Manohar D Chatlani
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MD
Soch Apparels -
Manohar D Chatlani (Manu) is the man behind the revolution of the ethnic fast fashion category in the retail market in India. Manohar Chatlani is the founder and MD of Soch.
He started his career with ‘Favourite Shop’ an iconic shop in Commercial Street, Bangalore which was established in 1950 by his Father and Uncle.
Manohar Chatlani comes from a family with retail background and has been a retail enthusiast all his life. With immense passion for retail and experience of more than 50 years in retail sector, business development, leadership roles, Manohar brings strong commercial experience and in-depth knowledge of the Indian retail market. His sons Vinay & Sandeep joined the business in 2003 & 2006 and the family started the first Soch store in 2005. The 2 nd & 3 rd stores were stared in 2008 & 2009. Since then Soch has grown to a Nationwide chain with 160 stores
Apart from being an avid retailer, Manohar Chatlani is a man of many firsts– he was the first to have a Department Store in Bangalore catering to the full family, first to have Half Price Sales where customers queued up to get into the store and first to manufacture Fibre Glass Mannequins in India.
Manohar Chatlani is not only a businessman but also spends a great deal of his personal time doing philanthropic work, sponsoring over 100 lifesaving heart surgeries a month for the poor and needy through 'Have A Heart Foundation'. Till date, the Foundation has supported 15,000 such heart surgeries with a sponsorship of above 45 crores in the last seventeen years. Not only is he fervent about his business of retail and manufacturing, he always believes in extending a helping hand or a compassionate word.
His current passion is ROP (Retinopathy of Prematurity). This is a problem which affects the vision of premature babies and some of them will go blind for life. He is trying to prevent this from happening to as many as he can.
He was a Director in Narayana Hrudayalaya for 5 years and Dr. Devi Shetty (who is his idol) supported HAH by extending huge discounts for the patients sponsored by HAH. HAH has influenced other likeminded organizations in Mumbai, Ludhiana, Kolkata & Cayman Islands to follow the same model and do similar works
His hobbies include listening to old Hindi songs and spends quite a lot of his time devoted in social work. Manohar works with a vision of firmly establishing the brand – ‘Soch’ as one of the preferred choice of women ethnic wear for Indian consumers.
Today with their retail and garment manufacturing business employing over 1300 employees, Manohar Chatlani is a retail legend to track.
