Eureka Forbes, part of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group's Forbes & Company Limited

Forbes & Company Ltd.

Forbes & Company Ltd., the erstwhile Forbes Gokak Ltd. based in Mumbai, is the oldest registered company in India and one of the oldest in the world, which is in business. It was established in the year 1767, by a Scottish gentleman John Forbes Esq. of Aberdeenshire, Scotland...

 based in Mumbai

Mumbai

Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

, is an Indian consumer appliances company. Eureka Forbes was the first to introduce domestic water purifiers - the Aquaguard - model - as well as vacuum cleaners to India in the 1980s. The company operates in over 145 cities and 398 towns in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

and employs over 10,000 individuals.

To introduce previously unknown products to a society in which nationwide commercial campaigns were impossible, the company pioneered direct selling. The corps of suit-clad Eureka Forbes salesmen were a tremendous success. They are now Asia's largest direct selling organisation with a 7,500 strong direct sales force touching 1.25 million Indian homes and adding 1,500 customers daily.

Such was the success of Eureka Forbes that Aquaguard has become a synonym for water purifier in India.