Memoirs.....Musings of a sales guy at heart.....

Episode 16....

Bangalore....setting up IDV and the team.....a new journey....

14 lovely years with HL...what a journey it has been...there are guys who continued with HL till they retired. HL got merged with USL and when VJM bought SWL the company became huge and VJM made changes too by creating Regional Profit Centres, a concept new to the industry and made it quite rewarding for those who contributed well. To name a few who retired starting from HL to USL to Diageo.....KSR, KGR ( he left HL to join IDV and then after a few years went back to SWC and USL-Diageo), Dwarak, Kandan, Hari, Datta, Sheigar, Nagappa, BSR, Kalyan and many more. All these guys were from very humble beginning and grew up to BM, RSM, DGM, GM et al. VKR retired as President, Ashok Capoor, VK Arora, VK Luthra and many more. Am talking here only those from HL...I might have missed few and my apologies....

HL was a great company to work for because of its mix of FMCG and alcohol....tough terrain and tough bosses....and that has sharpened the skill of many of us.....So a big salute to HL....

In April 1994, I packed off to Blr with Jeyanthi and Babloo 5 YO then....I was the controller South but the task was huge...to start from the scratch...the first challenge was to get the customers familiarise with the companies name-International Vintners and Distillers-but the beauty was all about the narrative of Vintners...the wine developers...IDV was part of the Grand Metropolitan Group UK, which also had under its arms, consumer brands such as Pillsbury, Burger King and some hotels....In spirits, the most famous brands were Smirnoff, Bailey's, J&B to name a few but sadly none of these brands were that popular in India. In the early 90s GOI opened up the trade and Liquor MNCs were allowed entry...but with a caveat that they should have a local partner with a license to bottle or distill...so IDV tied up with Polychem of Khilachands--the Khilachands are great guys as partners and the Sr. Khilachand was a well respected person in the industry. Polychem had brands such as Alcazar, Mens club and Louis XI but were a small player. Their unit was in Nira, near Baramati, Maharashtra....they had both distillery and bottling plant...but not a very modern unit....in Kerala they had a bottling tie up with Polsons....otherwise their presence in South was nothing...They also had Yogesh Mathur as their head of sales and marketing another wonderful person to work with.

So, as I said, from scratch, I have to start...first is to find a home....the first 15 days we were put up in Taj Residency on MG Road and started running around...after seeing many, finally got a ground floor apartment in Royal Residency and also lucky enough to find a small independent building on Primrose Road for our office. Home to office was just 5 minutes of walk....the office was just a two bedroom hall and kitchen place but with a garage....we converted the garage in to a meeting room. I was all alone and first person I recruited was an office assistant (Gowda) to do the running around. Phone was top priority and there was only BSNL. And getting a new connection was not that easy then. Had to run around make representation to the head of BSNL in our area and finally got it. I presented a watch to the person who helped me to get the connection but got my trip taken by DR as it was against the policy of IDV as it was construed as bribe....

Now to recruit the team. I presented the structure to DR and got it approved. I had to get an ASM for KTK, AP and Kerala and a TSE/RSE for Pondy. TN was closed for us....Sudeep was the ASM for McD for KTK...one day I just dashed off to his office and met him and offered the job....Sudeep is a nice guy, non controversial and knew the KTK market well....now on KTK market....KTK the official sale per month was around 2 lakh cases then. MSIL was the official procurement agency but the business was transacted completely different. McD Whisky was the leader and with an MRP of around 150 or so but used to sell at around 100 at the retail....how could it be possible....dont want to get in to the details here as it would create a storm....so IDV has to be different as it cant follow the same path as the locals...Sudeep wanted time and he also wanted to have a meal together with families to understand things better....so after dilly dallying for around a month-I almost started looking for alternatives-he accepted the offer. And simultaneously I started recruitments of the team. Pulled Krishna Kumar from HL and Sudeep got Uthappa and Shankar from McD. These three for Bangalore n Paramasivappa for Mysore and Ratnakar Kundar for Mangalore. Recruited Ramesh as office accountant and Felicity as reception cum secretary. Office is set....But business??? Will come to that...

I pinched KGR from HL...he was the RSE in HL. Made him the ASM for AP and also pinched Srinivas CH and Satyapal Reddy....Another Srinivas was also taken. Suresh from Polychem was also absorbed in to the team. We were no player in AP despite Polychem's little presence....Set up an office and took KS Rajagopal to manage our office. The added attraction for me for AP was my stay at Grand Kakatiya at Hyderabad. Anand was the GM there with Sibu and Sharmila in the front office. Kakatiya was new then and it became one of my favourite places....

Pondicherry, appointed Sabapathy as our RSE....

Kerala appointed Harikumar as ASM-he was with McD....we had to absorb a few from Polychem as they had some presence in Kerala...Rakesh Ramachandran at Trichur and also few more. Set up the office in Trivandrum. Brought Satheesh who was in HL in Hyderabad to Trivandrum to manage our office. Such a professional guy.

initially I was doing everything from sending fax to Bombay to collecting appointment letters by fax and handing over to the recruits...but I thoroughly enjoyed it as it was a great learning....the only help I had was Gowda my office assistant.

Let the narrative be state by state...

As we made Blr as our regional office, let me start with KTK....the team was set...Sudeep the ASM, Uthappa, Krishna and Shankar in Blr, Paramasivappa in Mysore and Ratnakar in Mangalore....Ramesh to take care of the office and Felicity as our secretary....and an office boy to run around....

Smirnoff was launched with lots of fanfare in Mumbai sometimes in June 1994....and what an event it was...the first international brand to be bottled in India and to be launched in India...the launch part was in Taj President and it went off so well....it was attended by the creme de la creme of Bombay and very few trade partners....the event went on till 4 in the morning...Smirnoff and IDV arrived in India with a big noise....the first case of SMV was auctioned and Parthiv Khilachand bought the first case....the launch was well covered by the media...our MM Mark Cohen did a great job with Chris Meotti the Global brand manager of Smirnoff personally being there....It was all smiles till the next day morning when we went to the market to launch the brand.

DR asked me to stay back and assist Sanjit who was incharge of west..we have taken some sample bottles with us to the room for our trade visit. Next day morning, I just took few bottles to carry with us and to my utter shock and disbelief, I found the first bottle I lifted from the carton, with white particles floating....called Sanjit who was also in the same hotel and showed him that...we checked the whole case of 12 bottles and found almost half of the stocks having issues....called DR immediately and as expected he lost his head and put Dr.Puri who was incharge of mfg and to cut the long story short, DR said the launch has to happen and we need to segregate the stocks and take with us the one which are in good condition....like true soldiers we followed his order and the brand got a very thunderous response from the trade....Smirnoff's retail price was par with RCW....I think it was around 300 for a 75cl....I went with my team to Crawford market and my favourite shops.....Bombay always welcome new brands as they get their launch offers....but the floating particles was still on back of our heads....later I understood, it was 'spangling'....a kind of chemical reaction when the alcohol is bottled in bottles which are not acid washed....

Sanjit and self went to the distributors office and checked all the stocks and kept aside the stocks which had this issue....left the head ache with Sanjit and returned to Blr....my task was to make the Blr launch a far better one...

As mentioned Karnataka business was different...what you see is not what actually it was(1994)....so one has to learn the ropes but our business model was different so the RTM like others, was supply to MSIL wholesale and from there to WS and to retail. The WS were the cog in the wheel...without their support one cant go anywhere....

We appointed Ananda Rao-Anupama Traders as our promoter for KTK...I have to mention here about Ananda Rao....he is such a gem of a person with fabulous contacts across the government bodies and always on the move...his sons Ratan and Raja were also in business but Ratan was managing the WS.....Anupama also had WS but was restricting their business only to select brands and retails....(am not getting in to the nuances of the KTK model in vogue then as it is highly political)...

We worked out the cost card and arrived at the MRP...fixed it at 350 per bottle on par with RCW and also the same as Mumbai...but hardly any money for activations....DR thru Mark taken care of that...

I was fortunate to have a fantastic team in Blr....you task them something and it is done....and against all odds....we had to swim against the tide....what we did was just focus on biggies....Dewars and Spencers kind of outlets.....Spencer was our great support...Srinivas was the head of procurement there and was very supportive....no nonsense guy but he had a soft corner for us....we have to highlight to the customers and consumers our USP....Three times distilled, Charcoal filtered and worlds largest selling Vodka.....the pubs played a major role and it was difficult to crack them initially as they were all very under the clutches of UB and they didnt want to upset the apple cart....but the team managed it well and cracked...not only we cracked the pubs but also made SMV as the pouring brands in some....We focussed a lot on the visibility part...the tag line of SMV then was 'Pure Thrill'. In Spencers at the entry point we erected a 10x10 wall clock with SMV branding and we improvised the tag line from Pure Thrill to 'Pure Time'. One more innovation was that we created a fabulous branding at Vallara Junction a gift shop and had nothing to do with alcohol....they are at a very vantage point and no one can miss the outlet...we spoke to the outlet owner, a very nice guy, convinced him and erected a signage there....SMV was all over BLR in no time in terms of visibility....this has irked our dear VJM and he went to the press accusing that IDV India compromised on the quality of SMV by producing it from molases instead of the established practice of producing it from grain spirit...he was right though....Koshi's restaurant frequented by the local journalists....primarily print media...and Koshi's owner was my neighbor. I requested him to call the journalists one evening for a blind tasting of SMV....we got few bottles of SMV from the DF (imported from other country) and did a blind with India made SMV....and it was a chance taken by us but the press guys realised that there was no difference and that controversy died down....We were very proactive and we wanted to ensure that we are noticed and respected....And we kept getting visitors from UK and after Bombay it was always BLR for them to visit....and they were so thrilled to see our zeal and commitment. We painted the whole city with our brands....there is one bar in Majestic...we call them the nip joint and quicky..Srinidhi bar...people come there for a quick round before boarding their bus or train....We did a promo for SMV there as this outlet was selling decent quantities of SMV and we felt we need those conversions too....the SMV BM would not have approved, construing it as blasphemy, but we went ahead and that outlet started selling 5 cases a month....and Tony Froggot the head of Asia Pacific during his trip visited the outlet and had a drink there with us.... Another outlet-Status bar-in the same majestic which was on the top floor and had a huge area for branding seen from across all directions...the owner was dead against branding but we convinced him and got our branding there...That became talk of the industry as it attracted millions of eyes. There was another outlet Sarovar pub on the Residency Road junction....we erected a huge signage there. 94-95 there was no LEDs....it was conventional tube lights and once in every 15 days someone has to go and change those lights...also the sheet they were using used to get dirty....we appointed an agency to keep the signages clean....Blr created so much of buzz and the floating population noticed it and SMV was getting popular in Chennai (though was not available) and other places....the rub off effect was felt even at Bombay....

As mentioned our initial days were focussed on placements in outlets that mattered...viz the pubs, clubs, premium off and fine dinings, visibility across the city and at the retail outlets. In 1994 the windows at the outlets were not all the expensive but we didnt have that kind of budget and hence we decided to go berserk on shop signages and things like Vallara Junction.....

And my team never looked at their watches.....we were on a prowl and would return home every day almost by midnight....and we thoroughly enjoyed....the problem was the volumes didnt substantiate our hard work due to the market dynamics. It was very difficult to make the WS to buy SMV as they had to invest upfront and hence we had to depend heavily on Anupama for placements but Anupama had their own limitations but as the consumers started asking for the product the volumes started trickling in....

The Taj group was of great support. At the Taj West End, Vivek Pradhan was the head of F&B and he was so supportive. And our guys cracked the Bangalore Club, Indra Nagar Club, Koramangala club, Karnataka Golf Club, Bowring institute and Century club in Cubbon park....these were volume givers and were lifting the stocks from MSIL directly. Their demands always were 2+1 free but we completely desisted from succumbing to it....and still managed volumes.

So it was a waiting game for us for the volumes to improve. The other markets apart from Blr city were Mysore, Coorg and Mangalore....also Manipal...but too small in volumes...

So Blr was always on the radar of the HO because of the quality of work it was churning out....Our SMV launch party was a huge success. We picked up an event management agency which was relatively in experienced but they did a fabulous job. Surendra Nath (Nath in short with a lovely pony tail)...The launch was held at Taj Residency, MG Road and what an event it turned out to be. The first of its kind for the Bangaloreans. The event was well covered by the media. I was very raw then in terms of my interactions with the press and just learning the ropes.... and also organising events....HO was maha impressed and so was Chris Meotti the brand manager of our region. Diana Hayden, who became Miss World in 1996 was part of the event management company of Nath that time....and our marketing guy Mark Cohen(Irish) and Diana became partners in real life too.....So IDV Blr also helped people to build personal relationships...

Every single launch of ours was different....SMV was followed by Spey Royal.....Spey Royal was the first bottled in India Scotch....this means, the bulk used to come in barrels with higher strength and all we need to do at the bottling plant is to reduce the strength of the alcohol to 42.8 by diluting it with DM water...the quality remains the same as bottled in origin and BII....the product and presentation were different but attractive. Spey Royal is the scotch from Spey side....the Spey river of Scotland....its very mellow and easy on the palette....Ann Ho was the brand manager and she was based at HK and such a wonderful person. She was so passionate and was full of drive....being the first BII scotch we went after it big time....for every product launch the team used to dress up in typical product specific attires....We tied up with West End hotel and gave a coupon to the retailers on purchase of 3 cases to dine with their spouse at West End with 2 shots of Spey....this was something no one had done before....Spey Royal was all Royal with the purple colour label and packaging....but our Indian consumers always drink the brand and not the product....so the response was very lukewarm.....

Kerala was different....in 94 the excise duty on alcohol was very meagre---around 150 per case with marginal ST and a 25% margin of the corporation. The retail was with private and many of them very powerful too. In Trichur the biggest was Perunchery wines......probably Kerala's biggest...during the Onam time the queue would be around 2 kms long....the beauty with Kerala consumers are they are very disciplined and also you would not find much of alcohol related fights or quarrels...and brand loyalty was huge....the market was all Brandy and rum....McD, HBB, Bejoice and in Rum it was OCR et al....Vodka category was small....and one has to wait for the tender period to open to launch a product...it used to be always Feb/March  for the fresh tender to open and April one could launch their new brands....we could launch SMV sometime in 95...also they had some very specific conditions in terms of comparative and competitive prices....you quote the prices, they would call you for a negotiation and then you enter....but the officers were good especially the company secretary and the MD-an IPS officer, at that time....they were quite helpful but all by books and rules....so in 94 we could not do much but to get our act together with our Polychem brands viz Mens club brandy and whiskey and Louis XI brandy....these were locally bottled at Polsons, a very small unit at Chalakudy, owned by Peruncheris.....and in Kerala the corporation release the orders based on some 3 months average...if you dont supply or short supply you would tend to lose the average.....one has to be very well versed with the system to manage the numbers in Kerala....We had a mix of new and old members in the team....Harikumar had a great relationship with the Corporation. Ashraf of HL who was in Trivandrum initially helped by taking me to KSBC and introducing me to the MD with a good word but ran in to problem with Santhosh and Tomy-God knows whats their problem with someone introducing me....When IDV took charge, Francis Allappat was our promoter....a very nice guy but he was also the promoter for CDL of UB group and also Amrut....Obviously, UB put pressure on him to leave IDV and he recommended his brother Jose Allappat to be appointed in his place. That was one big mistake I did as I didnt have that much of knowledge about Kerala market that time.....we went with Jose but it turned out to be a bad call.....We continued with him despite serious issues as we didnt have much to lose....In 95, after we got our SMV and Green Label registered with KSBC, self and KGR decided to bring in someone small. Polychem had an auditor in Mathew Joseph....very calm and composed guy....I approached him and asked him whether he would be inclined to take up the promotership... he brought his brother Sebastian in to the picture....Sebastian was very raw and had some small brands under his belt but he was keen and wanted to get in to this industry....in fact I suggested them to name their company J&B....(Joseph and Brother) but they decided to call it Joseph Brothers.....We started off small but today am happy Sebastian is one of the leading promoters in Kerala.....Sebastian was always available and open to try out new ideas.....our teams really jelled well....

AP was a different story. We had Polychem brands as mentioned earlier but too small. In 95 we got our SMV and Gilbey's brands registered with APBCL and in fact just launched the brands when NTR swarmed in to power and the very first day of his assuming office, declared prohibition....I had a huge team....and it was a major turbulence in AP and also personally for me and many who believed in IDV and joined in AP. We had to immediately act. And as a company, IDV didnt want to send anyone home for two reasons...(1) IDV was the first MNC to enter India and (2) Chris Bulmar, the HR head of Asia Pacific was a great HR person and she was clear in her head that no one would be sent home....We gave the options to the team and many of them opted to resign as they didnt want to move out of AP. Ch Srinivas and T Raghuram (a great guy) opted to move out....We transferred KGR to Kerala and split Kerala in to North and South. Hari was given Trivandrum and KGR was based at Cochin and was asked to look after Mahe too....The business was small in terms of numbers but we accommodated them. ChS was given Cochin as HQ and TR was accommodated in Trichur.  AP office was closed and whatever stocks were left with APBCL were sold at the cooperative stores which started servicing the permit holders. So I was just left with Kerala, Bangalore and UT of Pondicherry.

Pondy was a different story. An open market with a limited volumes for brands like SMV. We appointed RR wines as our distributor there. Ravichandran and Ramamurthy--college mates who ventured in to alcohol business....they were also new in this business and they had UB beer distribution but nothing in spirits. SMV was an instant hit in Pondy and also at Mahe. We appointed Jayaram as our distributor in Mahe. Karaikkal was too small then and supplies to some select retails used to go from Pondy. We launched all our brands in a very short span of time in Pondy and also Green Label....dealers in Pondy still remember our launch parties....Saba was very creative and you give him the concept and he would churn out some box office....Green Lable received thunderous response there....but small volumes.

On IDV and its first year launch....IDV was in a kind of hurry....in hindsight, it was a wrong strategy as the team got completely lost with launches of so many brands one after another....SMV was followed by Spey Royal, Archers peach schnapps, Malibu Coconut white Rum, Kelly's cream liqueur and Gilbey's Green Label, White Label and Old Gold.....One after another....kept coming....Kelly's started cuddling at the retail outlet with in few days and it gave us huge head aches...unlike Bailey's, Kelly's was made from veg fat....Bailey's was original cream blended with Irish Whiskey....but Kelly's was made for India with very inferior quality. But Archer's and Malibu passed the test despite a different compositions due to its very strong flavour contents. But volumes were very very low....these drinks were too early for Indian consumers as these were just liqueur and mostly taken post dinner and our consumers wanted immediate high...Chris Arms was the blender assigned for India by IDV but somehow he felt Indians deserved only this much.

Green Label was an instant hit with consumers across the country with its unique presentation. First time in India Guala cap-tamper proof-was used for a regular price segment whiskey....but the problem was we kept expanding the launch as we need to give enough work to the team without strengthening our supplies....more on this later.

The first tie up by IDV was signed off with KAPL at Meenakshipuram-Kerala...an unit owned by the Shiva distilleries of Coimbatore. They were languishing with this unit in Kerala as their brands were not providing volumes and we had huge problems with Polsons....so we exited Polsons and entered KAPL....I was so happy that we could tie up with KAPL the first by IDV in India. Mr SV Balasubraminam, a fine gentleman, was the Chairman and Sakthivel Samy was their manufacturing head....We had lots of issues initially as we just kept dumping materials there but managed in due course. The unit was very good and quality conscious...

So with just three markets to manage and smaller volumes, I requested DR to do something asap....April 1995, I was made the GM and transferred to Bombay to manage South and West.....Sanjit was transferred to marketing...

Another transfer and moving lock stock and barrel......

More to come.....