30 September, 2002: Mr Murugappa Vellayan Subbiah took over the Rs3,900-crore family business in 1995 and has since restructured the company into a competitive group. The group appointed McKinsey & Co as its consultants to chalk out the future strategies. The consultant has identified nine businesses under three categories, confectionery and sanitary-ware under consumer goods; tubes, strip and metal forms under industrial products; sugar, fertilisers and tea under commodities group. The group's net profit dipped from Rs184.71 crore in 1998-1999 to Rs164 crore in 2000-2001, mainly due to slump in the economy.

Mr Subbiah has helped the company adopt corporate governance initiatives. Murugappa Corporate Board was set up in 2000 to define a new role and responsibility for the family. The Board comprises Mr Subbiah, his cousins and a few nephews and three in independent members. In Oct 2000, Mr Subbiah resigned from CEO position and is serving as mentor-director of the group. In April, 2001, NS Raghavan, one of founders of Infosys, was inducted as Chairman to take care of the corporate governance at the company.