Memoirs.....Lets talk mental health...

Folks, 

I had mentioned this in my earlier blogs but before I start on this, thought I would touch upon once again....

During my transit time between Diageo and W&M I took some time off and was looking at getting in to something very spiritual...I heard about Pranic healing (divine intervention)....and enrolled myself and completed all the levels in DxB itself....and realised that I can embark on that healing journey.....but W&M and Geoscope journey started and I have to wait till 2014......but I kept practicing Pranic healing and also got some great feedback on whoever I had applied PH on....

Darpan to start with (she gave me a glimpse of Hypno Therapy) and Shaila, my dear sister, pushed me in to it.....and we started our Heal n Hale with Padma and Kavitha and had the divine opportunity of  understanding how the mind plays a huge role in peoples life...and how many clients and how we dealt with them...I always tell the clients that 50% of your issue is over the moment you decided to open up....I have to address the remaining 50% only.....

I had to give this preamble to get you guys in tune with what am going to talk about now...

When it comes to physical health, we dont hesitate to consult a medical Dr, right....you have some issues with your ear or throat or nose, you rush to an ENT....problem with your glands, rush to an endocrinologist.....painful knee....to an Ortho....so on and so forth....but when it comes to mental health, the whole family shy away....the social stigma attached to that, right? This is especially in India and even not so much in Bombay and Delhi but in South especially in TN....the reason being that it would be labelled as 'mad'-'psycho'....

There are many kinds in 'psychotic' diseases and many levels...but if there is someone having any kind of 'mental' illness at home or in your friends circle, first thing is to observe and next is to consult and be open in discussing the same. When it is discussed, you would find solutions from unexpected quarters....many of you would have come across this when you have a physical problem and someone who probably had similar issues would come for your rescue....mental health is also to be discussed. In western world, persons who are suffering from some kind of 'mental' issues, do not hesitate to admit and seek medical help and get out of it too....in our country we need to first create the awareness and do not look down on those who have this issue. Looking down on them would create this stigma....some 20 to 30 ears back anyone wearing specs especially the thick one would get ridiculed but today it has changed....the same with hearing issues....its time that awareness and empathy goes hand in hand on 'mental health'. I had encountered one recently and I was completely taken aback to see the condition that person was in. There was issues with this person earlier too but the person didnt want to go thru any therapy and the spouse didnt bother to coax or counsel or push that person for therapy and that has led to this condition.....there is no point in crying over spilt milk....you need to immediately mop the floor....so when it comes to 'mental health' pl push those who are suffering to seek therapy....and there are many advanced therapies which are available now.....Life is to be lived and not sit at home depressed....

Thought would put this up as a first step to create awareness....pl spread this across....

For living life to the fullest!!!!

 

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

Episode 42...

Geoscope journey & my 44 years of association with alcohol industry...

Yes, the brands world class and powerful too.....Geoscope is committed to make the lips smile when they taste our brands but thanks to the entry barriers imposed in different forms in different states and also the un-professional attitudes of some of our trade partners has slowed down our progression. Barriers are important so long it just ensures quality of the product, stop financial mismanagements and fly by night operators. But if the barriers are imposed to just support a select few and only the biggies, these barriers have to be lifted immediately to make the filed a level playing one. If you draw parallels to the FMCG industry, can anyone stop another detergent powder entering the market....Could HLL stop Nirma...they fought them tooth and nail in the market....because thats where the consumers decide what to buy based on many factors....remember the story of the 'shampoo in a sachet'....it was a Cuddalore (TN) a business novice started and made a big success of the same...finally another Biggie bought this brand paying huge amount....small timers can make it big and remain small depending only upon their vision in FMCG and other fields...but in alcohol industry, the government of the respective states decide...isn't it unfair? If any of you who happened to go thru this and have some connection with the 'power that be' pl pass it on to them...Am ready to convince them why the policies have to be re-written.

1) Tamil Nadu: The local bottlers have their say in everything except honoring the letter and spirit of the agreement which they have entered with brand owners. TASMAC goes by the text book which was written some 3 decades back....this has to be re-looked. TN should open up the market to the national players which would give the TN consumers to exercise their choice and have world class brands at an affordable price. Currently there is none....Since TASMAC insist on a letter by the brand owner to the bottler consenting to bottle their brands as a first step to get the ball rolling in terms of approval, the payments towards the supplies of these brands which do not belong to the bottler should be paid to the brand companies directly. This would pave the way for better behaviour in terms of honoring the commitments by the local bottler obviating legal route for collecting the dues from them as happened in our case and many others in this market. Also TN should re look at their tax components...probably this is the only state which still has VAT on alcohol. For example, if the billing price of a brand to TASMAC is 100, the end consumer price is 400....this is 300% margin to the state run TASMAC......compared this to an open market like Maharashtra.....7% WS margin and 10% retail margin. In FMCG its quite similar.......in KTK where the WS is run by government corporation, the WS margin is less than 10%. Only in Kerala the government levies more than 50% as their margin apart from duties and taxes.......and with almost nil investment.....this is what has to be discussed by the manufacturers and the state run corporations and come to some kind of understanding on the way the margins are kept and also involve CII for some kind of transparency.

2) UT of Pondicherry: As mentioned in my earlier blog, Pondy/KKL and Mahe-their USP is the cheaper MRP compared to neighboring states...there are local consumers who primarily drink middle ranged and the tourists...for the outsiders Pondy is no more cheap....everything in Pondy is expensive now...right from food to acco and booze....how the government can expect growth in tourism and revenue? As a tourist I dont find the price of booze attractive at all.....and the 20% tax on MRP towards covid tax....how pathetic the thought itself? The officer who gave this idea to the CM has to be blamed for this and turning this lovely market to a 'cheap' liquor haven.....Also restriction on so many things connected with alcohol.....land registration and revenue from alcohol are the only thing the state has any control and rest they expect the center to fund.....and they have started losing on alcohol....thats the fact......the administration should take cognisance of this and make the corrections to gain back the uniqueness of Pondy.....

3) Andamans....this is a small market compared to the rest but last year the administrator of this island has increased the duties and taxes and the prices of  all the brands shot up....this has resulted in consumers down trading to cheap alcohol....what else you expect?

3) Karnataka....the government do not interfere here as Seshan the officer who has designed the policy and running of KSBCL has done a remarkable job making all the stake holders equally happy. If your brands can sell KSBCL buys and pays you after sale.....as the entire retail is managed by the private.....but in the recent past and again last month the MRPs were revised thus pushing the consumers to trade down....another great market going the Kerala and TN way......

4) AP....lesser spoken the better. The only way AP can redeem is short term prohibition and after that open up and make the private to run the business....APBCL should be wound up.

5) Telangana: WS by government and retail by private. Works on brand pull and huge discounts...if you are small just do not even think of this market. 

6) Kerala: One of the worst markets in the country for any new entrant. The taxes are very high, making the MRP of premium brands unreachable to common consumers....the entry barriers support the local bottlers. Cheap liquor and cheap liquor and cheap liquor. The common liquor consumers do not know anything about what they are drinking. They are drinking due to habits and to get drunk. And they think by drinking brandy they wont fall sick....what a myth? And all cheap stuff...nothing but colored arrack.....successive governments have failed to address the unaffordable prices of the premium brands thus depriving god's own countrymen of enjoying good alcoholic beverages.

7) Delhi: The policy of Delhi is very unique and archaic. The Delhi excise policy helps only the biggies or those who have deep pockets.. as to enter this market, you have to fulfil lots of conditions that includes bond, bond fees, registration fees et al. Also they have imposed conditions that every category has a minimum level of volumes that brand should have achieved over a period if you have step in to this market. This is complete nonsense as it prohibits new companies. The exemption given is for imported brands and Bottled in India scotches. Even if someone comes out with a world class brand and picks Delhi to test market, forget it.....and Delhi has no infrastructure when it comes to alcohol. There is no local production of any raw materials and local bottling units. All the brands which are sold in Delhi comes from other states and Delhi happily allowing those brands and filling their coffers....This has to change. Also the retail trade is run by different government owned corporations.....this has been the age old practice and very archaic... Why should the corporations sell alcohol? And the consumers, most often, do not get what they want.....and there are brands in Delhi which sell huge volumes but will not find any space in other markets....

Most of the markets in India have some entry barriers just to protect the local bottlers....

Its time alcohol is brought under GST and from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and across the country there should be only one policy and the business should be given to private to run. Government should only keep strict controls and restrict the sale of alcohol and strictly impose the timings. When the government is involved in running the business their objective is to increase the revenue and hence they turn a blind eye to many things. No one wants to talk about alcohol as it would create a huge upheaval and politicised. If majority of the citizens say ban alcohol, lets do it but not selectively. Drinking is certainly bad for health but its a necessary social evil and hence there has to be strict vigilance by the government and also heavy penalties if someone faults...this includes drink n drive....if someone is caught driving after consuming alcohol, whoever it could be, it should be straight imprisonment....minimum of 10 days.....

 

Folks, I joined Herbertsons on 2nd November 1979. 43 years in this industry. Just 3 companies. I must have committed lots of errors and mistakes but havent done anything wilfully. Never ever taken away the distribution from one and given to another for any considerations. In some cases, in hindsight, I feel I should not have changed the distribution but at that time I felt it would be better for the company and did whatever I had to. Also at times, I have given distribution to non deserving persons due to pressure from the top. There are times I should have taken a stand but didnt. One such example is during IDV time when my boss wanted to increase the MRP of Green Label on par with McD whiskey, which was at that time perceived as premium and Green Label was at par with DSP, OC and Bagpiper....USL agreed to increase but last minute they didnt do it for Bagpiper....I told my boss not to fall prey but when he was stubborn, I meekly surrendered. The other one was the fiasco in AP with Green Label. We should have taken baby steps when we launched Green and tested the waters. Also for Telangana given the promotership to a local man instead a person in Vijayawada. This stupidity cost the fall of Green Label in AP.

I have quit Geoscope on 1st of April 23 as I felt that I should finally and fully retire from active business and allow younger guys to head and take the company forward. I have to do lots of convincing of my major partner but finally he saw the rationale and agreed. 

My high on Geoscope is the power brands we had created. None of us, self, Sudeep, Krithi and Vishal had any product development background but we have created world class brands both in terms of looks and content by our sheer passion. We took only the name 'Hobsons' from Bardinet but the entire presentation is ours. The strategy behind each of our brands is impeccable. Maker's Delight is really classic. The blend and the presentation. I hope the new team keep it as it is and do not get in to any make overs.

I would not like to do anything with alcohol any more neither with a fee nor free.....

I would like to thank those who had shaped me up and also played a role in where am today. 

1) I was with Detergents India selling Regal detergent cakes based at Trichy. I used to stay at Everest Lodge on Salai road, and one day I got a PP call on Gnanam stores, a kirana stores under my lodge. My brothers wife called me to inform that I got an interview card from Herbertsons. Later I realised that my brother RL Ravichandran put in a word to Sunil Abraham( an ex colleague of my bro at Averys) who joined HL at that time as ARM under KP Tomy and they called me for an interview. There were around 10 guys at the interview and Tomy asked me to sell a pen to him. I did a good job and got selected with a consolidated salary of 500.....So thanks to my brother and Abraham for this.

2) In HL, it was learning all the time....Even the competitors agree that Herbertsons was the best company in Liquor for a long time...even when it merged and they created USL people who were from other parts of UB used to say great about Herbertsons...thats because in HL we managed both consumer brands and alcohol which gave us so much of knowledge on managing the shelf space, merchandising and visibility....I was very raw but took my job very seriously. RS Rajendran who was my first boss was a very difficult guy but he had a soft corner for me and he helped me to explore other markets than those which were under me. Abraham had a special liking for me and worked with me in my markets number of times. Shankaran who succeeded RSR, was also very kind and supportive. KP Tomy another gem of a person. Very relaxed and nice. Then came Navratan Dugar.....lots and lots of learning. One thing which I follow even today is when I eat I do not waste anything. Even in weddings I only take what I can eat and leave my plate clean and empty. This Dugar practiced and I picked it up from him. My team in HL across the country. Every single one of them. My bosses in Herbertsons. Every single one of them. I had mentioned in my earlier posts many and thanked them too. When I got married, which was in Sep 86, and the moment I joined back after my holidays, Tomy told me that I am transferred to Kerala as ASM. My wife that time didnt want to go back to Kerala as she just shifted from there. I requested Tomy whether he could look at me for any other states and he immediately changed the place and given me AP (undivided) which was far bigger and better market than Kerala. This happened to be a turning point in my career. When DR took charge of sales n marketing in HL and during his maiden visit to Hyderabad, he told me to be ready to move back to Chennai....Naaz Rovshen (wonderful soul...stylish and very understanding), Deepak Desai, Rodney, Gerry in HR, Sanjit, Amar Sinha, Yatin, Luthra and VK Arora....Ashok Capoor another lovely boss....every one played a role. In Bombay I was a novice and ECB was a great help for me then along with Ram and Sebastian in our Regional office at Parel. In HO Vidya, Amita Arora and Mrs George......Kandan, Raghavan, Dwarak, KGR, Vivek, Mano, Guna and our dear Kalyan and Haran. JK was recruited by me and in TN team...JK is from Karnataka and his Tamil was just basic that time....and he has travelled with me till my Diageo days....Tomy transferred Mohandas from Kerala to Salem as HQ....and he did a fabulous job in Salem with his Mallish interspersed with Tamil...Aditya Gupta an MT at that time based at CBE...EJ Thomas in Kerala. HL regional office in Chennai..Sheigar, Murthy, Babu and Anbu and our beloved Bammal Shankar..Dattta the person to go to...his understanding of excise no one could match...and those days without a local unit in place, the supplies were from outside the state...Datta took the trouble of managing the entire logistics and even spent time in the borders of AP and Odisha to ensure smooth sailing of our trucks...AL Paramesh...another gem...none of us would forget his wedding...it was such a fun affair...and he had the guts to start his own at a very young age...he managed retail stores in Kumbakonam in partnership.....Ashraf during my earlier days in HL and Noor Mohmed.....Ashraf, I think, got us this gem of a guy Noor Mohamed...I am blessed to have had such wonderful team members.....And with most of them am still in touch.....The MSR group in AP. I wont forget the hospitality of Subbarama Reddy fondly known as MSR-1.....and his brother Sudhakar (MSR 2).....Madusudan Reddy(SMR), BSN Reddy, Sundar Rama Reddy, Suresh and Sudhakar. Also Vivek Reddy who was the owner of Pushkara Enterprises, Vizag.....It was always fun working with them and also the undivided AP market where both WS and Retail were managed by private individuals...it was tough due to the demands by the trade and also the stiff competition with in the group and outside but it was real fun and enjoyable. My team in HL AP...Jacob, Raju and Murthy with Reddy and Shanthi Kumar....Shanthi Kumar was very helpful and even drove me around in my fiat car even to outstations.....CHS, Satyapal, Rajaram Reddy, Prasad, Prasanna, Vikram, Eswaran and Guru in Nellore....great team but the problem that time in AP was the power our distributors wielded with our big boss...

I should also mention here Shivkumar Reddy the son in law of MSR 1. One of the finest professional I have ever met. We have been friends for ages now and it is because of him we got entry in Balaji Pondy to bottle. Someone who is always there to give inputs and a call away.

My HL days in other markets especially in Maharashtra....to start with Deepak of Candy and his lovely brothers Kishore and Suraj...Prakash of Pancharatna, Ghansham from U Nagar, Deepu and his cousins in Nagpur...Uday Bakshi from Sholapur...Mahesh Mehta from Indore, Bhatias from the same place.....Kerkars from Goa.....we were small in Maharashtra but this is one market where we had solid distributors....From our team, Deepak Katty, Rajinder Kalra, MS Chavan, Ravi Nambiar, Nagappa....Kailash Thole..great team....

I think HL pioneered in terms of conducting theme based regional conferences....and we always travelled together...whether I was in Chennai or Hyderabad or even Bombay.....even the first conference in IDV, I travelled with my team by train to Delhi from Bombay....And I think this helped us to forge the camaraderie...and that bonding still continues....

Its not that we didnt have fights...especially in 1983, when they split TN in to two and made myself and Kanda incharge of a region each...there was so much of under current and healthy competition between us....and I was very immatured also to pick up unwanted and unwarranted issues...but those things today we discuss and laugh it off....and one more thing is that our friends outside of our trade and company have become friends of the team...for example my friend Raman he is well known to the entire HL gang and also some of the trade partners.... 

IDV-Diageo....starting with Deepak Roy, who found something in me and instrumental in all my moves across and my progression....After that Amar Raj Singh....Sudeep who joined after a month of me joining in IDV and the journey still continues....Tony George the first HR guy, Debasish Roy (a great friend and HR professional), Roy Joseph and my buddy Nalin Garg....Mahesh Iyer, Rodney and Sridhar Iyer..Sridhar's rise to be the CEO of Pfizer India is an amazing success story..from just accounting and finance to managing one of the biggest Pharma companies...Salutes....Dr. Puri, John George and Nitin in mfg....AshwinDeo.....Sanjit..Aparna, Vibuthi..Santosh Kaniker...Darpan who was managing the Smirnoff portfolio at that time....Abhijit....Nitin Pitale, Ashish Monga, Rustom, Vipin, Dheeraj shetty, Sandeep damdhare, Rajkumar my CSD guy, Vikas Bhatia, Rahul Kashyap(another great find by me), Jasraj, T. Raghuram-he was in AP then to Kerala and to MP)....KGR, JKK, Shankar Iyer( another great find by me...he has scaled new heights in his professional life), Uthappa (heading 3 states for PRG now), Ratnakar (running a distribution company), Kannan (this guy is from Madurai TN and he not only learnt Kannada fast but also grew up in stature...today he is heading TI and made MH a million cases in KTK market) from Blr, Satyapal in AP, CHS and Srini all from AP......Sabapathy in Pondy.....Daisy, Andria, Maria, Pervin, Sarah, Yasmin, Andria,Asha, Felicity, Maurin, Jyothi in Blr office...Shanthi, Mukesh Verma, Arun Aditya in Delhi, John Rodrigues in Bombay office (a real asset).....and in DxB, Pramod Menon, Syama, Venkoban and Pradeep and all the bosses from UK...especially Ron Anderson, Simon and Ivan.....my lovely dealers in UAE.....AnE, MMI, Mohandas, Thampi, Bhatias and everyone in ME and Africa.....my IDV/Diageo distributors in India....Bhupi @Bombay, Pappu at U Nagar, Dhannu @Kholapur, Mehrab in Pune, Sunil of DV in Nagpur, Ananda Rao at Blr and his excellent team, RR in Pondy, Sarathy in AP and later Satyapal, KS Rajagopal, Satheesh, Harikumar, Sebastian, Jayaram @Mahe, BPS in Delhi and Punjab....Mac in Goa and also Kerkers....and my lovely team members through out my journey in IDV/Diageo....right from top to the bottom.....Sunil Lulla one of the finest marketing brains I have ever interacted with.....though his stint was short with IDV, he did create an impact and was instrumental in bringing the 'fun' element in IDV...And also we got some wonderful management trainees, who developed in to great managers...in Gaurav, Ashu and in finance Atul...the finance team in IDV/Diageo was a very hard working lot....irrespective of whom they were working with....Roland as the admin guy....never a dull moment....And in W&M, Nick Garland and the hero of WnM, Richard Patterson....

The Geoscope journey.....Rajshekar to start with....he was with USL based at Blr and was my neighbor, in Bombay....an ex Shaw Wallace guy and known him right from my HL Chennai days... and when I sought his help to get us connected with suppliers, he immediately took the phone and got us the leads....Choudhry of Glassex and Anil Mehta of Jai Glass. We wanted to develop labels and gift cartons and I approached my old HL contact Nishikant Shirodkar of Manohar packaging and he put me to his young and dynamic SIL, Aditya Patwardhan...this guy is an amazing person..everything at finger tips and very hard working..he was great in coming out with ideas and improvisations and show us number of options without getting irritated...his team in his factory Goa....we created all our labels and gift boxes with him and they are all world class...Ramrai from Guala India...he didnt treat us as small player and went out of the way to give us our small requirements...We had issues with our glass suppliers due to our small runs but Anil Bhai helped us thru Samyu Glasses for quite some time and also with his Colombo contacts...Haldyn Glass..they are continuing with Geoscope...Srinivas of AGI ....all our suppliers, Fairmax for their CnF....and Maran of MGM for honoring my request and giving us space in his unit to bottle..without his consent that time, we probably would have dropped Geoscope...A big thanks to Maran and MGM...Darpan for her initial association with us and also at a later stage whenever we sought her help...Kunal from Mumbai for developing few of our brands, Prabhat Barik for XO and Maker's...Menon for Wassup and LR whiskey.....Saju of Gemini for his fantastic never say die attitude, our distributors in South starting with Anand of Happy-Pondy, CS of Pondy and Ramdoss....Selvam of KKL, Senthil and Babu of DD, Suresh of GNS....Jairam and Santosh of WC Mahe, Venu and Sujit of Sastha Mahe, Krishnan of Mahe and George of Thirumal, Madhu from Yenam, Satyapal our dear Telangana and AP guy, Dwarak who spent some time with us managing AP, Rajeev, Jai Mohan, Subrat and MN Sridhar our start up team.... Prakash one of our oldest, Sundar, Suresh Babu, Ashok Kumar, Kamalesh, Amit Muthappa, Koteeswar Rao, Koteeswar, Kumaran, Vinay Patil, Dhamu.....Ayyakkannu....and our bottlers...Balaji Pondy...SAFL team, SNJ team, MBDL team....and all those who had contributed in some way in getting us in to the business.....Senguttuvan and Varadharajan....And our partner Bardinet...Neil and Jairaj for saying yes to us to bottle in Gemini....this was the second unit we started after SAFL in TN....My friends who stood with me thick and thin and always saying nice words about our brands and promoting in which ever way and extending help in getting us leads and contacts and above all motivating and encouraging us... my journey in this industry started on 2nd Nov 1979 and its 44 years now......This journey is something I cherished every minute and every incident......this industry has given me everything and thankfully I didnt get addicted to any of the highs this industry comes with....thank god for this...

I have thanked all those who came in to mind but probably missed many but its not by design....my wife Jeyanthi and my son Rithvic have also been great support to me by not cribbing about my long travel and erratic times...(when on market visits everything else is forgotten).

I have to also mention here Vishal Jaiswal, his brother Vaibhav and their entire family for being so nice to me and to Sudeep. His team members Vinod, Nikhil and Jayant Patil....Vishal really takes care of his team and the team is very supportive and loyal to him....

Self, Sudeep and Krithi we bonded well and are still great friends...Krithi, as mentioned earlier started his own consulting and doing great....Sudeep is heading Geoscope now and am sure Geoscope would go places soon and make it one of the top companies in this industry.....

I just wanted to capture my journey in this industry started on 2nd November 1979.....think covered most of it.....

Nothing to do with alcohol now....little bit of my Regression therapy and counselling sessions....lots of singing and travel....US trip is pending now....

I would also like to blog a lot on different things....will keep in touch and wish every one a great life....whatever you do, just enjoy doing it....

And thanks for going thru my blogs and responding with your views and comments...

Cheers and Au Revoir.....

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

Episode 41...

Geoscope journey....

I posted the UT of Pondy episode no 40 few days ago to select groups who are in the trade/business and based on certain feedback just adding a few points...

My team, especially the guys who were based at DeeKay unit, went thru a torrid time and the unit manager of DeeKay could do nothing without taking his boss's consent and most of the time it was a never ending ping pong game....the room for our guy allotted to them was un-livable with no provision for the rest room....they have to walk up to the security gate to use the common facility.

Our manufacturing was headed by Kumaran for a couple of years....he had two stints with us....the first was as unit manager-MBDL....he left and joined back as head of mfg...a good guy, very focussed and quick learner....he left us for good and started his own consulting....which is fine absolutely....Ravi of DeeKay sought his consulting on some brand n blend development....since we stopped supply of the French Grape Spirit raw material to DeeKay he made Kumaran to touch base with our Bardinet in France and set up a meeting with Ravi's son who was in France then....and Bardinet, as mentioned in my post earlier, a great partner, wrote to us stating that DeeKay is looking for direct supplies and some one is meeting him. I told Bardinet that they should not encourage this as we have a contract with them as exclusive buyer and seller for the bulk spirit...and it was promptly conveyed to DeeKay too.....Am saying this because, Ravi of DeeKay learnt a lot during our association with him on the nuances of our blends and also our world class presentations....Only the composition would be known to us but the rest is open....its a kind of knowledge bank....the bottler is not supposed to copy or replicate...this is professional ethics....Since our supply of the raw material to DeeKay is stopped he must be using something else now and hence the character of his final product would not be the same as before....

Also our own distributor was approached, when DeeKay was bottling our brands, that our brands can be given at half the market price...just to test whether it was true he ordered with that person a couple of cases and he got it at half the price...this is the way his factory was run....

Ravi and self, as written earlier, been friends from 1994.....when Ravi n Ramamurthy started RR....My trips to Pondy wont be complete with out a meal with Ravi.....and during his trips to Chennai too...both our families are also well bonded....also when I was in Bombay and in Dubai and during my trips to Chennai, Ravi used to spare his car for me with his driver Srinivasan....and during my trips to Pondy after the start of Geoscope, I used to spend minimum an hour with Ravi in his office discussing general things....in hindsight, I realise, I should have never gone for a bottling tie up with DeeKay. This has completely spoiled our friendship....sad but true.

Our case against ST department of Pondy is now 2 years old....first 6 to 7 months the department didnt even respond and later they came out with some defence....but the case is still lingering....this reminds me of the adage...'justice delayed is justice denied'......50 lakhs, our hard earned money, is languishing in BOB.....

This leaves a big question mark....if you are a small player, everyone wants you to remain small only......especially in this industry.....and those whose mercy you are in as a contract bottler, enjoys life in your expense....

I have also written in my earlier blog on how I enjoyed working in UT of Pondy....today the excise department of Pondy has decreed that no promos on alcohol to be conducted and if anyone found doing it, they would be penalised....this means big companies like Tilak Nagar, Diageo-USL and PRG would only stand benefited as they are well established and their brands enjoy maximum consumer franchise....small players have to now think outside the box.....Pondy excise is now clueless and they are completely oblivious of ground realities.....sad, a good market is now being spoiled....Also as mentioned in my earlier report, the covid tax which was introduced in 2020 is still continuing in Pondy the consumer prices of premium brands very high and hence no more attractive for the travellers.

Over with UT of Pondy......

And we kept expanding in to other markets too....We registered our LR Whiskey in Nigeria and started our supplies....Nigeria is a different kind of market....I had visited Nigeria a few times and I was quite surprised to see liquor being sold by the street vendors.....since the import tariffs are high and also the entry barriers, many customers bring stocks to the neighbouring countries and sneak it in to Nigeria....But we registered our brands and did some decent business but after the local currency got totally jacked, the business has come down badly in this, otherwise, huge and potential market....We sell in Bahrain and UAE.....Truebell is our authorised distributor in UAE....We have also sold a few containers directly to AbuDhabi National Hotels. The problem in UAE is getting entry in to the retail stores of AnE and MMI...also in Northern Emirates, Holiday Marines owned by Thampi and run by Gopan is very strong in the RTM and they have all the leading brands...despite my great rapport with all these customers could not get in to their outlets....this is another market if you have the right distributor with a very clear understanding of the RTM you can do well.

When I was in W&M, Lala and Rekhi, during one of their visits to Dubai asked me to do a project on IMFL in UAE and submit a report to them with my recommendations on RTM...thats the time I gone very deep in understanding how this RTM works for IMFL in UAE and got some ideas....During that period CeeCee was the sole distributors for USL and they were getting roasted by ABD's Officers Choice and also Seagram's (PRG) brands viz Royal Stag and Blenders....ABD gave their distribution to Thampi and Seagram kept the market open...I gave a white paper to Rekhi....flew down from DxB and met him in his office, in Blr....I recommended that they split the portfolio and offer the distribution to Truebell, Thampi and Bhatias-(Bhatias were strong that time)....The report bit the dust as USL's export business that time was handled by UB exports and they didnt like this idea. If it was USL's direct business, my recommendation would have been taken seriously and Rekhi and Lala would have executed it to perfection and USL would have gained immensely. But a few years ago, DiageoUSL did what I had recommended then. In general despite basic scotches selling at much cheaper at retail and almost on par with Indian brands in terms of consumer price, the IMFL category is still huge in UAE and also in Oman and Qatar.....but relationship is very important in these markets to get a share of the pie and also a good understanding how the consumers behave.

We started off with Le Roi' whiskey, brandy and Clovis with Truebell...but during my market visit some wholesalers opined that since our LR bottle was round in shape it is not picked up by the RTM guys and that made us to think and we brought in a square bottle exclusively for export....and TB did a good job in distribution but our luck was so bad, that Sanju who was heading the sales in UAE moved to ABD and all the efforts put in on LR fell apart....TB that time was distributing some vodka made in India and that company ran in to some financial issues and they were looking for another one....we decided to chip in and created our Wassup #Trendy Vodka....we used the same bottle of Hobsons with a wrap around label and bartop. The packing is fantastic. We created Chocolate, Orange and Green Apple all for UAE and export...we even exported some Chocolate to our customer in Nigeria....Something is not destined to happen for some market but the destiny takes it to other places....today we are selling Wassup # Trendy Vodka in TN and its doing decent numbers too...

I visited Indo China to explore the possibilities of selling our brands there and Sim David, a Singaporian, an ex Diageo connected me to one of the biggest distributors in Vietnam....spent around 3 days going around and understanding the RTM there.....

From Gemini we started selling to Chattisgarh. This market was originally an open market and the retail and WS were auctioned. The market was good but huge efforts for getting the money back. BJP government sometime in the mid 2000s took over the WS and later the retail too....this opened up the doors for small players like us. We started with our LR Whiskey and it was an instant hit. Sudeep did a great job in this market. This is the first market to introduce track and trace system...this means that from the point of production to the point of sale every single bottle would get tracked and you would know the stock position at the depot level, retail level and also how much you had sold....this is a fabulous piece of work done by Chattisgarh under BJP's Raman Singh. We supplied initially from our Gemini but Gemini failed us due to many issues. Our partner Vishal purchased a bottling unit in Raipur, which was defunct and built it from scratch and created a world class bottling plant in no time....we are currently supplying from this unit and selling almost the entire portfolio sans our brandies...(this market is not for brandy)

Sometime in 2018 we felt we should create a super premium whiskey and started working on that. We moved away from our earlier blender and to Janardhan Menon with a high pedigree in this field, an ex USL person....our LR whiskey, Wassup Vodka, GPL whiskey and GPL VSOP are all his creation only. But we wanted our whiskey blend to be unique and started searching for someone with skills which are world class and stumbled upon Prabhat Barik.....

He first created our GPL XO which is still the best in its segment, he is a thinker and technically super qualified. Our brief to Barik was that our whiskey should be different from others and consumers should feel the smoothness and an aroma which is very Scottish. Also we requested him whether he can get for blending Scottish malt matured in Sherry Cask....and blend it with imported Scottish grain.....it was a tough task but he came out with this brilliant blend.

Ashwin Deo, whom I knew from my UB days and also a great colleague from IDV?Diageo time. He shifted his base to Nagpur and was in to instant food business....he joined us and was with us for a short duration but contributed a lot in Maker's in terms of conducting the consumer research on the blend and also assisting us on the presentation. (sad he attained the golden feet of the creator a couple of years ago)....The blend n presentation came out very well...and I put on my thinking cap and wrote down the brand story....

Vishal, in partnership with another person, participated in the auctions in Punjab and got around 100+ shops across Jalandhar, Mohali, Amritsar and Ludhiana....and at the same time, Diageo walked out of the bottling plant of Vishal which was at Moonak. That left a vacuum. We felt there is an opportunity for our brands and started bottling our GPL Premium Whiskey and launched it. Also in Dec 19 we started bottling Maker's Delight in Moonak and launched it in Punjab. I personally handled the launch as Sudeep could not make it. Punjab is a tough market with cartels controlling the business in the retail trade. Cartels have their own interest and hence support those brands which are either distributed by them or they have a stake in that. Its a big market for Premium brands. No function in Punjab can go off with out alcohol. I have seen consumers buying in cases during festive times.....

Also when it comes to hospitality no one can match the Punjabis....I had a taste of their hospitality during the launch of Maker's (!). One cant leave the wholesaler's office with out tasting the local delicacies....it would offend them....I went to meet a WS just before lunch and after our half an hour discussions when we said we were leaving, we were asked not to leave and they served lunch immediately with all available options. This means that the moment we entered, they ordered these thru one of their staff and the food came in no time. And their lassi is something one should try....and the local sweets.....and when you drive thru the country side, during Nov/Dec, you would get jaggery spiced with ginger and cardamom.....another delicacy.....And the 'langar' at the Golden temple.....Punjab is a great place but the business is a bit complex.....the excise department works with a target.....and its export friendly state.....

We have explored options in other northern states and especially UP. 

UP is one state where the alcohol business was a kind of money spinner for a couple of big persons only. Yogi's government took the initiative and changed the policy in such a way, entry for every single player was made easy. We are yet to launch our brands here but am sure it would happen soon.

Currently we are available in TN, UT of Pondy, Karnataka, Telangana, Chattisgarh, Goa, Punjab and Delhi. 

We entered Kerala few years back and retrieved as we started losing money heavily due to the huge entry barriers.....its sad government is only looking at their revenue and not bothered about the suppliers predicaments especially that of small players. We had a taste of this....we still have to get some money from the corporation. They also introduced some 3 decades ago, turn over tax on local production....this made a huge dent in the bottom line of all the local bottlers.....I heard, recently, they had done away with this.....Kerala taxes are highest in the country and 90% of the market is cheap alcohol......

We are exploring Maharashtra, MP and Rajasthan but the entry barriers in these states are still a nightmare for small players.

We submitted our application to CSD in 2014 and we got our first brand approved a couple of months ago.....

In the last 13 years we have been exploring many options and still are....we have fantastic world class brands in Hobsons, Clovis, Le Roi' brandy and Whiskey, Geo's Premier League VSOP, XO and Premium Whiskey, Wassup Vodka, GPL VSOP and Maker's Delight.

We are proud of our creations and are confident soon these brands would scale new heights.....

I learnt a lot in the last 13 years as a entrepreneur. The foundation was well laid with my stints in HL-UB, IDV/Diageo and W&M.....

Next episode would be a different one....

Till then Au Revoir!  

 Exercising options....myth or true?

                     or

Options vis a vis thrust upon.....

Many people at some point or other have options staring at them, gets confused and finally choose the one which they are comfortable with, right? And many go by past experiences and if they are very young and had no experience, they take the advice of the parents, siblings, friends, mentors et al and sometimes 'go with their guts'....and some go to the temples and look at the deity there take the almighty's permission and then decide....

And many a times and many of you regret why you chose that path/option...and start blaming those who influenced you to take that decision/path and if it were taken on your own, start blaming yourself and play the victim card, right?

Sometimes, when one is thrown at, many options, we feel good and happy looking at the choices available, right? There are many cases, right from our epics....Swayamwaram for example....the princess is given a garland, she goes around the suitors who are anxiously waiting to be 'picked up' and chooses whom she feels is her partner/soulmate.....in todays world too this happens to majority of the boys and girls....and finally the boy or girl have to decide on one and get married to that person or have a live in relationship....this is what is happening around the world and as we all know many of them end up in some kind of problem....and today since many do not have the time and patience things break down faster than yesteryears....

When you complete your school and have to choose your college or courses....options again....then masters and interviews....if a person is lucky there would be a couple or even a few to choose from.....

Which movie to watch, what brand of TV to buy....which location my home should be....what vehicles....which bank is good to have my SB account....which company's stock to invest....where to put in my money.....many options, right?

Even in sports right from Tennis and Badminton.....the winner of the toss can choose to serve....in Cricket the winner of the toss shall choose fielding or batting....

The captain chooses batting first.....and scores big and wins....kudos to the captain, coach and the team....right? But he loses the match....the blame would come on him for exercising his option...right? in this case the outcome is attributed exercising his option...right? 

So exercising the options....

Just imagine a situation where the captain loses the toss and made to field or bat....the outcome of that match, cant be attributed to the decision of this captain as he was not asked to choose and he was thrust....understand the difference between exercising one's option and doing what is given...

The idea of writing this blog is  just to make the reader that sometimes left with no option/choice is better than looking at 'problem of plenty', right?

Let me take my professional life....my first job as medical rep with Win Pharma.....this just happened.....and to Selco marketing selling Jackpot bonus stamps.....one interview and got thru....Herbertsons....again one interview and got thru.....IDV/Diageo....hand picked by DR.....W&M....hand picked by VJM....Flemingo and Geoscope....in all the above till Flemingo I didnt have any other options....I never bluffed to any of my employers that 'I have a couple of offers and will decide and get back'....I just took what was given/available....I didnt have to choose as there was no options available to me....Only time I have to exercise the choice given to me was when we started Geoscope...whether to take the plunge or be with Flemingo.

I also know few who exercised the options available to them both in their professional life and personal life and still cribbing....playing the victim card very often...

In my case since I didnt have to pick from a lot and have to go with the one that was available at that time, I feel am lucky and enjoyed my professional life thoroughly as I didnt have to think 'why I chose this?'....

I have seen people tossing options in front of their famous deity and picking up one and still complaining.....

So guys whats your life's lesson? Chosen from options/choices and happy or otherwise? Or just doing what you got and enjoying or otherwise?

Pl take a deep breath, hold it, release....think whether your life had given you the joy of exercising your options or the other way....and the outcome of whichever it was....enjoying life or otherwise.....pl share.....

Cheers.....

 

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

Episode 40...

UT of Pondy and DeeKay...

I had mentioned in my earlier blog the issues we faced with Gemini...when we started bottling with Gemini, their IMFL bottling line was unused and they were just doing some qty of Breezer. After we started off and almost after 2 years, they allowed Kyndal to bottle and followed by Bacardi Carta Blanca....It was just one bottling line, limited storage space to accomodate storage, blending n holding tanks and FG storage....meanwhile, Breezer also picked up volumes...the breezer production was in a different bottling line which is fully automatic and state of the art line....and this line was in full swing... When we started bottling, Saju was the manager there with Sunil and Arundekar managing finance and bottling hall..Saju is a good guy with very good understanding of the plant and also good equations with the state excise department....Gemini management brought in another person in place of Saju and our problem started....we also had some constraints as we had invested in Gemini with scanner for bottling Chattisgarh stocks and hence kept Gemini only for Chattisgarh and moved our other brands to Pondy....

I had mentioned that we started bottling 90ml in DeeKay in Pondy to start with, and as it didnt create any perceived quality issues, I spoke to the owner of DeeKay, Ravi (in short) and made it very clear to him that we are shifting our entire production to his unit and will bottle not only for the UT of Pondy but also for other markets....My request to him was that he should spend money to improve the quality of the bottling hall, lab, warehouse and also office for our guys and rest room facilities (the rest room was constructed after 4 years and that also one has to walk for 10 minutes to reach there) I also told him that we are taking a big risk bottling Hobsons in his unit as consumers perception of bottled in Pondy is not that positive. He was very happy to bottle such premium brands in his unit and he signed off with us....wherever we start bottling, we ensure we have a joint account to deposit our receivables from our distributors. This was also agreed upon....and we started Hobsons, Clovis and Le Roi' there. He agreed for all the above, and assured us he would work on the working conditions in the factory.

If you are wondering why we went to DeeKay inspite of his not so good reputation and why not other units...the answer is...1) in 2013/14, Balaji was USL's bottler and USL was averse to bottle any other brands other than their own...2) Other units were Premiere, Vinbros and RK Distilleries.....Vinbros is very professional and yes, I should have gone to him but my distributor in Mahe vehemently opposed that as he said Vinbros has a very negative image there and since I considered DeeKay, owned by Ravi, a good friend of mine and decided to go with him....the condition of the unit was pathetic as they were only doing cheap liquor there when we tied up and they felt for bottling cheap liquor the unit was more than sufficient....they did some work due to pressure from us on the unit but not sufficient....we somehow managed to get our products without any compromise on quality, using our relationship with their manager and work force....my unit manager was not happy working from there as he didnt get his due respect. I took up many of these issues with Ravi but he never bothered to address them. Also he was very dependent on his deputy Sivanandam, who, somehow didnt bother to improve the infra at the unit. The advantage of bottling in a local unit was always there as the service of orders were very quick and most of the time it was delivered on the same day if it was local. Also my distributors didnt have to invest huge amount on duties and take full loads. We could supply small quantities too....The turn around time for KKL was couple of days and only for Mahe, as it has to cross KTK and Kerala borders it took some time. Ravi also has 3 retail outlets and a bar and two WS. We started supplying him directly for his own outlets which helped us to improve our volumes...as said earlier we opened up the market in Pondy and Mahe and this strategy really helped our brands to grow. But our problems were not over with DeeKay. When we were developing our GPL XO our master blender visited  DeeKay and told me in no uncertain terms that we should change the unit. We had lots of internal discussions and decided to change the bottling source in Pondy and I approached my dear friend Shivkumar who was managing Balaji Distilleries at Pondy....and when I started the discussions in mid 2019. Balaji got few brands of Diageo USL on a royalty basis and hence Shiv took the bold decision of tying up with us for bottling. The bottling plant of Balaji is world class and managed by a very professional team. And Shivkumar is one of the finest humans to deal with. Just before the start of our bottling, Balaji went for a major renovation and improved everything in the unit.....

Now the challenge was to come out of DeeKay with little bruises. It is not like FMCG where you can come out of an unit with out much hassle. In this industry, you cant use labels, gift cartons and shippers of one unit in the other one. So the planning has to be fool proof to avoid any major write offs....I broke this news to Ravi and told him we are shifting because of some internal things and it has nothing to do with him or his unit....Also requested him to allow us to bottle till the RM/PMs last....Also another 'to be done away with' thing with many of the state excise is that you have to get an NOC from the existing bottler while applying for label registration of another unit....and the existing bottler, more often, delays this....just sadistic pleasure....As mentioned earlier we started bottling our XO with Balaji just before Diwali 2019 and XO was an instant hit....

But our friend Ravi of DeeKay started acting funny. Balaji did not have an import permission and hence could not start with Hobsons immediately as to get the impex license would take around 3 months. So we were forced to continue with DeeKay for some more time and I requested Ravi and he agreed but with a smirk in his face....Also DeeKay started some new brands and we were supplying them FGS....it was a smooth operation and not connected with our bottling. But sometime in February 2020, one evening I got a call from my unit manager that the FGS (raw material for our Hobsons -French Grape Spirit-FGS) of ours which was stored in a specific area-around 6 barrels-were found missing....this is a shock.....I called Ravi and as he didnt pick up called Sivanandam. He first feigned total ignorance and later accepted that they wanted the FGS and his guys have hence moved those barrels to their side of the warehouse...I got so infuriated, I blasted this guy....I told him by next morning I want all the 6 barrels back in to our custody....I knew it was all done with Ravi's knowledge. Had I spoken to Ravi that day it would have ended up our termination immediately....the barrels were returned next day...but thats not all.....this is the beginning of all the hostilities.....We have to beg for our bottling line....unlike the earlier times.....delayed giving us the NOC.....packing materials transfer was delayed everyntime a request was given.... Anyway, my constant talks and push was required every time as my team faced total resistance from Ravi, his factory manager and Sivanandam. As DeeKay owned couple of retails and a bar and these outlets had good potential we were also supplying them directly and that was a decent business especially for our Hobsons and Clovis.....and this also got strained because we started bottling from Balaji. As explained earlier nothing is easy when it comes to severing ties and going to another unit.....one has to take cognisance of the materials the unit is holding and the time it would take to clear these materials to bring down the write offs....while some of the PM can be transferred and snickered to salvage write offs, it is very difficult to transfer the raw materials like ENA and special spirits..... 

Ravi told me while signing up few years ago, about the issues with the local sales tax department on some levies they had slapped on his unit. Ravi bought this DeeKay bottling unit which was almost defunct and during that time Pondy had some tax holidays (those days there was local sales tax on alcohol too but later the government abolished the tax and instead introduced additional duty on alcohol-the idea being to collect the entire revenue in one shot....just to elaborate...when the wholesaler wants to lift stocks from a bottling plant, he has to apply for a permit by paying no of cases x the duty amount.....they get the permit. When there was sales tax, the supplying unit has to invoice the basic amount plus the excise duty and on that they charge the applicable local sales tax....while the duty amount is realised even before the dispatch is made, the sales tax which is charged by the unit  would be realised by the department anytime between 30 to 45 days....after abolishing the sales tax the government introduced the additional duty thus the money on applying for a permit would be no of cases x basic duty + additional duty....so money realised without any sweat....when Ravi bought the unit the government had some tax holiday on the sales tax and Ravi enjoyed this till the ST was abolished....but the ST authorities slapped a notice on him stating that he was not eligible for the tax holiday citing some legal issues in his license....do not know much about it and hence not elaborating on the nuances...but Ravi said very clearly to all of us that it has gone to the tribunal and he would win the case....since we were in no way connected with this, I didnt bother much. When I say we, Geoscope, in no way connected with Ravi's issue what I mean is that when we started bottling with his unit, there was no sales tax...the government had already abolished it....

Some time in 2019, one of their bank account, where the customers used to transfer the duty amount and also payments, got frozen by the ST department, citing the failure of DeeKay to pay the disputed amount, and the customers were asked to transfer the duty amount to the SBI account and the Geoscope's dues to our Axis bank account in Chennai, which we did but we continued with our joint account as we all felt that the ST department has no right over the joint account..also the dues from the corporations were coming to our joint account....we started moving all our brands to Balaji and gave those labels, with DeeKays NOC to the excise and were waiting for starting up in Balaji....we even started our Maker's Delight (more about this later) for supplies to Andhra from Balaji....this started sometime in Jan 2020....

Meanwhile, the ST department of UT of Pondy wrote a letter to BOB to freeze our joint account...this was in March 20 just before the lock down. And when BOB informed us we gave a letter to BOB with cc to ST department that they have no right to freeze a joint account as this money is Geoscope's and this tie up with DeeKay was only 4 to 5 years old and from day 1 there was no sales tax in Pondy as the tax was done away with much earlier. ST department didnt respond and BOB raised their hands. We moved the court and got a stay on this. The money was not sent to the ST department and neither we realised the money. We made it very clear to DeeKay that this is their issue and we should get back our money and this should be paid by DeeKay to us....We also got a letter from DeeKay that they would pay us 2 lakhs per week as around 10 lakhs got stuck with our bank due to this ST freeze in March 2020...they even paid for 2 weeks....and sometime in Feb/March 2020 DeeKay placed an order with us for FGS and as per our understanding they have to pay us in advance...they were a bit apprehensive about it as the money stuck in our joint account was close to 10 lakhs and they thought, rightfully so, that this money would be adjusted against the amount frozen in our joint account. I called Ravi and told him that he should pay us the 10 lakhs and we will release the stocks. He personally assured me that he needs the spirit and he would release our money after receiving the stocks. I had my own apprehension on this but since we are a very professional organisation, we decided to service their order....am writing this as I want you to know that we behaved like a true professional company but did Ravi fulfil his promise? He didnt......we gave a representation to APBCL (AP distribution company) and TBCL (Telangana distribution company) to send their payments to Geoscope account instead of the joint account. While APBCL agreed Telangana didnt....despite our pleas, Telangana corporation transferred the payments to the frozen joint account and the money still lying in that account is 50 lakhs....

And the lock down happened......after the first lock down things have started moving slowly...LG of Pondy Mrs Bedi took charge of excise and changed the entire team, who had absolutely no clue about this department and how it generates revenue for the government..also they suspected their own staff. And they went hammer and tongs after the trade and closed many wholesale and retail and also closed RK Distilleries and Premier bottling units and kept DeeKay, Balaji and Vinbros under tight leash....when the lock down was lifted in the first week of May, Pondy excise levied covid tax...this was started by Delhi but with in 3 months Delhi done away with that......and Pondy went a step further.....they increased the prices of all the brands to the level of the neighboring states....for example Mansion house brandy's MRP was raised to that of TN MRP in Pondy and KKL, to that of Kerala in Mahe and that of AP in Yenam....they released brand wise prices too .....The WS were asked to pay the increased amount along with that duty amount thus the credit given to the retail trade went up for the wholesalers...ideally they should have collected the covid tax-the extra levy-at the last point which is retail.....Fortunately this was a major boost for our LR brandy, VSOP and XO.....as these brands were not sold in TN, AP and Kerala and the demand started skyrocketing for these brands....but the excise has put in lots of restrictions in releasing import permits for the wholesalers and also import of raw materials including the basic spirit.....this has resulted in orders not getting serviced on time....meanwhile, we realised DeeKay forgot to renew our brands for 2020-21 before the lock down and this created major delay in bottling and dispatching some brands from this unit...DeeKay need to register some brands to clear the finished goods lying with them. With the restrictions imposed by the excise department on every single thing business almost came to a standstill....those who are running the business, the WS and retail were clamouring for stocks....and with 2 units shut and the remaining on low output due to non availability of raw materials.....after the 1st lock down the availability of basic raw material-neutral alcohol-which has to be imported from outside the UT of Pondy, became scarce and hence a major hit on the business. DeeKay was running helter skelter to get things going and finally with great difficulty they got the permission. Balaji and Vinbros started early after a proper inspection by the excise. Some WS which got shut reopened. But even after paying the label registration fees, (lock down was announced on 23rd of March and hence there was delay) it took quite some time for us to get the labels registered and till then one could do nothing. I was, from Chennai, trying to speak to the deputy commissioner and never could get him on the line and my whatsapp messages were never answered. Sent e mails to the LG but no response....our brands were high on demand especially the XO, VSOP and Le Roi' across Pondy, Karaikkal and Mahe. But the outstandings till March from my direct distributors were also coming in trickle as they were not realising their money from the market due to lock down....and my team with the limited access and covid fear worked hard to make things happen.....We got an overseas export order during that time and it took almost 4 months for us to get the permission of the excise department.....those people had absolutely no clue.....it was the worst period for the liquor business.......not only this....but in general it was tough time for the industry as a whole....finally when we got the approval of label we wanted to bottle our VSOP with DeeKay to exhaust the materials, we figured out our ENA which was lying with them--over 12000 litres for 3000 cases were utilised by them without getting our consent...this was the ENA which was paid by us and lying with them un-utilised due to shut down and other issues and unabashedly Ravi of DeeKay decided to go ahead and use it without even informing us..even his unit manager or Sivanandam didnt bother to inform our guy who was based at DeeKay....This is the problem of tying up with a bottling unit as everything there is in their name and in crisis situations we were just left helpless....I took the phone and spoke to Ravi and his response was very casual....he told me 'yes I used it as I needed it....we will pay you'.....that moment he lost whatever respect I had for him and the 35 years of relationship and more than that a great friendship and family tie up-the twine got cut....I shot out a WhatsApp message and he immediately responded by saying sorry for what happened....and when we followed up for the money which got stuck in the bank he refused to entertain us...he was to pay and clear it every week....nothing happened. We moved most of our materials and decided to clear the materials of VSOP and worked towards that facing huge delays....since DeeKay was not paying us the money, we approached our advocate and filed a case against Sales Tax department of UT of Puducherry, in June 20, and brought DeeKay also in to that case as a co respondent. I informed Ravi that we will have no options but to file a case and he didnt even bother to respond...We learnt from ST department that the amount they slapped on DeeKay was, hold your breath, 18 crores.....in our affidavit we accused the ST department of not taking any action by freezing other bank accounts of DeeKay, taking control of their bottling unit, their retail stores and bars and also his new unit of secondary distillation coming up in Pondy....we cited all these in our affidavits and the case was filed in June 2020.....this case is still going on and yet to see the light of the day......

Geoscope completely severed its links with DeeKay in all formats...Ravi got upset and stopped talking to me...our guys go there and meet Sivanandam to sort out any issues which are old....they still not cleared or paid us money for the raw materials still lying with them. He is doing roaring business with in UT and his biggest market today is Karaikkal with the same Ding Dong....this Ding Dong was brought to him by me.......When Ravi started this unit, whenever he needed some inputs, he used to call and I had never hesitated to provide him inputs/advice....when I was in Dubai, I asked him to come down and introduced him to some traders who were looking for tetra pack of IMFL.....Whenever I visited Pondy one meal would be always with him.....our families know each other well and he has attended our family functions and vice versa....such a close relationship got spoiled because he felt that the tie up partners can be dumped and they would not retaliate....I told him once that we are a very small n loss making company unlike his and requested him to clear all our dues including the frozen amount of 50 lakhs....as always no response....After Mrs Bedi and those who were appointed by her, got transferred, a new team of DC and commissioner took charge...Mr Kumar was appointed as the commissioner of excise and ST.... I met him a couple of times and requested him that they should unfreeze our account explaining the logic behind and also questioned him on why his department-since he was holding incharge of both excise and sales tax-was not going after DeeKay by freezing his shops, units and other bank accounts?

The removal of covid taxes helped to increase our business but that was very short lived....Pondy introduced a tax of 20% on the MRP on 19th of July 2021 and that changed the whole market dynamics....the retail prices almost equalled that of TN and AP barring the cheap liquor...due to this down trading started happening.....but this benefited a very few and one of them Tilak Nagar Distilleries.....The USP of Pondy is lost permanently.....it lost its charm of being 'consumer friendly with low prices'......The moment I got the wind of this impending 20% on MRP, I met up with the commissioner and the DC and pleaded them not to implement this as it would affect the premium brands but they didnt want to listen.

From my experience, it is very difficult to rescind any decision of excise once it is implemented....the first we faced was in Maharashtra when the then excise commissioner introduced the new excise tariff....it was, I think, in 1997 or 98.....the tariff still continues.......So the industry has to come together and protect the interest of not only the manufacturer but also the WS (these guys are the worst sufferers as it is their money which is invested in the market) the retailers and also the state where revenue is prime......and the state should be very open to discuss the pros and cons of  any new policy, take the feed back, weigh the options and decide....today most of the markets are turning out to be cheap liquor markets due to heavy local tariffs....example is TN....80% of TN's spirits business is cheap liquor.

Before I close this episode of UT of Pondy....let me also say here some of the best things here.....its open market, mostly consumer driven, some very good distributors in Kalathil, Wine Center, Sastha, Thirumal all at Mahe, Ding Dong KKL, Vasantharaja Pondy and Balaji distilleries.....and you need to micro manage in these kind of markets to ensure smooth running.......

I wrote this blog and reviewed it few times as I normally take good and bad in my stride and never get stuck....but there are three whom i feel deserve to be known for their wrong doings to fellow professionals/partners in the business...one is Samsudeen, second one is Natrajan of MBDL and the 3rd one is Ravi of DeeKay....the first two I never had any major personal relationships but with Ravi it was friendship.......and it still hurts......

More of AP, Chattisgarh, overseas and Geoscope in the next one....

 

 Life before n after marriage....

A deep dive and understanding.....

As some of you know am a therapist too. I am going to narrate the issue of a client of mine (taken his permission...no names and certain things were tweaked to keep the secrecy) who came to me with a very stressful married life. He felt he had to put on a face at home and compromise/adjust a lot...

This client of mine was referred to me by another happy client of mine. This guy is in his mid 40s..In my first intake session he told me about the issue he is having with his wife. This person, during his bachelorhood was a different guy, like many of us. This guy climbed up the corporate ladder very quickly and became VP of an FMCG at the age of 35....very successful and well respected in the industry and in his company too (incidentally I knew his boss too and once heard his boss talking very high of this guy). At the same time, he used to also have a great time with his friends and family. He was born with 3 sisters and 2 brothers. 6 in total and very closely knit family. Also a vibrant friends circle....he fell in love with a girl who was working with competition(!). They met in some industry meeting and started seeing each other...this guys family was very supportive but the girls side was not in favor....but finally after lots of persuasion-done by his elder sister and elder brother with the parents of the girl-they got married. This girl had a brother and a sister but was raised in a protective environment...and she was the last child to the parents and hence lot more pampering than the other two...After these two got married, life was very rosy with periodical visits by friends and family members and our guy was all euphoric with life. The woman was also very fond of him.

But the girl started getting a bit frustrated and indifferent with his friends and family members especially the sisters.....and even in his friend circle she started disliking many of them. This guy never bothered initially and used to call them on weekends or go to their place to spend time....not much of drinking but lots of fun together. Since both of them earned well, they had a cook, maid n driver et al. Very comfy life....two kids were born too.....but the issue with the wife became worse as she started disliking anything from his side so much so she stopped eating things coming from his sisters home and also some of the friends....but never shown this dislike outside. She decided to take a break from her professional life and since this guy was well established and climbing up the ladder well, it didnt matter. This guy enjoyed being with his friends and family but many a times the wife refused to go with him, making it embarrassing for this guy.....and over a period of time, many of his friends realised this guy would come alone only for the parties and accepted it....but it didnt leave a good feel....he tried reasoning with her but in vain....so to cut the long story short, while professional life was beautiful and rewarding personal life-as he wanted it to be-was frustrating for him and also for the wife. As per him, the wife should have given him the space as he felt, she is happy being at home with the kids....but she cribbed a lot and finally started abusing friends and his sisters which this guy could not take....this led to lots of fights/stress/sleeplessness/sloppy in the office and finally the visit to me....

After the 'take in', I made it clear to him that his wife also should come for the therapy as I wanted to hear her side of the story....I dont want to get in to the details of the therapy but I figured out there was underlying deep love between these two and I worked on the therapy based on that....the issue was between 'protectionism' and 'liberalism'. The women's problem was 'possesiveness' but the guy wanted lot of people around.....its not that they have not gone on holiday together or spent time together but the women felt there should be no one else other than her who could be so close to him....this guy grew up with lot of people around and also at home it was always fun n frolic before marriage. His argument was that his understanding of life and how he wants to live is curbed by this woman. He is committed to her but he wants to enjoy the life outside of the family too....and he told me in her presence....'when i was single, I never bothered to ask my friends or my family members whether I can drop in? I would just go there, eat whatever was available and sleep where ever space was....also with my friends no inhibition....we used to wear others clothes, use others towels, shaving razors and live the life of 'foot loose fancy free'....and i enjoyed every moment of that....today I feel very stifled....I am expected to be formal which is alien to me and I feel terrible to put on a face which is not mine....even when I go to my in laws place, my wife advices me how I have to behave....and I get stressed because of this and it I become cold and unsocial.....this is not me....I dont like this way of living'.....when he said this the inner child in him was so open and obvious and tears rolled down....his wife sat motionless listening to this outbursts....I let go off the steam of the guy and started the session with the wife....she was brought up in a different environment where everything was formal and nothing happens without others knowledge et al...a typical conservative family but outwardly all smiling and hanging out with friends et al. But the DNA of her was 'orthodox and formal'.....initially after the wedding, the other part of her started enjoying the husbands circle but the inner children in her kept popping out and making her feel 'guilty'....this led to eruption of anger and disgust....she felt her space was taken by the husbands sisters and friends and the IC in her started sulking.....this led to more fights, tears and continued.....

The regression therapy worked well for both of them as one after another the inner children kept coming out crying, complaining n sulking....every IC that came out was healed and integrated with the adult....(technicalities).....but at the end of the sessions the wife realised how her IC took over and the logic behind her behaving like a child.....I have also done similar therapy to the guy and healed his IC.....finally since there was love between these two, they decided to live reconcile and lead a life of joy and happiness and give enough space to the other person and allow that person to enjoy his time with those he wants to enjoy with....this lady realised how important it is to live the life by practicing detached attachments...and also identify the inner children (IC), bring them out, understand the issue as an adult, get the IC healed and integrate the IC with the current day adult. (I have explained this Inner Children in a video a couple of years ago...you can watch this on YouTube). The same for the guy too....but this issue is not just confined to these two...I had come across many such cases as a therapist and my question to the couple would always be whether there is love between them....If there is love anything is reconcilable....

Also the DNA factor.....this is pure science....not metaphysics....the DNA of men and women dates back to stone age where the primary responsibility of men was to protect those inside the caves from the external miscreants that includes deadly animals...his job was action oriented...protect, destroy miscreants and provide raw materials....the women inside the cave have to ensure the inmates are fed with whatever raw materials she got....and it is 'process' based....if you corelate these two factors....men are action oriented and women are process oriented....and it continued for centuries and still continuing....since men are action oriented, they follow the Nike tag line 'just do it' and forget after done....and leave the rest to the home maker....they go to office, work, earn money and come back home and relax....thats the DNA.....and women they process whatever is given to them....for example, if there was a fight in the morning and the husband said something like 'my mom makes better sambhar'....he would have just made this statement as a 'matter of fact' and left it there....the wife against whom this is said, would not have reacted immediately as this is, at the time of utterance, was just raw vegetable....it takes time for the raw vegetable to process inside her....the husband comes back in the evening and typical conversation would be 'why did you say that in the morning?'....typical answer...'what did I say?'....because he would have said many a things from morning till his return to his base, to different people and may not remember many a things of what he uttered....'you said your mom makes better sambhar'....'oh, did I....so what?'.....the fight would then start till one of them give up....usually it would be the husband as he has to get on with life and probably watch the EPL or IPL....

Today things are changing....women are also becoming action oriented as they keep climbing up the ladder and in the process they sometime suppress the 'process' DNA but it would keep popping up....Men whether employed or not employed, senior leader or just an officer, this 'action' DNA keep popping up.....

It would take probably a century for the DNA to dissipate...till then life would be easier and enjoyable if the partners understand the DNA and IC factor. Life means different things for different people.

So sharing the therapist's wisdom...but before that pl understand that therapy is customised and not 'one size fits all'....

The general wisdom now.....before you get in to a wedlock, pl spend enough time with your fiancee, understand every iota of that person, likes, dislikes, IC, family members, friends circle, body odour and the inner self....tough one but make efforts to do this....even if you crack 60% of the above and still love that person go ahead and get married...otherwise dump that person and start the process all over.....

And in general, pl live your life....want to go to your friends home and spend time, do it....want to visit your folks, pl do it.....want to spend time all by yourself pl do it.....give importance to what the gut feels and says....make it simple....because the 'GUT' never fails us....

If there is an issue pl accept....if you have to go for counselling pl do....mind matters....when you have a problem with any body part you would not hesitate to visit a physician....like that if there is an issue with your mental stability, pl accept and visit a therapist....

Cheers for a freaky living....god bless.

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

Episode 39...

UT of Pondicherry......

I have a special liking towards Pondy....my first visit to Pondy was when I was working for Selco Marketing Pvt Ltd based at Trichy selling a concept called Jackpot Bonus stamps....After successfully launching it in Trichy and adjoining areas was sent to Pondy to study the market and launch it there....I reached Pondy by bus from Trichy and after visiting customers and getting some positive response, some one told me that I should not leave Pondy without having alcohol....mind you guys those days TN was dry....So went to a small bar on JN Street end almost near the sea....and my first drink in Pondy was a bottle of beer called Burtons Export Lager from Khodays.....I still remember paying INR 2.50 for a bottle of beer.....those were the days my friend....

During my Herbertsons days I was given UT of Pondy and KKL too....but those days the market was very small. IDV/Diageo days launched all the brands in the UT....I always enjoyed my market visits in Pondy, Mahe and KKL....private retailers, warm and friendly and consumer driven. In Herbertsons Mahe was handled by Kerala due to its proximity...My first visit to Mahe was as RM of HL....this is another market which is very interesting and exciting to work. Yenam, I got familiarised during Geoscope days only but Yenam is totally different from rest of UT....

Coming to Geoscope, as mentioned in my earlier post, we launched Geoscope with our Hobsons in Pondy as TN was getting delayed. We tied up with Gemini Goa and stocks were exported from Goa to Pondy, Mahe and Karaikal. Launch of Hobsons was sometime in June/July 2011.....we were quite thrilled with the response we got from Pondy....Pondy and KKL can be classified as 1) local consumption (predominantly cheap and up to the medium range of brands in terms of price points and not so much of premiums), 2) Smuggled outside (based on demand but primarily from the border areas of KKL and Pondy) and 3) the visitors (visitors from other states go for premium brands and if they are from TN they would opt for brands which are not available in TN) The visitors business is a floating one and confined to few outlets only, both in KKL and Pondy. Also the smuggling is seasonal and mostly cheap. UT of Pondy had an USP of low prices in the region, across categories - be it alcohol, consumer goods, electronics, vehicles et al....but with the introduction of GST that USP is almost gone except 4 wheelers where the road tax you pay in Pondy is still comparatively low and to some extent alcoholic beverages. Mahe is also similar but apart from local consumption, there is lots of influx from the border towns adjoining Mahe. There is also some smuggling which goes out of Mahe and also people carry by train and buses....but the Kerala government tortures the bus passengers and even if they are carrying a couple of bottles for their personal consumption it gets confiscated and sometime a penalty too....I am surprised why no PIL is filed against this unfair practices of TN/Kerala and AP excise departments. While smugglers should be penalised heavily and even put behind bars, the regular travellers and consumers who carry a couple of bottles for their own consumption should not get ill treated and tortured. Pondy/Mahe/Yenam/Karaikkal are all part of India only. Air travellers used to carry 5 bottles from Delhi domestic departure lounge when the prices and offers were so attractive....the Chennai or Calicut or Vijayawada airports didnt stop them nor the respective excise departments. This is nothing but humiliation of a genuine consumer.....its time the GOI or the judiciary come out openly and allow the travellers to carry bottles for personal consumption. I can carry even a couple of boxes when I come from Bangalore and no one stops or cares but only from UT....and currently the UT prices are not attractive also except cheap liquor.

Anyway coming to the Geoscope journey....Hobsons and Clovis got fabulous response and based on the feedback we also launched Le Roi'. Le Roi' was launched in 2012 just before Diwali and normally after Diwali the alcohol business becomes a bit slow in Pondy and KKL and LR took the brunt of it....also Anand of Happy Liquors our distributor was unable to do justice for our brands as he was inundated with plethora of brands and was confined to selling what was demanded....we appointed his brother Selvam in KKL and it was nightmare dealing with him. Getting the payments were quite a task....so we decided to do away with both of them and after ensuring our OS are collected we changed the distribution to Mani of Standard wines and in KKL we appointed Ding Dong ---Babu and Senthil partners in Ding Dong were just beginners in this distribution business but I felt they had fire in the belly and transferred the agency to them. Also they had few retails of their own under their belt and a good team. The business in KKL started picking up for our brands. We also had our TSE based in KKL. In Mahe we were dealing with Sastha, managed by Sujith and Venu....they had around 8 outlets of their own. What it used to be in HL time and Diageo time in these markets changed rapidly with individuals taking over outlets either on lease or outright purchase and started forming groups. In Pondy there are around 5 group shops each having between 4 to 10 outlets....and if any of them also have a WS for example, Clinton and Happy, they push their own brands in these outlets and if your brands compete with theirs, you wont get an entry...even if you place your brands using your personal relationship or the brands is powerful, they would ensure the competing brands are suppressed. Also they demand huge and unimaginable discounts. Karaikkal also had around 3 groups of which the Rasi group was more powerful and very whimsical. Selvam of ANS kept taking up outlets on lease and those outlets the entry was becoming tougher.....

Mahe is no exemption....as mentioned, Sastha had around 8, Krishnan had around 7, Jairam of NFLS had around 8 and Kakat group around 10....getting entry and push from these outlets were quite a task. Out of 65 outlets in Mahe around 33 were group shops....

Yenam every WS had their own shops plus individual shops. The problem with Yenam was the monthly quota. The WS cant not lift more than their quota. This quota was fixed few years ago by AP as the AP excise felt the stocks meant for Yenam was getting either dumped in AP en route or sold primarily to AP consumers from the shops in Yenam. The WS of Yenam had to agree to this unfair trade practice imposed by AP excise and this is still continuing.

We changed distribution but it didnt work out. We could have probably given more time to him to settle down and get used to our way of working and understanding the strength of our brands but we made a mistake by removing him in a very short time.....in one of my visits my ASM Bala told me about Ramdoss who was running Kalathil WS (Kalathil WS Pondy belongs to Krishnan of Mahe) along with Meenakshi an ex HL and ex TI guy....It was May, I think 2015....I met Ramdoss and Meenakshi along with Sridhar our ex employee who was also a partner in that business and decided to handover the business to them. In fact before we changed our distribution from Happy, we presented to Ramdoss the financials of Pondy distribution but he didnt bother to revert....anyway, Kalathil Pondy was appointed as our distributor for Pondy and they are still continuing....

In liquor industry one has to micro manage as there are so many avenues one can get ramped....there is some thing called local AMP for local spends viz retail schemes, CSM incentives and local promos....this is huge amount and mostly left at the discretion of the local ASM n team and also with the distributors - but nothing can be spent with out the line managers approval. 

The UT market is totally spoiled/abused....we have to give schemes/discounts to the owners which are quantity based..this quantity based has become a joke now as if you announce say, buy 100 cases and get 100 per case..the retailers deduct 100 per case even when they buy just 10 cases...so schemes are no more written on papers or printed and customised group wise depending up on the potential....plus window displays...plus retail salesmen incentives....the myth is that the CSM incentive is a must as otherwise they would keep it under the shelf and wont sell....so every company falls for it.....Pondy it could range from INR 10 to 100 per case and in KKL the max would be around 50....in Mahe it is worse....it is from 120 to 240 per case....and some premium brands even 360 per case. I always visit a minimum of 10 outlets during my trade visit and found no salesmen have time to push especially during peak hours which are the evenings...the business transacted during the evening hours/peak hours in outlets which are 'bar' attached is around 70%. And outlets which are just 'off' the evening rush hour business would be around 50%. In shops like Murugan Enterprises, one of the premium off trade in Pondy, the consumers have to bill what they want, pay cash and take delivery....When we are in the outlet personally some time the salesmen recommend our product out of sheer respect....I always challenged this nonsense of CSM incentives but ended up giving up as both the distributor and our own team will not budge....and the beauty is Happy wines just gives a token amount of 10 to 15 a case for Mansion House and the sale is only moving northwards....even on fast selling McD brandy the CSM is zilch....Mahe is the worst.....the reason for this CSM dominance is that majority of the shops the owners do not sit and manage and leave it with the cashier....he is the big boss....the cashier....in some cases apart from the CSM, you have to also take care of the cashier and the guy who is incharge of procurement.....open markets like Maharashtra, Goa and Telangana just to name a few, the CSM is very selective and unlike this UT business....so small players are left with thinner bottom line....and the credit period taken.....biggies are able to collect their dues but small players really struggle....some retailers take more than 120 days....there is one big retail shop near the bus stand in Pondy and this person pays, if he wants to, after 6 months. The beauty is he sells 20% more than the MRP and liquidates whatever comes to his shop but refuses to pay....and if any bottle breaks due to their own mistakes, the burden the distributor and the distributor ends up paying for the broken bottle for no fault of his....this markets were never like that, till the locals were managing the distribution....the moment outsiders came and set up shops, things changed....to get an entry and make a mark, they started these unfair trade practices...and everyone has to follow suit....we have to, in 2017 remove the entire team and appoint a new one and we introduced certain strict measures across these markets at the cost of some sales loss....

Also one of the thing we pioneered is opening up the market. When we launched GPL VSOP brandy, we looked at options of giving it to another distributor in Pondy as we faced issues which we could not resolve with our existing distributors....so we appointed Clinton in Pondy and GNS in KKL....Sudeep took these initiatives....but soon we realised that Clinton could not penetrate much apart from his own outlets and GNS also had similar issues....appointing GNS also upset our existing distributors in these markets and especially Ding Dong....and did we gain? And GPL VSOP, despite fabulous presentation and liquid, didnt sustain the excitement it created on launch....we tried different tricks but nothing paid off as core of the issue was with the distribution...in Pondy we could still do something with Clinton's own outlets but in KKL it was becoming tougher...we even looked at giving the brand to Ding Dong but could not....in Mahe too we had similar issues....when we launched VSOP in Mahe, our distributor who was having around 8 shops under his belt. But Anand, the major partner in the set up, decided to sell off 4 outlets to Velu of Bangalore who was eying this market to launch his own brands. And in those 4 outlets we were not even given entry as he ensured they sell only his brands....

I need to also share with you something which I did to a friend of mine and that turned out to be our nemesis....Ding Dong who was a small time player when he started...once during my conversation with Ravichandran of DeeKay he told me about his struggle in KKL...he was mainly in to cheap segments....I told him about Ding Dong and organised a meeting...and they got the agency....from nothing they took his brands to 5000 cases per month and in the bargain, lost their focus in building our brands....I will write more about DeeKay in the later part....

From GPL VSOP we learnt many a lessons....so decided to develop another brand with the same Geo's Premier League umbrella name....The idea is to use the same bottle but create something more premium both in looks and content....and hence started looking for a 'master blender'....we moved to NJ Menon from Natarajan and he recreated the Le Roi' blend and also Wassup flavours (will talk about this later), GPL VSOP and Le Roi' whiskey.....but for our new brand we wanted something special and I got hold of, thru a contact, Prabhat Barik with fantastic pedigree.....he gave us few blends as we briefed and we did a very extensive research on the blends across the UT markets and zeroed in on the current one which is in circulation. We named it Geo's Premier League XO......GPL XO in short...with an olive green label.....

As mentioned earlier, we were bottling all our brands at Gemini Goa for export to all the other markets barring TN.....including overseas export but we started getting in to problem with Gemini primarily due to one single person. Our efforts to manage the relationship or to get him removed didnt work out with Neil and we started looking at options....when we looked at bottling in Pondy we received lots of resistance from our distributors and our own team as they felt the consumers wont touch anything bottled in Pondy especially the premium brands....Balaji was bottling for Mcd including their McD VSOP and they were doing well. Also bottling locally had its own advantages in terms of saving on transport....we explored the options available to us and it was my call to start with DeeKay, despite my teams reservations....as i felt, considering my long relationship with Ravichandran of DeeKay, the owner....we started small with our 60ml SKU of Le Roi' and it started doing well and there was no negative feed backs....when Gemini problem became worse for us to handle, we shifted lock stock and barrel all our brands to DeeKay except supplies to Chattisgarh from Gemini.....

We started bottling Hobsons, Clovis, Le Roi brandy and whiskey and GPL VSOP.....guys I have to write a full episode on DeeKay which i would do....but shifting to Pondy local was a major step and as I envisaged there was no negative feedback from the consumers and we started doing better.....but it was a struggle to manage DeeKay....there was his manager, Sivanandam and Ravi....our guys were getting shuttled between these two and every time i have to intervene....anyway we decided to move our XO to Balaji....Balaji has never bottled outside USL/Diageo and for the first time, thanks to my dear friend Shivkumar Reddy, they signed with us.....we launched XO in September 2019 first in Pondy followed by Mahe and KKL....we also changed the RTM in these markets....In Pondy we made it explicitly clear to Clinton that they would be our direct/preferred dealer for XO and Kalathil will be our distributor.....we also convinced Singam wines to be our direct dealer (3 shops) and Anandu Brandy Shop ( 7 shops) . We have been following up with ABS for quite sometime but finally with XO we could break through. Kalathil was against but we convinced him with some additional incentives. In Mahe too we opened up the market and appointed my old friend Jairam of NFLS as our distributor and direct supplies to Sastha, Krishnan and Thirumal....this helped us enormously. In KKL we went back to Ding Dong for XO...

We were desperate for a volume brand and XO received instantaneous positive response from the trade in all the markets. When I met Karthik of Clinton after the launch, he said 'U made a success of XO'....thats a top compliment coming from Karthik.....finally we got a winner on hand.....not a single bad review......

Meanwhile we worked on a premium whiskey and developed Maker's Delight....this and more in the next episode......