By K.C. Vijayan

IT BEGAN 80 years ago as a small shop in Little India which quickly became a household name and swelled into a million-dollar business.

But the PGP sundry shop that started it all closed down years ago and now, the last of the Pillai firms is shutting down after lying dormant for more than 10 years.

Having not filed its annual accounts with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority for more than six years, P. Govindasamy Pillai & Sons (1979) will become defunct in September if no objections are raised by then.

The firm was started in 1979 by Mr P. Ramachandhran, the eldest son of late patriarch P. Govindasamy Pillai.

P. Govindasamy Pillai & Sons (1979), which dealt in oil trades and wholesale commodities, is the last of nine firms bearing the founder's name to be dissolved, bought over by another company, or terminated over the last 30 years.

Mr Ramachandhran, 78, has since retired and returned to India.

He was a leading figure in the business and social community here in the 1970s and 1980s, said Mr George Abraham, who worked with him in the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

At age 34, Mr Ramachandhran became its youngest president ever in 1966.

Among other things, Mr Ramachandhran was also the youngest member of Singapore's first Board of Commissioners of Currency in 1967, which issued independent Singapore's first dollar bills.

His father, Mr Pillai, better known as PGP, came to Singapore in 1905 with only 13 rupees in his pockets. But by 1929, Mr Pillai managed to buy over a sundry shop at No. 50 Serangoon Road with $2,000.

It quickly made a name for itself for its spices, sundry goods and provisions. As it expanded, it added textiles and saris to its products.

By the time Mr Pillai died in 1980 at the age of 93, the shop had become a multimillion-dollar enterprise. But his death led to his three sons splitting the family business.

The flagship store was entrusted to his youngest son, Mr Govindasamy Thanabalan, but he died unexpectedly in 1992. The rot gradually set in and by 1999, the PGP shop had chalked up some $8 million in debt and was forced to shut down by creditors.

Mr Pillai's second son Govindasamy Ramakrishnan, who once helped manage the family's textile stores, subsequently left to venture on his own.

Nearing 70, he currently commutes between Madras and Singapore.

Mr Ramachandhran worked closely with his father and is widely credited with boosting the family's profits in the earlier years. But his firm P. Govindasamy Pillai & Sons (1979) is understood to have run into difficulties over external trade deals that soured and he packed off to India more than a decade ago after settling all dues.

Mr Rajakumar Chandra, chairman of the Little India Shopkeepers and Heritage Association, said the firm's closure is a 'sad end to an iconic story that needs to be told. Ramachandhran was a wonderful, helpful man and was so respected that his picture used to be placed in stores here.'

Long-time associate and senior lawyer M. Rajaram said the rise and fall of the PGP family business, which did not thrive beyond the second generation, deserved study for the lessons proferred.

'He (Ramachandhran) was a larger-than-life figure who has gone off quietly to India.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times.