Factory exported iconic soap to world

It was World War I that made sandalwood the toast of Kar nataka. Shipping goods, especially sandalwood logs from India, had become a tough task for French, German and English traders. Karnataka's dense forests had an abundance of sandalwood trees and logs were being dumped everywhere, unpicked by the foreign rulers.
The glut came at a time when the sandalwood market was booming.In 1911-12, 2,663 tonnes of sandalwood were sold at Rs 534 per tonne. Alongside a spike in demand, the price almost doubled in 1913-14 with 2,147 tonne sold at Rs 1051 per tonne.
The then rulers of Mysuru state had a problem of plenty on their hand, and that's when they began thinking what exactly the foreigners were using sandalwood for. The result: the Mysore Sandalwood Oil Factory , set up at Mysuru in May 1916 -the only factory in the world to produce soap made of sandalwood oil.
The Mysuru Maharaja appointed an Englishman, Alfred Chatterton, as director of the factory in 1916. He had earlier served as director of industries and commerce. In a 22-page report on the working of the factory, a copy of which is with TOI, Chatterton narrates the progress of the factory in 1917.
Professors Sudborough and Watson from the Applied Chemistry department of the Indian Institute of Science helped Chatterton address various problems connected with the development of the oil distillation unit. Dr Sudborough also visited England and gathered more knowledge on the subject and submitted a report.
“The man behind the soap was SG Sastry , a renowned chemist who was sent to England to learn what can be done with the natural reserve of sandalwood,“ says Nagakrishna Raje Urs, assistant general manager, research and development, KSDL.
In 1918, the Government Soap Factory was established at Cubbon Park, Bengaluru. The factory began producing Mysore Sandal Soap from sandalwood oil obtained from the Mysuru factory .The Cubbon Park factory was shifted to its present site near Rajajinagar in 1954. The founda tion stone was laid by Sir M Visvesvaraya. Since 1954, the company has come up with various products, and achieved a turnover of Rs 332 crore in 2013-14, and Rs 407 crore in 2014-15.
The aroma of sandalwood hangs heavy in the air over the 45-acre campus of the Rajajinagar factory, which has around 500 sandalwood trees.
The iconic Mysore Sandal Soap is a household name and one of the first finished products from India to be exported abroad.“It's the only soap in the world that contains natural sandalwood oil. This is one product that is driving sales worldwide,“ says MV Sheshadri, deputy general manager, KSDL, who has been working with the soap manufacturing unit for the past 35 years.