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

Episode 16....

Its Bombay-Mumbai folks....my second stint.

My IDV-UDV-Diageo India Stint....from 1994 to 2005 in Bombay....It wont be in chronological order as I want to touch upon episodes which are major learning for me and for the readers too...

I moved to Bombay and was given a room in IDVs guest house on Turner road. Silva Croft apartment 12th floor with a beautiful view of Bandra...this place is situated diagonally opposite to the Bandra Club and a few minutes walk from the very popular Joggers park.

It was a 3 bedroom, hall, kitchen ( a balcony in the kitchen too) and a huge Terrace apartment. I took one room and the other two were kept for guests. DR was always, and rightfully so, as were just a start up  and the GH was his idea and also putting me up there. I moved in leaving the family in Blr as we wanted our son's academic year to be completed and then move to Bombay. Twice a month Bby-Blr-Bby trips and also covering the rest of the markets from Blr....Lots of travel but it was quite enjoyable to represent an international company. And IDV was the first International company to launch in India....

I took over west from Sanjit.

I also relocated the AP team-due to prohibition, those willing to move, to different parts of West and South.

Now about Bombay registered cum HO....Phoenix complex, earlier a mill, was the first one to come out of the shackles and create an office cum shopping complex out of the defunct mills-thanks to Datta Sawant.

IDV was one of the first movers there and we had a great looking office. Deepak Roy had a nice cabin with a secretary space outside his office...and cabins for finance head, HR head, marketing head et al. I was also given a cabin, closer to the sales MIS and sales accounting. When I moved to Bombay, Mahesh Iyer was the CFO, Tony George was HR, Mark Cohen marketing, Rodney Legal and accounts, Pawan and Rajesh Gaind - Logistics, Rakesh Chopra Exports, Sridhar Iyer accounts and Subra IT....Sanjit went on a stint to UK with IDV on marketing...It was a compact and a beautifully done up office with a nice conference room and a pantry. The HO team jelled very well. Mahesh Iyer was a great guy to work with, so as his team mates. Tony G was Deepak's favourite. We had 4 brand managers assisting Mark C. Mahesh Madhavan (currently Global CEO of Bacardi) was the brand manager of SMV, Navneet Dave was for the Gilbey's brands and we had Vivek, Hoshang, Aparna Bhosle and Vibhuthi Channa....Abhijit Dasgupta was the GM for North and East based at Calcutta.

As always, I landed myself in a big soup in Bombay. Green label was a big hit when it was launched and sadly instead of just confining to fewer markets, IDV expanded but without increasing the production capacity/capability of manufacturing team and also understanding the finer nuances of blending....this has created a major problem with the vendors in Bombay. And Bombay retail trade is well knit and they together decided to teach us a lesson by converting the consumers as they didnt want the consumers to go empty handed and to the next shop. As I had a good equation with most of the retailers, first thing what we did was to correct the supplies and direct most of them to Bombay local and secondly, issued a personal apology to every single retailer on our failure to meet their demand. This helped us to a great extent but we lost some base as consumers shifted to their original brands. Had a good team in Bombay to manage the business. Transferred Sudeep as ZM for Maharashtra (rest of Maharashtra-excluding greater Bombay) based at Pune. This has helped us a lot as Sudeep learnt the ropes faster and built a great relationship with all our distributors. Vidarbha, Thane and Kholapur, we started doing well with improved supplies but competition was quite tough. The problem with Bombay was the number of distributors. Somehow the HO, before my arrival, thought we should have more distributors....They already had some 3 to 4 and when I joined I was asked to induct two more....I could not do anything but to go with what I was told....this too many distributors created major tension for us as one of them, the most powerful amongst, started undercutting to garner more volumes...

We had Rajan Lavande in Goa as our distributor...he was a good man but didnt have the wherewithal or understanding of distribution. It was Sanjit's decision as obviously the negotiations failed with Agencia Commercial, the best distributor in Goa even today. 

And thats the time Seagram (currently Pernod Ricard Group) launched their Royal Stag with a fantastic marketing gimmick. They openly claimed Royal Stag is made 1) from grain spirit as whisky has to be from grain and 2) No added flavours or colors and very aggressively marketed this across channels despite the ban on advertisements...their end card was - 'can your whiskey say this?". Very nice presentation and a decent blend at that price. Normally in the industry manufacturers price their new brand cross-line with the competition but Seagram priced RS slightly above McD No 1 and lower than RCW....this clicked for them very well as many consumers from RCW downgraded to RS and upgraded from McD. Yogesh Mathur told me personally he changed to RS as he found it on par with RC....perception....and Seagram did a great job with regard to distribution too...they gave the entire distribution of Bombay city to Deepak of Candy....though the retailers were not happy about it as their bargaining power would weaken, the company didnt bother as they were very clear that their marketing would pull the consumers to its brands....and the product clicked in Bombay and in Goa....Goa with in no time RS became the household name....and distribution by Agencia.... In hindsight, the difference between IDV and Seagram were---IDV was paranoid to launch as many as possible....Gilbey's Green and White, Old Gold, Smirnoff, Malibu, Archers, Kelly's, Spey Royal---8 brands in less than a year....and one after the other...and the team lost focus, as their time got consumed in launching the products then nourishing it. Also we had issues with our manufacturing capabilities....and we went pan India despite these issues...whereas Seagram was very clear in their head on what they need to do....they started off with a JV unit but with in two years established their own unit in Maharashtra and also franchised an unit in undivided AP. Unlike others they started with East--they launched first in Calcutta and then moved to other markets...from Calcutta to AP to Bombay....and followed RS with another winner in Blender's Pride and later with Imperial Blue....all these three brands are chart busters even today. They spent quite a lot of consumer pull....they also failed in their attempts in brandy, rum, vodka and gin but these 3 brands are big hits...Also in Scotch they launched 100 Pipers and this brand had some traction in the olden days and hence they could swing consumers. Where as, IDV launched Spey Royal, a brand which was sold in Thailand and nowhere else. Blunder....IDV should have launched J&B with the BII route...that would have given IDV a major headway....

Also IDV deputed Chris Arms to develop local blends for India...All the initial launches were his creation only....While in 94, that was the order of the day by everyone, IDV, instead of creating something different, followed the path and hence consumers could not differentiate....our presentation was good but product was similar...Seagram differentiated and tom tomd it......and succeeded. 

Meanwhile, United Distillers, the makers of Jonnie Walker at that time, entered in to a JV with UB group and launched their Black & White and Vat 69. While UD just looked after production, the distribution was given to USL but USL didnt do anything great...Black & White and Vat 69 were so popular in India but the local distribution could not encash on it....Teachers, in 94 was with Hiram Walker....and they did a JV with an Indian company, launched Teacher's....This brand was known but nothing compared to Vat 69 but Teacher's clicked and started doing well with very skeleton FF but a very clear distribution and marketing strategy.

Selling Premium and Luxury brands need a different kind of skills. If you put these Premium and Luxury in the same basket alongside of popular brands, it will remain small only as the team always get excited with volumes and not with Value...creating value has to be driven hard in the minds of the team but IDV, in hindsight, failed in that aspect......USL launched Black Dog-which was owned by VJM and it clicked.....

So the market was hotting up and competition was quite severe....but our team got so much bogged down with Gilbey's range fighting not only with USL and Seagram but also with the regional players....the regional players didnt have to bother about advertisements and were quite happy with thinner margins....and they were very fierce when it came to competition....But we somehow managed....

The episodes between 1994 to 2005-my IDV-UDV Guinness-Diageo stint in India-I would be only covering things which were exciting and knowledge worthy and hence I would be shuttling between time loops.....So pl do not get confused.....

Till the next post.....

Cheers and stay safe.....