Decades back when lingerie was an alien concept and women were unaware of the reasons and necessities of wearing a blouse underneath their saris, Shri M.G Naidu decoded the art of stitching garments that the women can stylishly wear along with their saris. He not only stitched the first bra but actually educated the women to understand the importance of the same and taught the effectiveness to finally become an everyday name for women of every generation in Chennai.
Possibilities are always born under limitations. Small restricted spaces and a motivation to break every boundary to strive ahead worked wonders for Shri M.G Naidu. The man who founded Naidu Hall, began his journey with a single sewing machine in the corridor of his rental residence. More than a humble beginning, it was his dedication and foresight that made him shine high and bring about a change, that was certainly not short of any revolution, who’s strain is a living entity even today.
Simplicity is one word that best defines the Naidu family. Promoters of the well known store in Chennai – Naidu Hall. Shri M.G. Naidu started Naidu Hall in 1939 as a blouse-tailoring unit in a garage. Once he built up a steady clientele, he moved to Pondy Bazaar and added ladies underclothing to his merchandise. Initially it was not an easy affair to sell to the ladies, who hardly stepped out of their homes. He did a lot of door-to-door selling too to establish his clientele.
For a while, this remained their main business until they decided to add salwar, saris and Western wear so that they would have wider appeal. the family has remained stuck to its core value of remaining humble in spite of having a strong patronage from its loyal customer base over more than seven decades.
Shri M.G Naidu’s rejuvenating designs and patterns of brassieres, proactive thinking and unique marketing strategy helped him to establish ‘Naidu Hall’ a common name among the women. Following his footsteps and his valuable inputs and ability to diversify the products, Naidu Hall remains at the top of this business.
Inception
What began in 1939 from a humble 500 sq ft space is today a 50, 000 sq ft store. Passed on from Shri M.G.. Naidu to his son Mr. Venugopal owns the Naidu Hall family store today. In the beginning M G Naidu worked in Chettiyar Hall, where Chettiyar community did business. looking at their way of work and art of doing business, he began his own venture and named the same as Naidu Hall. Which was also initially known as M G Naidu Hall.
Naidu Hall the multi brand garment retailer today has undergone several layers of expansion to finally attribute to a retail network of 16 Retail stores and with more than 2000 dealers spread across Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. Naidu Hall also exclusively manufactures and sells their own lingerie collection under their own banner both online on their website exclusively and at the retail outlets too.
A large scale manufacturing facility for Naidu Hall was established in Ambur at a nearby village known as Pallitheru. Shri M.G Naidu’s wife Smt. G. Jayalakshmi hailed from the above village. Initially this was the very first factory in the area and contributed to a fair share of the reform that was brought through it in the area. The village with an agriculture background took to manufacturing leather goods initially in the factory set up, which was eventually worked out as a space for the manufacturing of garments and lingerie.
Being the pioneer
The dynasty called Naidu Hall was started 77 years back, but the seed for the same was borne much before, when in his teen Shri M.G Naidu decided to break free from the clutches of just doing something, to be able to do something big, to work for a greater change. He started off from Bangalore where he had begun tailoring with a gold ring, gifted to him by the tailoring shop owner and set off to Chennai. It was here that he started sewing blouses for ladies, in a garage. The path was surprisingly very new and what was an even more astounding aspect is that women during those times were not used to wearing blouses.
Breaking away from this shortcoming, M.G Naidu devised a plan and hired sales girls to visit the ladies of the town and educate them about blouses and bras. The women of Naidu Hall used to go door to door to explain and throw light on the benefits and the effectiveness of bra. Gaining popularity with the same was a tough affair, yet the same was achieved in no time. And the epic popularity of the brand bears evidence in Naidu Hall being a household name today.
Carrying the baton ahead
Walking ahead with the legacy of Naidu Hall, Mr. Venugopal clearly admits that his father was a visionary and the path he laid nearly eight decades back is that of perfection and the same has been perfected so meticulously, that walking ahead with the same has never been a challenge for the family and Mr. Venugopal. He is content with the popularity of Naidu Hall and wants to extend the brand further to accommodate new born clothing and to spread to other parts of the country too.
Apart from redefining the line of business with advanced manufacturing facilities and extensive retail outlets, Naidu Hall has also always had the vision to improve and uplift the society by specially paying attention to the prevailing problems of the society. Empowerment of women is one such ideal that has always been on the radar for the family and Mr. Venugopal specially looked into the cause by employing women from the nearby villages at the manufacturing unit. Today Naidu Hall has 98% women employees and not only are they trained to perform their specialised functions but are also everyday picked and dropped to and from work.
Special buses ferry the womenfolk everyday, they are trained specifically so that they are able to utilise their skills to add value to everything they do. What began as a decent start today is a facility housed in two separate two buildings, with the stitching unit alone spreading over 30,000 sq ft. Apart from that the brand as a part of its CSR activity operates a heart foundation in Chennai for children.
Naidu Hall today is the preferred destination for garments and lingerie and being true to its family name and promise the same houses products all along the category shelf, that includes basic, medium and premium category brands and products. Naidu Hall also houses their own brands, Intimacy in women’s lingerie segment, NH series shirts, jeans and trousers etc Enhance, the premium menswear range and Shreya for saris capitaloh-baby for infants, the brainchild of late Shri Navin Venugopal (Son of Shri G Venugopal). Counting on affordability and customer loyalty Naidu Hall today is a kingdom in its own right.
