India's Fevicol Man, Balvant Parekh; How a freedom fighter, peon became billion dollar Pidilite Founder

Balvant Parekh was one of the first-generation entrepreneurs of post-independence India, who contributed to strengthening the economic condition after independence.

Today Balvant Parekh's company, which was founded in 1959, has a billion-dollar turnover annually.But Parekh’s initial journey of building the Pidilite Industries was, however, fraught with struggles and hardships.

Today, we learn about the journey of a man who came from a humble background but went on to become the 45th richest Indian according to the Forbes list of 2013.

Balvant Parekh was born in the small town of Mahuva in the Bhavnagar district of Gujarat. As per Gujarati’s trend, Balvant also had a desire to become a businessman but his parents wanted him to study law and become a lawyer. After a lot of family pressure, Balvant Parekh moved to Mumbai to pursue law at Government Law College in Mumbai.

Balvant Parekh studied at Government Law College in Mumbai. It was the time when almost the entire country was coloured in the thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi. As many from the young generation took part in the Quit India Movement, Balvant Parekh also jumped into the movement, leaving his studies midway.

After staying in his hometown in Gujarat and participating in different social activities for India's independence, he later went back to Mumbai to complete his education.

Balvant Parekh's father wanted him to become a legal expert like his grandfather. But it wasn’t something he aspired to do in life. His mind was stuck in making it big in the city of dreams – Mumbai.

He was not a business student and neither did he have any family backing, but he attracted wealth through his hard work and built a larger-than-life brand. Despite completing his degree in law and clearing the bar council exams, the bundle of lies that came with the profession made him very uncomfortable and he quit despite his family’s resistance.

Without having any jobs in hand Balvant was married to Kantaben, and soon was facing a financial burden. So in order to make a living in Mumbai he initially worked at a dyeing and printing press, and later joined a wood trader’s office as a peon.

Parekh got his first major break while working for a firm that represented Hoechst in India. Later, in 1954, he finally set up shop with Parekh Dyechem Industries in Mumbai’s Jacob Circle. Here Balvant Parekh started manufacturing pigment emulsions used for textile printing, along with his brother Sushil Parekh.

Pidilite was born later, in 1959, as an industrial chemicals company, as adhesives were sold unbranded at the time. Since then Fevicol has become synonymous with glue and Indian carpenters swear by it. Started with just one small shop and manufacturing a single product, Fevicol Pidilite Industries soon tasted success in the Indian market when Fevicol successfully built a monopoly in the adhesive space.