Aru Metal

Our unit is No. 87 on Mahatma Gandhi Road in the Tass Industrial Estate. That's in Ambattur, Chennai. If you know Ambattur, you know how hot and busy it stays throughout the year. We work with metal here. Usually, that means there’s a lot of cutting, bending, and grinding going on. The floor is always covered in tiny metal scraps, so you have to wear thick boots. We have a few big machines that take up most of the space. The roof is high, which helps a bit with the heat, but not much. We start our day early to beat the worst of the sun. Most of our work is for other local businesses that need metal components. We don't have a fancy showroom or a catalog. We just show people what we've finished recently and that's usually enough. There’s a lot of traffic on Mahatma Gandhi Road, especially with the big lorries coming in and out of the estate. It can be a bit chaotic. We usually have our lunch sitting on some of the metal crates when the machines are turned off. It’s quiet for that one hour, and then the noise starts up again. We’ve been here in Thiruvallur district for quite some time now. We don't do anything special, just take the raw metal and turn it into whatever the customer asked for. It's simple work but it keeps us busy every day. We don't mind the grease.