Late Seth Motilal Sanghi |
The M. K. Sanghi Group had an extremely humble beginning. In the early 1920s, a young man from Jodhpur, Motilal Sanghi, decided to start a general merchandise shop after taking a loan of five thousand rupees. Driven by enthusiasm and a burning desire to be successful, he soon became the largest retailer in the state of Jodhpur and figured that if he could sell food and garments, he could also sell cars.
It was the British Raj era and the only buyers of cars were the Maharajas and the Princes of the Royal States. Motilal not only established strong personal relations with these potential buyers but also obtained dealerships from General Motors, USA and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, England. He also began to sell a new car produced by Sir Herbert Austin in England called the Austin Seven.
By the 1940s, Seth Motilal Sanghi (as he had come to be known by then) had established a vast network for the sales, service and spare parts of cars. His network was spread over Jodhpur, Jaipur, Udaipur, Kota, Ajmer, Bikaner, Mount Abu, Indore and Delhi.
Motilal Sanghi with one of the first Mercedes-Benz imports into India |
Mahendra Sanghi in 1962 with the Hindustan Ambassador Mark II |
Seth Motilal Sanghi also diversified into the nascent cinema business and was soon operating over ten movie theatres in North India. The aim was to use the cinema business as the bedrock for profitable real estate investments. During his lifetime, Motilal Sanghi also ventured into manufacturing industrial gases by setting up one of the first oxygen gas plants in Jaipur.
The Hughes Road showroom in the 1950s
Shown here selling Chevrolet cars |
In 1952, the Government of India asked all car manufacturers who did not have plans to manufacture cars in India to shut their operations. This resulted in the exit of auto manufacturers such as General Motors from India. Motilal had to virtually restart his operations and take on dealerships of the new Indian vehicle manufacturers such as Tata Motors (then known as Telco), Hindustan Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra.
Over the years several celebrities have taken their cars through Vitesse & the MK Sanghi Group |