Due to the product’s significant market share over the years, the name Fevicol has practically grown to be synonymous with the Indian glue or adhesive sector. Fevicol has long been regarded as one of the most reliable adhesives in the Indian market, used in everything from stores to factories to homes. But the background of the top brand’s founding, led by its chairman and creator Balvant Parekh, is still little recognized.
The business owner, a first-generation immigrant, surmounted many obstacles to create a thriving enterprise with a million dollars in yearly sales that is now a cult favorite. It may surprise you to learn that the chairman of Fevicol was once employed as a peon.
By birth, Balvant Parekh was a Jain. While still in school, he was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s Quit India cause and left to join the freedom cause. He was involved in a variety of movements at the time, and after finishing his studies in Mumbai, he returned after actively taking part in a number of social initiatives.
He worked at a printing and dyeing press after graduating from Government Law College in Mumbai with a law degree. He got married and started working as a peon at a forestry firm after receiving his law degree. He used to live in the wood trader’s warehouse with his wife, where he worked.
Balvant made the decision to start his own company and, with the aid of an investor, began importing cycle, areca nut, and paper colors from the West. Balvant, his wife, kid, and brother Sushil moved into an apartment in Sion, Mumbai, when he opened his company. He began working at Parekh Dychem Industries in Mumbai in 1954, when he and his brother Sushil Parekh began creating pigment emulsions for textile printing.
Balwant Parekh eventually established Pidilite in 1959, whose most well-known item was (and is still) the glue Fevicol. A market revolution was almost sparked by fevicol. Fevicol, which is today offered in 54 countries, was first used by carpenters, engineers, craftsmen, company owners, and even common individuals. According to a DNA research, Pidilite Industries’ market worth is presently estimated to be about Rs 1.24 trillion.
Parekh was a voracious reader and book aficionado. He was passionate in literature, science, law, general semantics, medicine, and psychology, as shown by his personal library. He received the renowned J Talbot Winchell Award from The Institute of General Semantics in Texas on October 28, 2011, being the first Asian to do so. On January 25, 2013, he died away, leaving a significant legacy.
