Vijay Fablis is the latest incarnation of a business hotel coming from the stable of experienced hoteliers J.Nagendran and his son N.Shivakumar. P.Janardanan Chettiar, the father of J.Nagendran was a hard working textile merchant who was wedded to his shop Mangala Vilas on R.G.Street. Old timers still recall Janardhanan Chettiar walking from his residence at Raja Street to his shop in the busy market area with clockwork precision.
Vijay Fablis is the latest incarnation of a business hotel coming from the stable of experienced hoteliers J.Nagendran and his son N.Shivakumar. P.Janardanan Chettiar, the father of J.Nagendran was a hard working textile merchant who was wedded to his shop Mangala Vilas on R.G.Street. Old timers still recall Janardhanan Chettiar walking from his residence at Raja Street to his shop in the busy market area with clockwork precision.
Over the years the son, J.Nagendran began his career with Mangalam Jewellery which used to function from R.G.Street before getting placed at Cross Cut Road in Gandhipuram. The dynamic jeweller decided to take a plunge into the hospitality business and the year 1989 witnessed the birth of Vijay Lodge in the Gandhipuram Ramnagar area. It was a time when business travelers used to come over for work and look out for a safe place to stay and they used to eat food in different restaurants based on their work plan. Vijay Lodge became a hit and this motivated J.Nagendran to come up with a business class hotel Vijay Paradise on N.S.R. Road in Sai Baba Colony by the year 2002.
Vijay Paradise was a full fledged hotel with shops, food, bar and facilities for holding banquets. The city was just picking up after a rough patch post the bomb blasts and the business travelers belonging to the middle management of a number of corporates became regular customers. This issue was coupled with the over heating of the economy and high interest rates accompanied by inflation was ruling the roost. The miraculous recovery post 2000 was harvested by entrepreneurs like J.Nagendran who took the risk of investing during a period of uncertainty.
Meanwhile the engineer turner entrepreneur son of J.Nagendran, N.Shivakumar had joined his father and the combined experience of the duo facilitated the evolution of Vijay Lodge into Hotel Vijay in the year 2010. The bar and other facilities were added in order to meet the requirements of an evolving business community.
The seed sown in 1989 in the form of Vijay Lodge grew into a banyan with shoots and the deluxe Vijay Elanza came up in the year 2015. There has been no looking back ever since. "Change is the only constant in the world of business. We should understand that business is global while capital is mobile. Therefore it becomes incumbent upon us to evolve with the changing times by growing with our customers. The customers who were with us grew in finance and stature and hence Vijay Lodge become Hotel Vijay.
Now the next round of business growth has made us rethink our strategy and therefore Hotel Vijay has evolved into the new Vijay Fablis. The facilities in this property are defined for the current needs. We have to change with times and also be more responsible ecologically. Isn't Coimbatore the ecological capital of Tamilnadu. Nowadays we give our guests eco friendly consumables in the rooms. Through our ventures we are now able to cater to all the levels of corporate travellers," smiled Shivakumar while sharing some unique facets concerning Vijay Fablis.
Technology rules the roost today and cost cutting is the byword. Its interesting to learn as to how the energetic Shivakumar has traversed either in this project. "We have 10 inch spring mattresses, smart televisions, an in room beverage making area, digital safe, high speed internet, showers with variable control frequency technology and lights which will make the guest feel that its 7:30 AM.
The shade of the light adheres to the the global reading light standards. One will never get the eyes strained while pulling back work to the room. We are also offering a 15 minute service guarantee as a USP. Any food or service has to be done with in 15 minutes and if it does not happen within the time frame its on the house (free of cost). The young business traveler will fall in love with the facilities for they are in line with higher end hotels.
The restobar Showers i bar with its comfortably large capacity will be an added incentive to hold after office conversations. Today people are ready to spend but want to realise much more than the amount spent. We have borne all this in mind and done our work based on experience and market surveys," added an energetic Shiva.
INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) had listed the brick making and basket weaving as the specialities of Coimbatore and it was good to learn that Vijay Fablis had been built by using VIDYA bricks, the best that was present in the market about 30 years ago. Shiva was ebullient while sharing some details concerning the hospitality industry. "Nowadays we work on revpar - total revenue divided by the total number of room keys.
We have to maximise Contribution. Earlier construction quality, infrastructure etc., were important and people did not mind waiting for service if we maintained quality but nowadays time is big factor for business is done at the speed of thought. Therefore service is one more important facet of the hospitality industry if we view it like a brilliantly cut diamond. The jeweller, engineer, hotelier background of Shivakumar is sure to add brilliant facets to the hospitality sector in Coimbatore in the times to come.