'Birla Haveli' is where it all began, A journey of one of Asia's richest business families.
The Birla's The business empire was started by a small cotton trader, Shiv Narayan Birla way back in 1860's Now the Birla Group has transformed into multiple companies located in over 35 countries, and together has more employees than multinational companies like Apple, Johnson and Johnson or Airbus Let's take a Journey across the world and see the massive business empire of Birla family's biggest company the Aditya Birla group.
We will start our journey from North America In Canada, the group owns pulp mills in Ontario and New Brunswick. In New Brunswick the Birla group is also the largest employer of the region. Aditya Birla group is also world's biggest manufacturer of Carbon Black, a material used in tires and inks. And owns Carbon Black manufacturing plants located in Ontario, Canada and in US they own manufacturing units in Kansas, Louisiana and a technology centre in Georgia The group owns aluminium rolling company Novelis located in Atlanta, Georgia And operates one of the world’s largest aluminium can recycling plant in Kentucky and also operates another plant in West Virginia Aditya Birla group has also recently purchased Ohio based aluminium company Aleris for $2.6 Billion, that operates 9 manufacturing plants all around America.
Now Aditya Birla group has become World's second largest aluminium company and employees over 12,000 people just in North America, two times more than how many people Johnson & Johnson employs in India Now let’s travel to South America and reach
the football crazy nation, Brazil Here Birla's own carbon manufacturing plant in Bahia and São Paulo.
They also own aluminium plants in Utinga and a large integrated recycling facility in São Paulo. From South America lets travel to Africa Birla Group operates a Carbon Black manufacturing plant in Alexandria, Egypt And in Cameroon the Company plans to jointly
build a $6 billion bauxite mining and refinery project.
Moving to Europe we will travel to the land of the midnight sun, Sweden ,here Aditya Birla group owns a massive bio-refinery factory It also operates Carbon Black manufacturing plants in Spain, Italy and Hungary The group also operates aluminium factories in U.K, Germany and Belgium After visiting four continents we will reach Asia and will land in the picturesque Philippines Here the group owns the largest textile mill of Philippines and also operates a chemicals factory located south of Manila Moving to Thailand, the group owns Thai Acrylic Fiber the world's 5th largest acrylic fiber manufacturer and a listed company Thai Rayon Moreover in Thailand, the group also owns 5 chemical manufacturing factories and one hydrogen peroxide manufacturing unit Moving ahead, the group owns pulp and plantation interests in Laos, A commodity trading company in Singapore, In Indonesia the group conducts limestone exploration and also operates a textile factory which is world's largest producer of Viscose rayon spun yarn .
Moreover, the Company owns Carbon black factory in Thailand, Korea and China and aluminium plants in Vietnam, Korea and China. As we have reached China, lets travel to city of Jining Here Aditya Birla group recently inaugurated a greenfield Carbon Black plant The group also operates a viscose fiber manufacturing plant in central China And also operates three aluminium plants in the region Moving to UAE the company owns Dubai based Star Cement company, which operates cement plants in UAE, Bahrain and Bangladesh The group also operates limestone mines in UEA Aditya Birla Group also operates a cement company in Sri Lanka Moreover the group's clothing brand Louis Philippe is also gaining popularity in Middle east, Nepal and Sri Lanka .
After our world tour we have finally reached India Here Aditya Birla group jointly owns India's largest and world's second largest mobile telecommunications network Vodafone Idea It also owns UltraTech Cement, the largest manufacturer of cement in India
and also operates India's largest fashion company that sells 3 garments every second. The group owns clothing retail chain Pantaloons and popular brands such as Louis Philippe, Allen Solly, Peter England and operates 4000+ department stores and 2,500 brand outlets across the country The group also own Hindalco, the world's largest aluminium rolling company A mega Greenfield Copper Smelting complex, A 75-MW Windmill Project, India's largest iron ore mining company India's largest private sector fertilizer company The group also operates Chemical plants, digital bank, eCommerce sites, one of the largest mutual fund and insurance company. Moreover, the other members of Birla family own one of India's largest newspaper, Hindustan Times, India's largest ceiling fans and home appliances manufacturing company, Orient Electric. Century Textile, one of the oldest textile mills in India. They also own the famous automobile company Hindustan Motors.Hindustan Motors once was India's largest car manufacturer and used to manufacture oneof highest selling car in India called Ambassador.
Birla family has not only founded massive companies, they have also build various institutions and landmarks that include, Libraries, Planetariums, University, Technology and Science institutes, Research institutes, Textile institutes, 'Birla House' or 'Gandhi
Smriti', and Over 15 temples that include Delhi's landmark Laxminarayan Temple. The family operates 20 hospitals and conducts 5,000 free medical camps every year in rural India. The Birla family also runs over 56 schools and provides free education to over 20,000 children’s every year.
To end it all, I can only say that from this rustic house in a small town the Birla Family has certainly created a massive Business Empire.
