Chelpark Company History
I found the following history of Chelpark company in a website. Hope you will find it interesting.
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CHELPARK COMPANY PVT LTD.
The Parker Pen Company, manufacturers of ink, was in partnership with a company in south India by the name of TTK. But Parker wanted to find a new partner in India, as they did not wish to continue their association with TTK.
That's when Mr. Byford the main advisor to the Parker family approached the Chellaram family to become their partners for India. Mr. Byford and the Chellaram family had an old association, as the Chellaram family were large buyers of Parker products for trade in the west African region.
The Chellaram family discussed with Mr. Byford that they were willing to buy the majority of shares of the Parker operation in India but on a condition. The condition being that the Chellaram family would not be involved in the day to day running and administration of the company. And only Parker would run the entire operations. Parker agreed to this condition laid down by the Chellaram family and they both officially joined hands for the India operations.
After giving it some thought it was decided that "Quink" had to be given an Indian identity for it to appeal to the Indian consumer. This is when the brand name Chelpark came into being signifying the Chellaram and Parker. This change in name was backed by an advertising campaign in which showed the peeling off of the Parker sticker and a new sticker that read "Chelpark" on it appearing. This ad campaign was an instant hit and that was the birth of this famous company called Chelpark.
The first official name of the company after the Chellaram family bought the majority shares was Chelpark Company Limited. Which was changed in 1985 to Chelpark Company Private Limited. And the head office was shifted from Madras (now known as Chennai), Tamilnadu to Bangalore, Karnataka.
This long standing partnership of the two business families came to an end around 1968/69 due to the changes in the Indian finance ministry policies. It was not profitable for Parker to continue its operations in India and therefore decided to sell off their entire shareholdings. This is when Chelpark which was initially only known for its fountain pen ink started diversifying into other office stationary products and today it has become a household name in India with its wide product range.
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Originally Posted by Ernst Bitterman
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