SPECIAL ISSUE

Veluchamy builds a business empire out of mere $8

In 1995, Veluchamy took the banking industry by storm when he bought Naperville Bancorp. At the time, Naperville Bancorp was a struggling bank with a mere 30 million dollars in assets. Expanding his business horizons even further, Veluchamy subsequently bought out Mutual Bank in 1998. Prior to its takeover, Mutual Bank had only 23 million dollars in assets. In the 2004, Security Bank of DuPage and Mutual Bank merged together creating a more powerful Mutual Bank. Following the trend of the incredible successes of his other businesses, Veluchamy’s Mutual Bank too has grown to become one of the largest minority owned banks with over 1.2 billion dollars in assets.

By J.V. Lakshmana Rao

Chicago: This is an ideal success story of an incredible and truly inspirational son of the Chicago Indian community, Pethinaidu Veluchamy.
He immigrated to the United States in 1967, carrying with him a mere eight dollars. He had grown his fortunes from those eight dollars to a multimillion-dollar business empire, spanning such diverse industries as banking, direct mail advertising, spinning, real estate and a number of other industries.
Pethinaidu was one of the seven children in the Veluchamy family, spending the early years of his life in rural India. Being extremely ambitious and diligent, he worked his way into the University of Madras and earned a Bachelor of Science in degree chemistry. After completing his undergraduate education in India, he moved to the United States for higher education. He studied at Washington University in Seattle to gain another undergraduate degree; this one in chemical engineering. In order to finance his tuition and living expenses, he sold magazines to educators and other professionals, taking a commission for every copy sold. “Success comes from not only opportunity, but also from the willingness to harness that opportunity with hard work and sincerity,” says Veluchamy. Using this money, he successfully graduated from Washington University, moving on to attend graduate school at Oregon State University in rural Corvallis, Oregon, just south of the state capitol in Salem. Against the slightly more rural backdrop of the Coast Range mountains, Veluchamy continued to work for Time Corporation as a salesman, earning his Master’s degree, and subsequently moving to Chicago to work on his PhD.
While working on his PhD, he continued his job of selling magazines for several companies, eventually deciding to drop his work at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and going into the sales business full time. This gave rise to his blossoming entrepreneurial spirit. He realized that he was spending excessive amount of money in mailing subscriptions and brochures to his clients. It was this realization that struck an idea, leading to the foundation of his first business, “Unique Mailing Services.”
Founded in early 1978, Unique Mailing Services was created with the purpose of providing innovative solutions and operational support for direct mail management to advertisers. As Veluchamy’s skill and brilliance took the company into profitability, it grew exponentially. Within the year, the company became one of the largest companies of its kind in the United States. Unique Mailing Services was the first of many Chicago-based businesses founded by Veluchamy as he developed a vertically integrated corporate empire. Later in the year, he founded Unique Data Services, a company intended to provide data support services for University Subscription Ser-vices, the company with which Veluchamy had initially begun his career, selling magazines.
His businesses grew rapidly, providing funding for his 1981 acquisition of Creative Automation, a company that was based out of the Chicagoland area and was on the threshold of bankruptcy. It was also a major competitor to Unique Data Services. Under Veluchamy’s leadership, Creative Automation has grown to become one of Chicago’s largest minority owned direct marketing firms.
As his business grew, Veluchamy noticed a growing demand for promotional material. Companies would come to Unique Mailing Services with questions regarding credit cards, business cards and promotional cards. Recognizing this great opportunity, Veluchamy started Unique Embossing Services (UES) in 1985. This company is yet another successful venture for the Veluchamy business empire. Today, Unique Embossing Services prides itself on providing the best of quality in business cards. With the capacity of 10,000,000 cards per week, UES can meet the tightest mailing schedules while keeping each project financially feasible for both the customer and the company itself, by using some of the latest technology in the direct marketing industry. Unique Embossing Services continues to work in coordination with Unique Mailing Services and University Printing Services in order to print out and deliver cards to their clientele’s customers. The success of Unique Embossing Services is a shining example of the efficiency and smooth production flow within Veluchamy’s vertically integrated group of companies.
A year after founding Unique Embossing Services, Veluchamy founded Versatile Card Technology. The primary purpose of this firm was to manufacture credit cards in order to service Veluchamy’s already existing direct marketing companies. From its initial beginnings in Downers Grove, Illinois, VCT has reached unparallel heights under Veluchamy’s excellent leadership and business skills. Presently, Versatile Card Technology is one of the largest credit card manufacturers in the world. It holds facilities all over the world, ranging from the USA, Mexico and Brazil to countries in Europe and Asia. Today, Unique Embossing and Global Card Services are the largest credit and promotional card embossing firms in the world. Unique Embossing and Global Card both emboss over a staggering 10 million cards every week. Through his entrepreneurial prowess, Veluchami was not only able to succeed in the United States, but was also able to make his mark in the global market.
Always striving for more, Veluchamy started Automated Presort, a firm targeted towards presorting and commingling first and standard class mail. This firm was very unique because, it was the first to use cutting edge technology and machinery known as Multi-line Optical Character Readers to presort mail. Automated Presort has now become the single largest presorting company in the Chicagoland area presorting one million pieces of first and standard class mail.
In 1995, Veluchamy took the banking industry by storm when he bought Naperville Bancorp. At the time, Naperville Bancorp was a struggling bank with a mere 30 million dollars in assets. Expanding his business horizons even further, Veluchamy subsequently bought out Mutual Bank in 1998. Prior to its takeover, Mutual Bank had only 23 million dollars in assets. In the 2004, Security Bank of DuPage and Mutual Bank merged together creating a more powerful Mutual Bank. Following the trend of the incredible successes of his other businesses, Veluchamy’s Mutual Bank too has grown to become one of the largest minority owned banks with over 1.2 billion dollars in assets. Mutual Bank has become the fastest growing company in his enterprises. “Mutual Bank has a great potential for the future; its tremendous growth rate gives it the potential to increase far beyond the bounds of the Chicagoland area and even the United States,” Veluchamy says. In a statement made reflecting his truly great personality, Veluchamy says: “It gives me great pleasure to serve the community and to be able to provide jobs for many well deserved people.”
Veluchamy is currently involved in investments in India and continues to expand his Prameswari Spinning Mills, a company he named after his wife. He strongly holds that India is a place of great potential and has a bright future. Veluchamy also devotes time to philanthropy. He is one of the founders and trustees of the Balaji Temple in Aurora. He spends a lot of time there and hopes to gather more devotees and expand the temple in order to do greater good for the Indian community.
Veluchamy’s story is an inspiration to the young achievers; it is a story of dedication, of the unique combination of intelligence, hard work and an attitude to turn the conceivably unthinkable to reality. It is also the story of benevolence and of creating value in corporate, social and religious worlds.

Veluchamy started Unique Embossing Services (UES) in 1985. This company is yet another successful venture for the Veluchamy business empire. Today, Unique Embossing Services prides itself on providing the best of quality in business cards. With the capacity of 10,000,000 cards per week, UES can meet the tightest mailing schedules while keeping each project financially feasible for both the customer and the company itself, by using some of the latest technology in the direct marketing industry. Unique Embossing Services continues to work in coordination with Unique Mailing Services and University Printing Services in order to print out and deliver cards to their clientele’s customers. The success of Unique Embossing Services is a shining example of the efficiency and smooth production flow within Veluchamy’s vertically integrated group of companies.