Making it against the odds; the Trivitron way

"I was just earning Rs 2000 as salary in 1988, so failure didn’t bother me at all. If you have passion and combine it with hard work and dedication, someday you will succeed. That is the philosophy in which I started my ventures”, remarks GSK Velu founder and CMD of Trivitron Healthcare, the largest integrated medical technology company in India. Featured on CNBC-TV18’s “Luxury of Poverty: Winning Against All Odds”, Velu’s story is one of perseverance, risk and eventual success, a common theme in the storyline of the show.

Born into lower-middle class family in rural Tamil Nadu, Velu did not have it easy. Despite scoring 97.5% marks in qualifying subjects, he failed to get into a Medical School in 1984. So he opted for next best option; he graduated in B.Pharma from BITS Pilani in 1988 and landed a job with IMI, firm distributing medical equipment. Within a few years of working at IMI, his employer offered him a partnership in the group firm Allied Healthcare in 1990. But things did not go as planned. Instead, he decided to work as a Regional head with Chiron Diagnostics in 1992 providing the spark to Velu’s entrepreneurial ambition. From the next five years, Velu travelled the globe and extensively in South east Asia and China. The international exposure helped Velu get a grasp on the market and provided him with the much-needed experience and confidence, all of which culminated into founding Trivitron Healthcare in 1997.

But, three years later he ran into a problem with his JV partner and it temporarily brought Trivitron to a halt. But Velu was no quitter.  He scouted for new opportunities and relaunched Trivitron by roping in a relatively unknown international brand. Soon he made his mark. From 1999 to 2009, Trivitron, then a predominantly distribution company had a dream run. Since the Indian economy opened up and the healthcare/medical industry was growing, major conglomerates were looking to tie up with Indian distributors and Trivitron managed to grab large distribution contracts with major healthcare companies like Boston Scientific, Hamilton, Fresenius and more. And it wasn’t just foreign tie-ups. Back home, Velu forged a crucial partnership with the industry veteran, Dr Pratap C. Reddy, who invited Velu to be a partner for Apollo White Dental Clinics & Apollo Dialysis Clinics in 2011.

However, being just a distribution company would not cut it for Velu and realised the future of the company would have to lean on innovation. According to Velu, “To survive we have to become our own innovator and manufacturer. This forced us to change the charter of the entire company. We began this process from 2008 and by 2010 we put out our first factory. Now we have nine factories in five cities in three countries to become a full-fledged innovator and manufacturer.”

Trivitron’s multi-pronged strategy of leveraging local innovations, embracing frugal engineering, partnering with MNCs and managing strategic acquisitions have yielded rich dividends. The company’s turnover has grown more than threefold from Rs 200 crores in 2010 to Rs 650 crores in 2016, while its operating profit has shot up almost five-fold from Rs 16 crores to Rs 78 crores during the same period.

Today, Trivitron is a force to be reckoned with in the medical technology space. To watch the journey of GSK Velu and the evolution of Trivitron Technologies, tune into Luxury of Poverty: Winning Against All Odds only on CNBC-TV18 on May 7th, at 6.30 pm.