Mr. N. M. Pillai laid the foundation of Pilai Group by starting a modest opration in 1974 with two lathe machines. His decade of experience as a QA Engineer at Ruston & Hornsbey (I) Ltd helped him secure a major client - Mahindra and Mahindra, supplying 5000 transmission components per month. A softspoken but outstanding businessman who had to learn the local language to be able to do busines in Kolhapur, he soon beacme known as a management guru. His debut venture was soon followed by a Cupola Furnace (Grey Cast Iron) and a Machine Shop in 1980 with a capacity of manufacturing 100 tons per month of machined castings. When quality became paramount in manufactured components, he upgraded his operations by adding Induction Furnaces and advanced machine shops. He expanded his customer base beyond India , into Italy, Hungary and other parts of Europe. His marketing tool has been his word, something he is respected for in the Foundry comunity in India. After 30 years in the business, he decided to give back to the foundry community.

As the Technical director , Anu Kumar specializes in setting up the entire process of manufacturing auto and tractor castings which can directly go online into the OEM vechicle assembly plant. Understanding the customer requirement (metallurgical & geometrical ) has been of prime focus to setup the process. He has been working in the foundry and machine shop to increase the productivity and ROI. As a MechanicalEngineer, he has a strong drive to establish process within 6 sigma limits and to work on a competitive pricing for the customer. CNC which helped him to grab the global opportunity by starting exports in the company. Anu Kumar graduated in Mechanical Engineering in 1992 following which he worked as a project engineer in Malaysia for 2 yrs. He returned to India and pursued his MBA degree .