Mano Bricks

We are at 50 Main Road in Kannudayanpatti. It’s a very straightforward spot to find if you are driving through. We’ve been making bricks at this location for a long time now. The yard is usually quite busy with trucks coming in and out all day. It’s mostly outdoor work, so we are always at the mercy of the rain and the wind. When it pours down, we have to scramble to cover everything up or the raw bricks just turn back into piles of mud. That’s definitely the hardest part of this job. We have a few kilns going and the smell of the fire is just part of the landscape here. I grew up around this business. My father was the one who started it years ago and now I’m the one looking after everything. We don't have many employees, just a few local guys who really know the work. We load the bricks onto the trucks by hand, which is exhausting but it keeps us moving. It’s a lot of sweating under the hot sun. We sell to builders mostly, but sometimes a neighbor needs a small load for a garden wall or a new shed. We keep a thick notebook for all the accounts and the sales. It’s not a high-tech operation at all. We just focus on making sure the bricks are hard and don't break. The traffic on Main Road can get a bit loud, especially in the late afternoon.