Coimbatore Economy

With more than 25,000 small, medium and large industries, the city's primary industries are engineering and textiles. Coimbatore is called the "Manchester of South India" due to its extensive textile industry, fed by the surrounding cotton fields. The district also houses the country's largest amount of hosiery and poultry industries[citation needed]. The city has two special economic zones (SEZ), the Coimbatore Hi-Tech Infrastructure (CHIL) SEZ and the Coimbatore TIDEL park, and at least five more SEZs are in the pipeline. As of 2005, when Tirupur was a part of Coimbatore district, Coimbatore was the highest revenue earning district in Tamil Nadu. In 2010, Coimbatore ranked 15th in the list of most competitive (by business environment) Indian cities.

Early industrial developments

Sir Robert Stanes.When the British occupied Coimbatore, the territory connected the Malabar ports with the rest of India (apart from Konkan coast). The British later expanded their railway network in 1862, passing through Podanur to Cochin for quicker transit of raw materials required in England.

Sir Robert Stanes and Textile industry

In 1888, Sir Robert Stanes founded the Coimbatore Spinning and Weaving Mills (also known as Stanes Mills) in the northern edge of the town after starting a coffee curing factory in Trichy road thus kick starting the industrial journey of Coimbatore. The Stanes textile mill he started is the forerunner to the huge textile industry of world repute which Coimbatore has today. Sir Robert Stanes would later assist several others in setting up their ventures. He was to be awarded the Kaiser-I-Hind gold medal for services to Coimbatore and to education and was subsequently knighted in 1920 for his high sense of honour. Two more mills (Kalleeswara and Somasundra mills) were established in 1910. Lakshmi Mills Company commenced their operations in 1911 in Papanaickenpalayam. By the 1930s, several textile mills had been established around Coimbatore due to the cheap power offered by the Pykara power station.

Samikannu Vincent

Swamikannu Vincent introduced Cinema to South Indian massesIn 1917, Swamikannu Vincent, a railway engineer, built the first cinema in South India, the "Variety Hall" (now Delite Theatres), later building s series of movie theaters around the city and also helped other in setting up. His son Paul Vincent introduced talking motion pictures in South India. Samikannu Vincent also invested two German Diesel Generators for his Movie Theater and then set up first Electric Printing Press and Rice Mill to consume the surplus Electricity generated. Then the British Government permitted Vincent to supply excess power to the Town. Thus Vincent became first to introduce Electricity to Coimbatore. In remembrance of Swamikannu Vincent a Road in the City was named as Vincent Road.

Beginnings of Engineering industry

In 1922, Narayanaswamy Naidu started a workshop to repair cane crushers and cotton ginning machines. Two years later, he established the Dhandayuthapani Foundry to manufacture Agricultural Pumps and Motors. Around the same time, G.D.Naidu started his unique bus service. He is also credited for manufacturing the first electric motor in India.Apart from that he started a series of Engineering companies and Industrial training institute. In 1931, Pollachi Nachimuthu Gounder stated his transport business which grew into a multi-crore industrial and trading house. In the 1940s, a Sheffield University graduate, D. Balasundaram Naidu from Avarampalayam in Coimbatore, started his company Textool to manufacture textile machines of his design.Textool in 50's & 60's was one of the largest companis in South India that designed and manufactures indegenous Machines and industrial products. In 1965 another Textile family of VLB Naidu group set up Mopeds India Ltd after a technical collaboration with Motobécane of France to manufacture their legendary Motobécane Mobylette 50 cc moped under the name Suvega, but, only the central office was in Coimbatore while the plant was set up in Tirupathi.

Coimbatore was also a major movie hub in 1930s and 1940s with two fully equipped studios, Central Studios and Pakshiraja Studios. Many latter-day Tamil movie stars started or spent their early part of their career in these studios.