Eastern group chairman M E Meeran passes away

KOCHI: M E Meeran, 71, chairman of Eastern Group, passed away on Thursday at Adimaly.   Meeran’s single-handed efforts developed the  ‘Eastern’ group,  launched in 1983,  to a major brand  which  now has a market share of around  70 percent from the just one  percent share at the time of launch. The burial was held at Adimaly on Thursday evening.   Born at Nellimattom near Kothamangalam in 1941, Meeran did his schooling at St Johns School, Nellimattom. Meeran ventured into business at the age of 20 with ‘M P Brothers’,  stationery outlet. Soon, he moved to Adimali where he set up a grocery business called Eastern Trading company in 1968. In 1976, he started distribution business and very soon  got noticed by  major local and national brands for which he did distribution work in the entire Idukki district.The distribution business gave him an insight into the logistics and supply chain end of the business.  Meeran, who  continuously engaged in a dialogue with the end-consumers with a larger vision in mind, launched the FMCG brand ‘Eastern Coffee’ in 1983. However, he faced a setback as international coffee prices shot up which badly affected the trend  of coffee drinking. Not disappointed in the failure of his launching product, Meeran soon came up with ‘Eastern Curry Powder’. He also launched  Eastern branded masala. At that time,  99 per cent of  of the curry powder market was unorganised  and curry powder was being sold as loose powder. As part of diversifying the business, he took the initiative to launch Sunidra mattress,  a tyre tread company, gents apparel brand King Richard  and a Eastern mineral water.Meeran is the recipient of the businessman of Kerala award by Business Deepika, outstanding industrialist of Kerala by state small industries Idukki,  MG University Eminent Entrepreneur Award, Best entrepreneur award by the Directorate of Industries and Commerce and the Kerala Government’s KSIDC Award. He is survived by wife Nabeesa Meeran, sons Navas Meeran and Firoz Meeran and daughters  Niza Sakkir and Soya Sajith.