Section 36
Karsanbhai Patel
Nirma · Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Started withMade washing powder at home and sold it door to door at ₹3.50 a kg
BuiltNirma, a group with annual turnover of over ₹7,100 crore and more than 8,000 employees
- ₹3.50 per kg
- Price of the first Nirma powder · 1969
- Over ₹7,100 crore
- Annual turnover · 2026
- 8,000+
- Employees · 2026
The story
In 1969 Karsanbhai Patel, a chemist, made his first batch of phosphate-free washing powder in a house in Ahmedabad. He sold it door to door himself and gave a money-back guarantee with every pack.
His big idea was price. He cut the cost of making the powder so much that he could sell it at ₹3.50 a kg, when even the cheapest powder in the market cost about ten rupees more. He named it Nirma, after his daughter Nirupama, and aimed it at middle and lower income families.
Nirma Ltd was set up as a company in 1980. It later grew into soda ash, salt, chemicals and other products, and bought Searles Valley Minerals in the USA in 2007. The company says its annual turnover is over ₹7,100 crore.
Timeline
- 1969Makes and sells the first washing powder from a house in Ahmedabad.
- 1980Nirma Ltd is established on 25 February with a plant at Trikampura, Gujarat.
- 1997Sets up soda ash and salt works at Kalatalav, Gujarat.
- 2005Acquires Saurashtra Chemicals, Porbandar.
- 2007Acquires Searles Valley Minerals in the USA.