In search of the roots where it all began for Sakthi Tarpaulin Company, one will possibly find himself standing among the final two decades of the previous millennium. With the added responsibility of making the family’s fortunes at one hand and half a dozen failed dreams on the other hand, life seemed miserable for this young man, Sebastian Antony. However, there was no giving up in the agenda. Life had to move on. Expectations had to be met. The spark was already there.
The Polymer industry enjoyed little attention back then. This was mostly because of the nature of the business. Revenues flowed in only during monsoon season and to survive in the remaining ten months, one had to venture into other areas.
Destiny was pre-written by God before everything. Due to a few circumstances and people predestined for it, Mr Sebastian Antony, the young man of our story, fell into the orbit by default- the orbit of Polymer industry.
HDPE tarpaulin and Cotton tarpaulin ruled the markets as Plastic tarpaulins were still unheard during that time. Mr Sebastian Antony started taking orders from small dealers and farmers and continued his method of personal delivery of tarpaulin. This further helped him to understand the market and to distinct other uses with the same product.
In the year 1988, He started a small tarpaulin retail shop in one of the remote villages of South India. The sales were too minimal. One reason that mainly helped in the low returns was the ignorance of customers about the product and its uses.
In 1991, Sakthi Tarpaulin became the dealer of “Silpaulin –Plastic Tarpaulin” a product of the Supreme Industries Private Ltd. and established a unit in Payyannur- a coastal town in the Kannur district of Kerala State. Nearing the millennium, Mr Antony established another unit, which focused in dealing on large orders and unsized products.
The dawn of the millennium year saw the launch of the first retail outlet of Sakthi Tarpaulin Company in Kannur town. Soon they launched another outlet in Manjeri- a place in the Malappuram district of Kerala.
All these years, Sakthi remained just as a dealer of the polymer giant Silpaulin and it is Mr Antony who won the Kerala market for them. This won him the all India number one dealer award consecutively for many years also the Kerala state best entrepreneur award in the ‘Small Scale Business’ category for the year 2000 (awarded in 2004).
By 2005, Mr Antony decided to swim against the tides and realised it was time for him to manufacture his own Plastic Tarpaulin product than to exist lifelong only as a dealer of the Supreme. This invited criticisms from all the ends. As expected, Mr Antony eventually gave up his dealership in his hunger to stand in his own legs.
Starting a manufacturing unit was not easy, as one would imagine. This forward integration required huge capital, skilled labourers, bigger unit in terms of size and other resources. Nevertheless, nothing went above Mr Antony’s will power to overcome the odds and everything quickly fell into place. Very soon, Sakthi Tarpaulin Company launched their two new products in the market. They were instant hits mainly because of the goodwill Sakthi earned in all these years. It remains as a healthy competitor of the giant’s son- Silpaulin itself.
In an act of diversification, Sakthi launched a raincoat-manufacturing unit in 2014. The brand name is ‘Rain Rose’. Sakthi takes pride to also reveal that it owns South India’s biggest plastic reprocessing unit. This unit was also established in 2014 in the name and style of ‘Antos Industries Pvt. Ltd’ and locate itself at Pariyaram.
Sakthi anticipated a bullish trend for polymers in the years to come and is worked hard to launch one of its new models of tarpaulin called ‘MAXPAULIN’ in April 2018, and has found its place in the market.
Sakthi also plans to invest in many other areas on the road ahead.
