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

Episode 33...

Its Flemingo times @ Amchi Mumbai....(the shortest stint) 

After so much of dilly dallying finally said bye bye Dxb....2005 Sep to 2010 May.....5 years of great life, learning and lovely friends...and of course, prosperity....

Flemingo International was an upcoming organisation...from just a trading house based at Dxb, to travel retail was their business strategy and they had already sowed the seed in smaller airports across India and tied up with WDF to manage their back office in Mumbai airport....The duty free retail in those airports Flemingo started was 300 to 500 sq ft area....the focus was primarily on arrival as shops in departure could not attract any footfall due to its un-appealing looks of the shops.....the company was started by Mahendra Thakkar and Rasik. They got a license to operate a DF stores in Kenya to start off and also set up a trading house in JAFZA, Dxb. Viren Ahuja and Atul Ahuja-brothers, from Mumbai took a stake in Flemingo and started expanding. In fact, Atul asked me to draft my own appointment letter as we had such a great relationship...I was also asked whether I would like to be based at Dxb or shift to Bby...I opted for Bby...Though I have gained lots of experience and did fairly well with the DF business both during Diageo time and W&M, never done any financials for this business and hence didnt have a clue how the bidding was done to acquire the shops and on what logic/basis....

Shifted lock stock and barrel to Mumbai.....Got an excellent and spacious apartment on rental, in Raheja Chembur....self and wife went to see the apartment and while going up to the 7th floor met my great friend Rajashekar's wife Lalitha and the moment I realised they were also residents of the same place, we decided to pitch in for the place but we learnt the owners have already committed to someone else (this has been the case always)....the apartment was owned by Transworld shipping CEO and Sethuraman was the chief of their operations in Mumbai. Went and met Sethuraman and become instantaneous friends...he somehow managed to swing it for us....but the place was barren - just the walls and they used all their might and got it furnished in no time....Such a wonderful apartment...

Started off with Flemingo on 2nd May 2010.....My friend and ex colleague of Diageo was with Flemingo for almost two years. He joined Flemingo after the 'episode' with Asif Adil the then CEO of Diageo India....Diageo India got Asif Adil after Ravi Rajagopal. Asif was ex Mackenzie....Diageo had lots of expectations...the Mackenzie aura he carried....there were lots of issues and rumours on Asif which I dont want to get in to but one thing stood out...Stuart Fletcher was still the head of the emerging markets and Asif was reporting to him. Asif got quite close with the Sr Khaitan of Radico and when Stuart visited his office and later dinner in Sr Khaitan's home in Delhi, he was totally floored and Diageo India formed a JV with Radico and launched Masterstroke a super premium whiskey in line with Blenders Pride...they got Shah Rukh as the brand ambassador and spent a huge amount....but the product bombed the very first day....didnt understand even today the logic behind the JV...Diageo burnt their fingers once again in India...During this period, Nalin Garg, Sridhar Iyer, Sudeep and Krithi have all become Ex Diageo....Nalin joined Coke and went to US....Sridhar joined Pfizer as CFO and later became the CEO of Pfizer....Krithi went to Flemingo and Sudeep joined Kyndal  a company floated by Sid Bannerjee....

Krithi was instrumental in getting certain work culture in Flemingo India....he got a bit edgy and joined David Lee's company to look after India RTM...David Lee was the most trusted distributor of Diageo in this part of the world, based at Singapore.

Flemingo was full of veterans....Ayyaswami, chartered accountant and was on board of Flemingo as an advisor....Viren was totally dependent of him and would not take a step without his clearance. Viren was pumping money and Atul was running the show, of course with Viren's nod on everything....Viren's brother in law Thimmaiyya was the operations manager for India DF shops..the brothers are very down to earth and fond of south Indian cuisine especially the idli, dosa and vada stuff.....Raghavan, another veteran was their chief accountant. The office was in Navi Mumbai and hence home at Chembur was the right choice...they also had a huge canteen where lunch was served for everyone....I was given a small cabin in their office...nothing fancy but a functional place.

The very first day I assumed office I got a call from Rahul Khashyap my ex colleague from Diageo (and like an younger brother to me) who was trying to settle down in Colombo and was eyeing some opportunities. He shared with me the news that the airports authority of SL was considering a second license at the airport and he would like to pitch for it in JV with Flemingo ....Of course Flemingo was interested and we called Rahul for a chat in Mumbai. Rahul also wanted a partnership in his domestic distribution trade....the talks started....meanwhile, we got another lead from Colombo and Flemingo wanted to pursue that.....self and Viren flew to Colombo and met up with the lead who took us to meet the President and pitched for the shop....It was in his home and he was in his jogging attire with a news paper on hand....There was huge security cordon but the meeting was very cordial but he didnt make any commitments...we did our job. Our local man took us to meet the other officials and also served us break fast in his gosala....very pious person....I met Rahul before we left and briefed him as I didnt want to keep him in the dark....

Things started moving fast and guys, hold your breath....Flemingo got the license....My contribution to Flemingo in a big way....and had Rahul not called and spoken to me and shared this, we would have been in dark and this would not have happened.

But Rahul was left high and dry and I have to apologise to him. And I felt bad as it was Rahul who was instrumental in sharing this confidential news but Flemingo didnt do a thing for him. Meanwhile, Rahul was coming to Chennai for a day and as he was still struggling to get some business going, I told him he can stay in the guest house of Flemingo in Chennai. This happened in the afternoon and I have informed Atul and also left a word with the care taker of the GH. I was attending some program in the evening in Chembur and got a call from the caretaker, that Thimmaiyya has told him not to entertain Rahul. I have a short fuse and this infuriated me to hell...I called Atul and vented my anger....I was told, since Thimmaiyya was not comfortable with Rahul and felt he would get privy with things in the GH and hence didnt want him to stay there...I was speechless...its a guest house man....what secretive things would be in a guest house...I had stayed there a couple of times and its a two bed room apartment on top of Flemingo's office and nothing secret was ever kept there....I pushed my way and got Rahul accommodated there...realised that moment that am dealing with a family run business...

Meanwhile, I pushed Flemingo to keep a feet in the domestic business too....the reason being duty free and trading is not permanent...as the airports authority go for new bids every 2/3 years....and a foot in the domestic business would always keep the cash box ringing....

Roland Abella was transferred to India as CEO from Middle East....Asif Adil was asked to go and Roland came in his place. I met up with him and we decided to bury the baggages we were carrying on each other (remember Roland making me redundant)....he also assured me that he would favourably look in to for any worthwhile proposals both in DF and domestic....it was a good meeting.

I also wanted Atul to know about domestic and hence requested my ex Diageo colleague Sandeep who was in Pune and was in between jobs to present a white papers on domestic distribution business in Bombay and Maharashtra. Obviously it requires gathering lots of info and assimilating the same and presenting...I discussed this with Atul and made it clear it wont come free and offered Sandeep a lakh of INR for this work and if things materialise he would also get placed with Flemingo. Mind you guys that no one in Flemingo had any clue about domestic business and I was the one who was pushing this...I also realised am the lone ranger as domestic is long term, involves dedication but on a lower ROI compared to travel retail but its long term and with good brands this vertical can stay on its own. I was not looking at only Mumbai but also other parts of Maharashtra using Flemingo's relationship with major players a la Diageo, PRG, Bacardi and Brown n Forman....

I wanted Atul to get some inputs on this and hence organised a luncheon with Deepak Avtramani of Candy wines, one of the major distributors in Mumbai and well respected and regarded by the trade, and also a great friend of mine, right from my Herbertsons days. This meeting turned out to be disastrous and Deepak's inputs were taken out of context and Atul didnt show any interest after that....and also his accounts department sat on Sandeep's payment. I put pressure but nothing happened. So, I sent the lakh of rupees to Sandeep personally from my account. Another set back for me...I am sharing these just to make you aware that one has to be absolutely clear in terms of getting the buying in of the owners and in writing to avoid these kind of embarassments.

Meanwhile, another development. Rasik of Flemingo Dxb got a contact who claimed that he could get them entry in to the Duty free operations in Indo China....consisting of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. The DF operations there is different. Apart from the airports (not very big barring Vietnam) there were huge DF stores in the borders of Cambodia and Laos....You should know the geography of this area to understand this. These countries share borders with Thailand and Vietnam. Vietnam's local taxes were high and hence the border shops did a roaring business. These are the major RTMs. I didnt know much about these but learnt it very fast. The first trip to Phnom Penh, capital city of Cambodia....I have to first fly to Bangkok from Bombay and then to this city....We spent some time with the contact of Rasik there and visited some shops locally and in Cambodia border....Rasik is an expert when it comes to perfumes but not alcohol. And a wonderful person...calm and composed. On the second day, our contact told us that we should visit Ho Chi Min City in Vietnam and meet up with a potential partner...next day we visited the Vietnam embassy in PP and somehow managed to get the visas thanks to our local contact....So over to HMC.....met up with the contacts.....so the next step was that yours friendly has to come back again and visit the border towns, shops and also Laos and come out with the strategy...

This I did religiously....our local contact ( a Russian by name Sergey) organised the vehicle, driver and his secretary to accompany me in the entire journey....Cambodia-Vietnam border and Laos Vietnam border. The journey would start after breakfast and go on till late evening. We used to stay in small places in the night and travel next day. Sergey's secretary, a local used to carry fruits and nuts for me as she was told explicitly clear that I would eat only veg....the problem with Indo China, apart from the capital city, you wont get veg. In one restaurant I asked for a veg soup....when it came I didnt like the flavour...and language was a huge issue. I went to the kitchen and requested them to show me how they make veg soup....very simple....soup in this part of the world is their staple and would always be in a ready to serve form boiling hot with meat inside....for veg they just remove the meat and serve (!)....so soup was out....I started carrying the yogurt with me and mix it with hot rice and manage....but it was fun trip....absolutely fertile land with so much of water.....the Mekong river....it flows through the entire Indo China and wetting the lands and make it so fertile....

Dao Heuang group was operating the border DF shops and owner is a Vietnamese lady but settled in Laos...one should visit these shops to believe....each shop, as big as a wall mart stores....huge....with well trained and well uniformed staff with all the global brands in the son display....for someone visiting these shops it would seem as just duty free but their business model was based on the demand from the domestic Vietnam....as the taxes in Vietnam was very high, these shops catered the bootleggers to smuggle it in to Vietnam. JW Gold Label was quite popular there...remember Gold label 18 to JW Gold Reserva story in the last post of mine...JW Gold Reserva was created for this market to replace the 18YO.....

Coming to business...Dao-Heuang group....Yes, they are big and how do we get our foot inside? What's the irresistible offer Flemingo can bring it to the table? (to be frank there was nothing Flemingo could boast of other than their relationship with the biggies a la Diageo, PRG and et al...And this group was heavily dependent on David Lee, Diageo's most trusted distributor based at Singapore and an RTM expert...I visited almost all their DF shops across the borders and there was no doubt in my mind that Flemingo should somehow get in to this group as a strategic partner and our agent Sergei got us an appointment with the owner...the lady was the most powerful and her daughter was assisting her in procurements....Self, Ayyaswami and Arjun (Atul's son who was getting inducted in to the business) flew down to Vientiane the capital of Laos.....the lady was very superstitious and we came to know during our discussions that she goes with the compatibility factor of the zodiac signs matching as per the Chinese system(!)...She asked for our DOBs and mine matched with her and she gave me a nod and a wide smile which meant that we can look at the opportunities of a JV....we discussed in length and I insisted that the MOU should be signed 'here n now'....Ayyaswami got it done and we signed the MOU....but the moment David Lee came to know of this development he used all his might and stopped the progress of this JV....Sad we wasted so much of time....

Another great contact was David Sim....A Singaporean who established business interests in Indo China....

I introduced my WnM domestic distributor of Turkey to Atul and Flemingo formed a JV with him for Turkey....I think it is still continuing....We also explored many more possibilities including Mauritius... Viren one day asked me to assist a start up distillery in TN and next 2 months I got sucked in to it....cant say more than this...

Sudeep and Krithi were also based at Bombay....One evening over few drinks Sudeep opened up about the opportunities in TN in the alcohol business....After ages, the then DMK government in TN (2009) gave few licenses in TN....Kals, SNJ, Golden Vats and Elite....Radico Khaitan launched Morpheus and Kyndal launched Bols thru 3rd party manufacturing in tie up with SNJ....and these brands started doing well as after decades the consumers of TN got to see some new brands in the shelves....and Sudeep was witnessing the huge margins being retained by these companies....He suggested we should form a company and start in TN....(the seed was shown by Sudeep)...Sudeep had his own axe to grind with Sid and I was not enjoying my time with Flemingo...Krithi was happy with his job and working for David Lee....I felt I was heading nowhere as the atmosphere in Flemingo was different-Atul and Viren was very supportive but they also didnt know how to utilise my skills....so when Sudeep suggested that we should look at starting on our own and get an entry in to TN to start with, made me to get excited....

I joined Flemingo on 1st of May 2010 and in just 5 to 6 months time, got them the Colombo DF, Tie up with the Turkey domestic market with a local partner and also helped their friend in TN on the start up of the local bottling. I discussed our foray in to manufacturing with Atul and Viren and slowly got myself relieved from Flemingo...

My stints....14 years with UB group....14 years with Diageo......3 years with W&M but just 5 months with Flemingo....Any way my destiny was to start something on my own and it started with Sudeep sowing the seed......

Exciting times ahead?????

to be continued.....

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

Episode 33...

Whyte&Mackay...3 years

Visa was an issue...I didnt want to go under UB DxB visa or AnEs visa...Didnt know till I joined, W&M had a guy on their pay based at DxB...this guy, an Australian, earlier was with the Heineken distributor and wasn't, obviously, happy that he is being made redundant....Alok Gupta spoke to him and finally he agreed but after a proper handover to me...his knowledge was confined only to Gulf and nothing beyond that....I was to join on 10th Sep 2007 and was to be inducted by him before that but he disappeared suddenly without a word and came to know from Simon of AnE that he had gone back to Australia....

I was asked to come to Glasgow for an induction and I was so excited to be part of this new beginning and was there to take charge...10th of Sep 2007.....

Reached W&M office at 0930 and I was the first one to be there...A decent sized office in the center of Glasgow, just walking distance from Hilton....

Alok introduced me to the team there...and almost everyone was a Scot there....Their accent is different and I always felt they sing the language and not speak(!)....also dialect...I found it very difficult to understand and actually I felt a translator was required....no jokes.....Met the head of HR....Val aka Valerie, very nice lady and told me that the next day I have to go to the distillery (Dalmore) for an induction with Richard Peterson....Richard was the master blender and distiller of W&M and inherited the skills from his Dad who was also a master blender. Richard is one of its kind...a true Scot and loved his profession....very friendly, open and ready to share everything he knew....Valerie, the HR lady gave me a car key and told me that I have to use the car to go to Dalmore which I think was around 3 hours of drive....I told her that am not comfortable to drive...she was quite taken a back...but got me booked by the morning train..Oh....didnt like one bit of my induction....absolutely clueless and unprofessional...In HO, no one to take me thru the strategy and also on whats expected of me....Alok spent some time with me but I found him involved in many things and was always on phone.....And added to that my trip next day to Dalmore by train.....completely different from the Diageo days....W&M was small and was more of trading....no strategy to build brands though they had huge potential in Dalmore, Jura and even WnM blended scotches....on the very second day, I felt like quitting the job...it was more out of frustration due to lack of proper induction...but Richard made my day with his indomitable style and the time spent with him was invaluable....every second...he also was known for his consumer interactive sessions - a la 'journey of taste'. Will talk about that later....

Induction got over in 2 days flat and came back to DxB.....it was an one man army for WnM....Diageo DxB was putting pressure on my to surrender my visa....I convinced Alok on the importance of our own office and visa and got his approval. Got hold of an advocate who assured me he would get an office space in Jebal Ali Free Zone (JAFZA). JAFZA has already become the most sought after place for business houses....Free zone is the place where you can set up a company without any local partnerships...if you set up a company in the city, you need to have a local (Emirati) as partner whereas in freezone is exempted...but Free zones had their own rules and space constraints...they also had virtual office licenses...this means, you would get a license to operate but without any office space but would enjoy all the facilities of the free zone...but I wanted the office....though Pernod Ricard had a full fledged office and warehouse there and also Flemingo, when we approached the authorities they hesitated to give license to a liquor company but we told them it is only a management office for the entire region and Africa and convinced them. The beauty of UAE was that they listen and they were always for increasing the revenue....JAFZA was known for its customer friendliness...we got the license from JAFZA but to get the visa I have to get out of Dubai (heard they changed this clause now)....So went to South Africa on a market visit - my first trip to SA....what a beautiful country but they instill so much of fear in you before you land about the crime in Jo'berg and Durban....W&M was operating thru a distributor based at Jo'berg...apart from this distributor we were also supplying directly to a super market chain....one exclusive brand called John Barr...a look alike of JW Red but much cheaper....But the volumes are not great....despite huge potential in this market. SA is driven by consumer pull and also the retail chain stores play a huge role as every chain has their own brands to push....but Diageo, PRG and some local companies enjoyed great business.....During my time, circa 2007 to 2010...Jameison was a very fast growing brand....JW Black was well established....but the policy was a bit complex as no whiskey other than-made from grain and  matured ones were allowed to be sold...Only Vodka made from grain was allowed without any restrictions....my trip was primarily to understand the market and also come out with a strategy.....I had to stay at Cape Town for a couple of more days as my Visa got delayed...finally got the visa from JAFZA....and W&M finally to set up office in Gulf....great milestone...

We got a small space....and created a feel good office. Recruited Ramana as office incharge to manage logistics....Got my wife and my home assistants visa also....The driver who was with me from my Diageo time left for Chennai to pursue other opportunities.....W&M got a different policy for vehicles and they got me a Merc (first time in my life) on a long lease basis....So all set and business has to start...I committed to Alok that I would double the business as I felt W&M brands has potential but there was no proper 'pitch' for the brands....also, I felt, I can use my relationship, crack some hard nuts and get entries...this didnt happen as W&M decided to increase the prices....

It all started in 2006....the scotch industry started witnessing shortage of Malt spirits....U need to understand the crux of this....As explained earlier there are different categories in Scotch 1) Blended (blend of matured-minimum ageing of 3 years to be called Scotch-grain and malt spirits 2)  Single malts (from one source...only matured malt spirit 3) Pure malt ( blends of different malts) and 4) Single Grain (single source of matured grain-but no takers for this). Take JW 12 yo...its a blend of few grain spirits and few malts....from different regions of Scotland....and every single spirit be it grain or malt, should have been aged (matured) for 12 years minimum....Forecasting and inventories play a major role. If the demand goes up suddenly, the inventories esp the raw materials would start depleting....and you have to plan 12 years in advance.....a very tough job indeed....Global demands have started growing especially for 12+ and single malts and the manufacturers realised that there would be raw material issue....Diageo known for their proactiveness and being the market leader fired the first solvo......they introduced JW Double Black without any age statement and priced it more than that of JW black 12 YO.....Its nothing but marketing gimmick as the consumers were made to pay more than the 12 YO for a product where there was no age statement but better presentation....Double Black was first launched in the DF sector and consumers fell for it....basically the great presentation and a stronger blend...The pricing was great...in between JW Gold 18 YO and JW Black 12 YO... Diageo also launched JW Gold Reserve slightly lower to JW Gold 18 YO.....Gold label 18YO was an amazing product and was quite popular in Indo China region.....as Diageo could not fulfil the demand due to depleting stocks of raw materials, they quietly replaced the 18 YO with this new variant.....Around early 2000, William Grants-another leading scotch manufacturer known for Glenfiddich,  opposed tooth and nail when Diageo launched Cardu pure malt, in Spain. Cardu was a popular single malt in Spain and one of the major malts in the JW Black blend....as Diageo foresaw issues with malts, they launched this variant but William Grant took the battle to Scotch whiskey manufacturers association and made Diageo to withdraw this variant.....sadly,William Grant didnt practice what they preached...today William Grant sells Monkey Shoulder which is a pure/blended malt whiskey....Also they have in their portfolio 'age not mentioned' malts...Moral responsibility takes a back seat when it comes to filling up the coffers....

So, there was shortage and hence all the manufacturers upped their prices and started focusing on variants....but the price increase by W&M didnt go off well with the customers as they felt that the Indian boss wanted more money as he paid exorbitantly to acquire W&M and hence upped the prices....also we were not a powerful player like Diageo or PRG and hence lost quite a few customers....

As always, I was inundated with all these issues but have to come out with some quick wins....

1) Knowing the demand for 1.13 lit pack of blended scotch, focussed on W&M in Northern Emirates and pushed its way thru with some biggies.....

2) Used all my good relationship with Dubai Duty Free and got almost all the Dalmore range, Jura and W&M blends.....And started heavy push for W&M blended scotch and got some big volumes.

3) AnE was under pressure from Diageo and hence told me clearly they wont be in a position to help with our portfolio....Took a call and changed the distribution to MMI....though it didnt go well with AnE....

4) Got entry in to Beirut Duty Free and our premium malts and W&M 40 YO started doing well there....W&M 40 YO blended scotch is one of the rarest and the best in its segment...I have never ever tasted anything even closer to that in my life yet....if you can get hold of one, pl try it...

5) Got the entry in to Alpha, Colombo duty free.

6) Used my contacts in Gulf and got some break throughs....but the entry level scotches were a big issue due to the price hike....

W&M was a trading company and hence never focussed on anything other than executing the customer orders. We had a good business going with RTM channel based at Jordan....the business was transacted by a Lebanese sitting in London....the customer was based at Amman....and W&M was giving unsecured credit....I realised this channel can compensate for my lost volumes from Kenya and some other parts of Africa and went after this customer. Made a trip to Amman and met up with the customer....wonderful gentleman but absolutely no English....managed to strike a conversation thru his secretary but he was not happy with our price increase. His volumes were primarily W&M 3 YO....I made it on cash in advance with a 2% CD...tough one but cracked and secured the money and incentivised the person who was based at UK....but it was never easy business and the RTM was dependent on lots of factors.....The stocks were shipped to Mersin in Turkey and from there found its way to the traders...the stocks never ever entered Jordan......Middle East is mystic.....one has to go deeper to understand the route to market to be successful.

Initially recruited Chris Pillay a South African as TMM for my region....but it didnt work out well....he stayed for some time and quit. Got Ashish Monga my ex colleague from Diageo India...he was working with some trading house in Nigeria and he grabbed the offer but took some time to understand the nuances......but for me a good support....

We were doing some business in Nigeria but again the customer was operating from UK....Indian origin...good guys but were not upto speed....we were also supplying to Israel thru a trading house based at UK....I found everything strange....but in hindsight, I should have left it the way it was instead of changing it.......

My mind set, I should admit here, was that of Diageo....having come from big volumes and highly respected background, the need to prove myself and with very little interference from HO.....I made few mistakes or miscalculations.....

There were changes in HO too....Ashwin Mallik who was the COO of USL North was posted at Glasgow as CEO of W&M....this upset Alok and he quit....Ashwin also didnt last long and was replaced by a Scot as the CEO and VJM appointed Nick Garland as head of Marketing and sales.....These guys were good but focussed on correcting lots of things in US and in Europe....W&M was also big in own labels business...this means they used to manufacture for super market chains, labels owned by the super stores, but with very thin margins.....and their supply prices of own brands were rock bottom in Europe and Nick's task was to correct them....Somehow I was holding the forte in my region by doing some unthinkable....

The NE customers were of great help to me....at the Barracuda outlet we put up a gondola, first time by W&M....our malts have started dong well across...Dalmore got some great visibility in DDF and was a major source of revenue for my region.

We opened up Lebanon domestic, Syria and Jordan.....All were small markets for us but we started getting some numbers from zero base. Richard came down to Lebanon for a master class and also did a couple of them in Dubai-one exclusively for DDF floor staff and one for the select consumers and customers in DxB...His shows were great hit...my friends in Diageo and PRG started noticing these and started wondering what we were up to....but W&M seriously didnt have any money as their revenues, that time, were from selling own labels and cheap scotch and also bulk to select customers.

One of the great customer for bulk scotch was Balgobain of Mauritius...We stopped supplies of bulk as the retention was nothing great and W&M wanted to focus on brands....but Mukesh Balgobain's daughter, a young and bubbly, Kareena didnt want to take 'no' for an answer....She called me when I was in DxB and initially with her Brit accent I thought some French customer from Mauritius....but it turned out to be Mauritians of Indian origin....they were buying our bulk and bottling their own brands but small timers....this was their bread winner and they needed it desperately. I went and met up with them in Mauritius and such wonderful family and people....but could not entertain their request on the old price and they reluctantly agreed to pay extra....I have to also do lots of convincing at HO....but needed the cash register ringing till we establish our premiums....We also had a local distributor for Mauritius but of no great shake....shifted the domestic portfolio to Mukesh....but they also could not do much...Its a small island but what a great place....Got our Dalmore listing at the Mauritius Duty Free.....

MMI, as our domestic distributor for DxB was not great at all....They had PRG and some great brands and were quite happy with incremental despite a very aggressive CEO....They were clueless and just stocking up without any focus on depletions.....

Used my relationship with ADNH, Abu Dhabi and got direct supplies for them....

We did some great in shop training for their staff....and we started getting some regular business from them.

Meanwhile, my ex contact from Diageo, a local Iraqi who was running the duty free based at Baghdad and supplying to the consulates and to permit holders of foreign nationals...He was claiming big about his business and I felt we should visit his operations at Baghdad and decided to visit Iraq.

Myself and Ashish travelled to Baghdad - Iraq....scary one though...We stuck a deal with him exclusively for his duty free operations only. The flight to Baghdad from Sharjah took around 2 hours and it carried mainly the business community. We were given great welcome by Ahmed and he really took care of us...we visited his warehouse, shop and also he provided us a bullet proof vehicle and we visited a club in Baghdad and a retail outlet....(it was foolish on our part as were told later that we were lucky and normally word spread and people get abducted...We visited the club around noon and left by air to the northern Iraq capital, Erbil by evening flight....This is called Khurdistans....and bordering Iran.....our guy whom I had mentioned in the earlier paragraph was quite strong in Erbil as he used this place for transporting to different parts. Erbil is like any European town completely in contrast to the war torn Baghdad.....really a beautiful city...The first supply to the Iraq duty free operator upset my domestic distributor and he opposed it tooth and nail. Our defence, that he would supply only to DF, failed to convince him....I too got carried away with the tall claims of this person from Baghdad and gave the distribution to him....one of my worst blunders.....we have to undergo lots of ordeal because of this including collecting our dues from him....finally the stocks have to be transferred to our old distributor.....

My gut failed me in this.....

Similar thing happened in South Africa too....We had a distributor for the entire country but he was just happy selling some very small quantity. We were approached thru an agent based at Cape Town to look at Midmar, a super stores chain based at Cape Town and having shops in Cape Town and Durban...belonged to a South African of Indian origin....George Naidoo....he was a practicing Hindu but like many South African Indian Hindus had a christian first name....took him to Glasgow and to Dalmore.....wanted him to get impressed.....but as it turned out, he was not easy to deal with.....I even took him to UB house in Bangalore....but didnt work out well....money was difficult to get and finally he have to exit.....

These were my two major blunders when I was in W&M.....I kicked myself for not thinking enough on the RTM channel of Iraq and also the South African business.....The lesson is that to be patient and give a clear perspective of what the company wants from the distributor and give them time to come on the same page....I was a bit impatient to achieve numbers.....Also hired a local guy for South Africa based at Jo'berg.....half his time went managing Midmar and getting the money....I was not getting excited with what I was doing.

VK Rekhi and Samy Lala met me in DxB during one of their visits, and asked me what I would do if I were made incharge of the USL Indian brands for UAE? This thought had come to me many a times during my stint but having access to the internal intricacies I didnt open my mouth...in fact this would have helped in many markets to get entry and push for W&M brands as the USL brands would have been leveraged for W&M....they asked me to come to Blr with a clear strategy....

I did lot of research, work, detailed discussions with the NE customers and presented a way forward for USL brands-they were suffering from the onslaught of ABD's OC whiskey that time..along with the all powerful Royal Stag, Imperial Blue and Blenders Pride....I strongly felt that we should split the portfolio and offer each one to the 3 main WS there in NE and adopt the same strategy for DxB domestic and Abu Dhabi....I presented my strategy to VKR in Blr but it didnt sail thru due to the intricacies involved....USL selling to UB Global and UB Global in turn selling to the NE customers. But a few years back Diageo India split the portfolio and broke the monopoly enjoyed by CeeCee for ages...(!)...this is not to undermine the efforts put in by CeeCee in the initial years but USL should have changed the strategy and followed the footsteps of PRG....

I was sort of getting bored with Dubai in general and W&M in particular.....Thought I should get back to India......Atul of Flemingo convinced me to join Flemingo as ED....in fact he wanted me to be based at DxB but I decided to shift to Bombay and be part of Flemingo.....The Iraq and South Africa blunders were also played a role in making me to look at leaving W&M and Dxb....more than anything else it was sheer boredom of doing just trading and nothing on brand building except the activations in the DF area.

We did quite well in Lebanon with our premium and also in Syria...but our distributor in Syria got in to some problem with the administration and shut his business....I visited Damascus a couple of times and what a place it is....winding alleys....and lovely night life with great bar and restaurants....it used to be fun in Damascus and so was Beirut....My domestic distributor of Beirut, bought a good quantity of our aged Dalmore and also W&M 40 YO....Guys if you ever see a bottle of W&M 40 YO anywhere pl try it...its real value for money.

So finally I took a call after accepting the job with Flemingo....Nick wasnt happy and he asked me to stay back but I was convinced that DxB life was enough....Also interestingly my wife didnt say a thing....probably she was missing our son so much and Bombay is closer to Goa than Dubai.....we had a great get together with all our friends before we left Dxb...in our villa...that was one 'halluva' party...I have lots of fond memories of DxB....some great friends....also from my trade...Mohandas from Truebell, Mani from ADNH, Ron from Gulf brands, Bahrain...Colm, Ramesh and Sharon of DDF......Ashish Monga and Ramana......

Dubai....a great place.....makes all those who come there, go back with better savings....that land has the touch of goddess of wealth......

I also applied for a trading license with Fujairah Free Zone and got a license....the idea that time was to keep my visa alive and that was one way I figured out.....

will catch you in the next episode.....

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

Episode 32...

It took some time for the 'redundancy' factor to sink in.....my guys at the HO and Roland were all taken by surprise as they expected major rebellion from me, considering my 14 years of 'top notch' performance and also the results in Gulf....but as mentioned earlier, divine power showered me with all the 'redundancy' package and I felt relieved....I was asked to work till June 30th, the year end of Diageo and continue with all my visa and home till Sep end....So that gave me the breather and I started mulling over the options.

There was one on my hand though which was to be part of Flemingo international, a trading house in DxB with DF operations across India....but completely run by a family....and there were some other options but I didnt want to disclose to anyone on my 'status'......One day while on a casual chat my wife told me to speak to Dugar who was my boss during my HL time and later on as CEO of Balaji Distilleries....I nodded my head but VJM during that period put a ban on recruiting back those who had left UB with Deepak Roy.....Anyway, I spoke to Mr Dugar and he asked me to send my CV which he told me he would forward it to Samy Lala the CEO of Herbertsons....for your info a little bit of what was happening with UB those days....VJM acquired Shaw Wallace and merged it with McD. (Herbertsons and Carew Phipsons were already merged with McD). The problem with McD as a company was their premium brands never performed to the expectations of the management ...somewhere McD has failed to create a huge premium brand like Royal Challenge or Blenders Pride....So the acquisition of SW has helped them in creating a portfolio, envy of competition. The new entity was named United Spirts Ltd (USL)...Also they have created Regional Profit Centres....

Diageo India formed a JV with Radico Khaitan-Stuart Fletcher was instrumental and he was overawed by the wealth displayed by Sr Khaitan and with Asif Adil pushing hard this JV, it happened. They launched Masterstroke a premium whiskey on par with Blenders Pride and roped in Shah Ruck Khan as their brand ambassador....huge money was spent....But the product failed on day one.....and after some bitter fights the JV was closed down....

My HR person, I understood, spoke to Asif Adil CEO of Diageo India exploring possibilities of my return to India....And Asif made this public (what a professional)....And people in India came to know of my redundancy before I announced it to the world....This happened on a day I was on my way to Bangkok to attend a conference organised by my region-I came to know of this when I boarded the flight in DxB...I sent a mail to Ron, HR and Roland expressing my utter displeasure and also anguish....The moment I landed in Bangkok there were around 20 calls from Ron n others.....They were very apologetic of what had happened and assured me that they would not let this happen again.....Anyway damage has been done....I met Mahesh at Bangkok (he was looking after Thailand then-Bacardi) and hinted him but he didnt do any....

Came back to DxB and started the hunt...As mentioned earlier, Flemingo offer was there but I wanted to explore more...

I had mentioned about Gaurav Sabharwal who was my colleague in Diageo.....He was not happy with Diageo and was considering joining PRG India (joined)....He told me during our conversation that his wife, Gopi, having mentioned about an opening in World Diamond council....Spoke to Gopi to find out how to go about it.......she struggled a lot, took some time and finally got the e mail id of the CEO of the company. ( talking about 2007 and google search was either not there or in the nascent stage)..I shot him a mail with my CV.....Got the response the very next day saying that the CV has been forwarded to the HR but in the same breath he also mentioned probably I missed the bus.....nevertheless, got a call from the HR for an interview in their HO if London....I think I did fairly well in the interview...didnt know anything about the industry and they also didnt ask me much about the industry but the person who interviewed me said they had offered this to someone else and if he doesn't accept the offer within the specified time, the job would be mine....I didnt get it thought but the moral of the story here is that one should not give up till it reaches the logical conclusion....but was happy that I attended an interview outside my industry and thanked Gopi profusely for the trouble she had taken in getting me the lead.....

Meanwhile Samy Lalla called me and told me that he shared my CV with VJM but was not certain on the possibilities. 

The hunt was on and along with my son's IIT and BITS entrances.....Travelled with him to different places in India....Once I went to Blr to attend a wedding and upon reaching DxB (was still with Diageo and purpose of the trip was official)...there were few missed calls and one of them from Bangalore. Missed call from my wife too....She told me there was a call from VJMs office asking for me....to cut the long story short, got a call from VJMs secretary and she connected me to VJM....after the 1994 exit, spoke to VJM....the moment he came on the line I told him 'that I flew KF airlines and heard his welcome address on flight'...he was so happy hearing that and told me that he bought Whyte n Mackay and wanted me to come down to Glasgow the very next day and his office in DxB would organise the tickets and the rest....I could not travel the very next day as I had visitors from Diageo UK but travelled the day after and landed in Glasgow....I was booked at the Hilton and as I entered the hotel, VJM was standing outside and having a smoke along with someone...went and introduced myself to him and he asked me to speak to his secretary.....the press conference got just over where he announced his take over of W&M how he fulfilled his fathers dream....the press in Glasgow liked him and for the first time an Indian buying a Scottish (scotch) company!!!! Bravo....

Met Rekhi, Samy Lala, Ravi Nedungadi and all VJMs leadership team. Many of them were not even aware of my coming....Alok Gupta a very young and energetic guy who was looking after marketing in USL was transferred to W&M and he kind of spoke to me....that night was some dinner with the top guys and next day I was told that VJM would meet me....My flight from Glasgow to DxB was around 4pm and I had to be in DxB next day as I had to accompany my son for some entrance in India....I told Alok that I cant extend my stay due to the prior commitments and hence requested him to push my meeting hard with VJM....Waited till 1400hrs....nothing happened....was getting restless....Alok called me and asked me to come to W&M office and wait....Finally around 245 I was called in and met VJM for a few minutes....he told me that I have to focus on their premium range and make it big....the job was a regional one....Middle East, Africa and South Asia....Regional Director....big designation...he told me I fit the profile and Alok would contact me to take it forward....so job pakka.....

Rushed to the airport and got in to the flight satisfied with the turn of events. 

Reached DxB with some nice feelings....VJM also told me that he was breaking the rule for me (not taking anyone who left)....I was obligated....I also know that they needed someone whom they could trust and also knew the way of working of UB.....

But the wait was long as the HR lady was on leave....W&M has never done any overseas appointment and it took some time for them to figure out the terms and conditions...Alok was also busy and very difficult to get hold of....

Finally sometime last week of June 2005 when I was in Blr to attend friends daughters wedding the appointment letter was received. I asked my son in DxB to open the attachment and read it out....every thing was fine except that instead of mentioning the total remuneration p.m it was mentioned per annum....again a bit of wait and finally the package was delivered.....I told them I would join only on 10th Sep as I want to take a break for around 2 months.

Meanwhile Flemingo was preparing to welcome me on board but I told them that I could not say no to my ex boss....

Also I got couple of more offers but decided to continue in the same industry (alcohol wanted to stick with me)....

Whole lots of things to do in DxB...change of home...fortunately got one across the road....this is another story....we saw one day someone vacating the opposite villa and I approached them and took the number of the owner...when I approached the owner, I was told that was promised to some one else...didnt give up...impressed upon them and got the villa....I had to also take care of my care taken and drivers visa and also get my visa changed.

Since W&M didnt have an office in DxB...I have to either be part of their UB office visa or AnE, their distributors or get an office.....

Didnt want to be part of UB and also AnE....so started working on the own office in one of the free zones....

Rest and more later......