*The Jolles: Building a Business Empire from a Small Town*
The Jolles: Building a Business Empire from a Small Town
From Yaksamba to a sprawling presence in cooperative banking, education, industry and social initiatives
M.K.Hegde
Business empires are usually associated with metropolitan cities, where infrastructure, capital, markets and opportunities provide a natural environment for growth. The story of Annasaheb Jolle and Shashikala Jolle, however, has unfolded differently.
From Yaksamba, a small town in Chikkodi taluk on the Karnataka–Maharashtra border, the Jolle couple have built a wide-ranging network of institutions and enterprises spanning cooperative banking, education, retail, hospitality, industry and social initiatives.
What began as an endeavour rooted in a small town has today grown into a sizeable institutional and business ecosystem, with the Shri Beereshwar Cooperative Credit Society at its centre.
From a small-town beginning to a ₹9,700-crore business
The Shri Beereshwar Cooperative Credit Society, founded by Annasaheb Jolle, has emerged as one of the prominent cooperative institutions in South India.
The society currently has 233 branches and around 4.60 lakh members. It has deposits of ₹5,667 crore and has extended loans worth ₹4,038 crore. The institution has recorded a net profit of ₹51.04 crore, while its total business has reached ₹9,700 crore, according to Annasaheb Jolle, founder of the society and Director of the National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI).
For an institution that originated in a small town like Yaksamba, the scale of this expansion represents a significant chapter in the Jolle couple’s entrepreneurial journey.
A journey that went beyond one sector
The Jolle couple’s journey has not remained confined to cooperative banking.
Over the years, their activities have expanded into several sectors, including Beereshwar Cooperative Society, Jyoti Bazaar, educational institutions, schools for children with special needs, the hospitality sector and a glass manufacturing unit, among other ventures.
Education has been another important area of activity, with institutions established to provide opportunities to students in rural and semi-urban areas. Initiatives aimed at the education of children with special needs have also formed part of their broader social engagement.
Thus, a journey that began in the cooperative sector gradually expanded into education, business and social initiatives.
Giving Yaksamba a new identity
Building a large institutional network outside a major city is not an easy task. It becomes even more challenging when the journey begins in a place where infrastructure and other basic facilities were limited.
The Jolle couple chose to develop Yaksamba itself as a major centre for their activities. As their institutions expanded, they also became part of the economic and social landscape of the region.
Today, Yaksamba is closely associated with the Beereshwar institutions and the various ventures established by the Jolle couple. Their journey has consequently become intertwined with the identity and development of the town.
Creating opportunities beyond the institutions
The growth of an institution has an impact beyond its owners and management. Expansion of branches, educational institutions, businesses and service activities creates employment opportunities and contributes to commercial and economic activity in the surrounding region.
With hundreds of branches and lakhs of members, along with educational institutions and businesses across different sectors, the network built from Yaksamba reflects the scale to which the initiative has expanded.
It is a story of a small-town beginning evolving, step by step, into a network of institutions and enterprises.
A modern headquarters at Yaksamba
The newly constructed headquarters of the Beereshwar Cooperative Credit Society is another reflection of this growth.
Spread across approximately 80,800 square feet, the new administrative building has been designed to accommodate around 250 employees. The campus includes administrative facilities, a community hall, staff accommodation, solar power facilities, landscaped areas and extensive parking space.
The campus also houses Shri Beereshwar Bhavan, an air-conditioned community hall with a seating capacity of around 1,500 people. It is intended to host social and cultural events as well as programmes of the institution.
For employees and their families, three residential buildings have been constructed with a total of 69 housing units. The residential facilities have a combined built-up area of approximately 72,056 square feet. The buildings also include halls for private functions and lift facilities.
The campus, therefore, is more than an administrative complex. It represents the present scale of an institution that began its journey in Yaksamba and is designed to support its future expansion.
New headquarters to be inaugurated by Amit Shah
The new headquarters of the Shri Beereshwar Cooperative Credit Society will be inaugurated on September 19 at 1 p.m.
Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah will inaugurate the new administrative headquarters. Union Ministers Pralhad Joshi and H.D. Kumaraswamy, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Union Minister of State for Cooperation Murlidhar Mohol, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, Karnataka BJP president B.Y. Vijayendra and Leader of Opposition R. Ashoka, among other dignitaries, are expected to attend the programme.
For the Jolle couple, the new headquarters marks another milestone in a journey that began in a small town and gradually expanded into a large network of cooperative, educational, commercial and social institutions.
