It was the early 1900s. A young Karumuttu Thiagaraja Chettiar returned from Ceylon to his hometown and set up residence in Madurai. He was keen to start a mill, not just to produce local yarn and cloth, but also to offer employment to a labour force that was struggling to find a livelihood.

Karumuttu Thiagaraja Chettiar’s impetus was to produce yarn and fabric of the highest quality, on par with those produced anywhere in the world. The mills he established echoed this impetus. He ensured that the community would be supported and uplifted through generations—by providing fair and just employment, by offering educational opportunities to the young, by improving living environments, and by upholding the institutions that sustained the community’s spiritual rootedness.

Karumuttu Thiagaraja Chettiar went on to found 18 textile mills, a sugar mill, a bank, a newspaper, and several colleges in his lifetime. VTM, reflective of his founding vision, is part of what is now the Thiagarajar Group, comprising industries and educational institutions.