gopalakrishnan was responsible for successfully setting up and introducing the Franchise Concept to the Nilgiris Group. Under his expert management and guidance, over 50 Franchise outlets were launched.

Service through dedication has been the motivating principle behind our business and we continue this great tradition with innovative retailing concepts.