Born in the year 1963, in a Nagarathaar Family, he is the eldest Son of Late Shri PLK Kuppan Chettiar and late Muthathaal Aachi. Graduated in the field of Bachelor of Commerce & Economics from Coimbatore in the year 1983 and till date has successfully carried on the Business Empire of Rathna Group of Concerns, Tamil Nadu, thereby helping in increasing the Group Business to higher levels. Married to wife Chithra, is blessed with three Daughters and a Son.
Forayed in to the Business at an early age of 19 during his under graduation days and started to work meticulously in building the Empire. Apart from the traditional business of Financing, his initial working was with the Pharmaceutical Industry, where under banyan tree of RATHNA he created various concerns. Thereafter as part of diversification he ventured into various activities and is currently very well known in the Pharmaceutical Distribution, Consumer Electronics and Hotel Industry of Tamil Nadu. He was the chairman of International Business Conference of Nagarathaars (IBCN) 2015, held at Coimbatore during July 2015 to reignite the passion of Entrepreneurship among Nagarathars, wherein 600 Nagarathars from all over the globe attended and benefited largely. He is the Chairman of IBCN and also holds the Post of Vicepresident of Consumers Protective Council and is a Rotarian. He was the President of the Coimbatore District Pharmaceutical Distributors Association in the past for twelve years continuously. About 1200 people work for the group directly. Till 1975 parent business was Financing and later diversified in the field of Pharmaceuticals. Mr.K.Palaniappan joined the group in 1982 when he was doing his 2 nd Year in B.Com, expanded in Pharma Distribution and became a very big player in Logistics, Partner of many multinational and Indian companies like Novartis, MSD Fulford, Organon, Serdia, Lupin, Alembic, Apex, Wockhardt etc.,
Also expanded to Consumer Electronics in 1983 and became distributor for SONY / LG / HAIER / V-GUARD etc.
Entered in Hospitality (Hotels) industry in 2002 and own five hotels of three star category in Trichy, Madurai, Coimbatore and Salem. Shortly at Erode.
The Group self-owns all its business premises in Tamil Nadu and has a ready infrastructure setup like self-owned vehicles, Warehouse facilities at all its selling offices Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Salem, Trichy and Erode. The Group has an extensive sales team that has thorough knowledge of different places in Tamil Nadu. These professionally trained managers have hands on experience in SAP packages, on-line communications involving satellite technology and equipped with latest GMP & GWP warehousing standards. Mr. K.Palaniappan and his family members, who are well known in the Medical fraternity, currently manage RATHNA activities. RATHNA is heading for a group turnover of 1000 Crores this year and would venture into Hospitality business in the international arena shortly.
