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

Episode 16....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pondicherry, appointed Sabapathy as our RSE....

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

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

Let the narrative be state by state...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More to come.....

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

Episode 15....

Dedicated to Kalyan and Haran....

Chennai again but this time as RM South....

After convincing DR not to split South which he felt made lots of sense, I come back to Chennai as RM South. KG Santhosh was the ARM.

But after reaching Chennai I got a serious shock as I was told that I have to stay at KPT's flat in Santhome. I came to know that was the deal with KPT to make him to accept his new position which was the GM of McD Chertala distillery. For KPT it was out of blue as he has been all along in sales...shifting him to manufacturing and to McD unit-a place plagued with labor issues--somehow DR has managed to swing it....but the compromise was that I have to stay in KPTs flat...it was in good location but huge water problem---we shifted to honor DRs word but we didnt like it one bit...we were absolutely uncomfortable in that place...Deepak Desai from finance came down to Chennai for a meeting and as he is a good friend, I invited him to our place for a meal, briefed him on the issues in that place and requested him to convince DR about our unhappiness with this flat....he also felt that apartment is not that good and the message was conveyed to DR and he asked me to look for another one within the budget....a major relief for me but Tomy didnt like it one bit...he took it up on me and asked me how dare I could say his flat was not good...I have to keep my cool and bow my head as he has been my boss and well wisher always....we got a very good apartment on Haddow's Road, brand new building....2 bedroom but very spacious and great lay out....Vandana Towers...we moved in there and Babloo got admission in pre KG at a close by nursery...I got Tomy's car initially but with in few months got a brand new Maruti 800....felt really good...office was in Rosy tower, same place but the cabin was huge (Tomy's)....

The TN team had some new faces and one amongst was Aditya Gupta a Management graduate based at Coimbatore as ASM...first time in HL TN...very nice guy and well grounded too....The team was almost the same...Haran was in Chennai...Raghavan was the ASM...Dwarak was shifted to Vijayawada as ASE....KGR in Hyderabad...Kandan at Hyderabad managing AP...Narasimhan at Bangalore, PJ Thomas at Cochin as ASM for Kerala....Santosh was the ARM based at Chennai but he didnt like one bit reporting to me as he was senior in terms of his experience.

The TN business was safe but we had issues in Kerala in terms of getting our supplies....so I have to go and meet KPT to get our share of supplies but he didnt hold the 'apartment' issue and was very helpful. We also had supplies from Seven Seas, a unit in the outskirts of Trichur...under Balaji...Unni who was the GM there, a very nice professional guy but Seven Seas had its own issues...but we managed that well. EJT was the ASM and a very nice, and honest guy. A very warm person with a big smile. During this time my wife's brother Padmanabhan was with BPC and was based at Cochin. So, the stay was always with them. Very hospitable guy and his wife Chitra too...But they have to put up with my timings as it used to be always beyond 11 pm to return home after the market visits. We had a promoter for Kerala...CeeCee brothers which was owned by Wilfred but was run by his brother Stanley...a typical character. I still remember during my fist visit, KGS wanted to take me to Stanleys home for dinner and while on the way, he stopped the car and got a bottle of JW Black from some bootlegger. When I asked him why he is buying the alcohol and that too JW, he said Stanley likes only scotch and its customary that we buy the bottle. I really lost myself. I told him very clearly that we will not waste companies money on such expensive brands (UB had nothing to do with JW in 1993) and told him to give back that bottle and get the money back. He was totally perplexed and I insisted that he should do that as we are going there for business discussion and if we have to drink we would drink Indian brands only...I am quoting this incident not to lower the image of KGS but the deep rooted subservient culture of the organisation to please the promoter as he was close to the chairman. We had a good team in Kerala but they were all 'type cast'. During our sales meetings, when a question is directed at any of the sales guy, they look at KGS and answer....I had to ask these guys to look at the person in the eyes and answer instead of looking at their boss...even EJT had this problem. I had to do lots of counselling to make these guys to understand that they work for VJM and not for any other individuals and the others are just line managers and that would keep changing...in Kerala the issue was that KGS was kept as branch head for more than a decade and that became the root cause of such behaviour. There was always Bevco to put the blame on for not achieving the objectives...and more than that, CeeCee was all powerful a la Allappat and Johar....all these promoters were close to HO and hence were to be handled with caution...and the retail was under private and it was fun working the market...KSBC was only in WS....

Karnataka no one bothered, as the volumes were too small due to certain local dynamics....HL never went in to that 'dynamics' and hence remained a small player. McD was big but in the books the volumes were relatively smaller.

After taking over went to Hyderabad and nothing had changed there...same set up with MSR group in the helm as our distributors...EKS was the zonal manager. Dwarak, as mentioned earlier was based at Vijayawada...I still remember during my visit to Vijaywada when I asked Dwarak how one arrives at the MRP, he really struggled to answer that. The issue was people were just pushed in to their roles without a proper induction especially on the RTM and the cost cards...so they did what they were good at...market visits and managing the numbers and team...they were not given an opportunity to think differently.

VK Arora was the head of sales and he knew only Punjab and Delhi and his visits were more of a formality than of any substance as TN and Kerala were government controlled, KTK was insignificant and AP was MSR controlled....

Ashok Capoor was a great boss to work with...very soft, understanding and a great listener...the reporting was more to AC than to VKA...We had issues with Balaji in terms of getting our supplies and DRs visits were primarily to sort them out....

So my job was to ensure that the forecasts were delivered and the team was kept motivated to deliver....TN team was still the stalwarts followed by AP as AP was another major contributor for BPW....BPG in TN was doing very well but the issue as always was HBB....whereas in Kerala HBB was keeping the volumes ticking...

My first visit to Mahe was an eye opener...Mahe is part of the UT of Puducherry and HL was not getting that kind of volumes from there but Mahe somehow was better than Pondy and Karaikkal. We had a good distributor in Mahe in Surulivelu a Tamil from Cumbam....he had an able manager in Krishnan and they knew the pulse of the market but sadly HL never done anything to convert those opportunities. The supplies were from Seven Seas. Surulivelu, as I had mentioned, a very shrewd operator gave me a proposal to take HBB to 5000 cases in two months...he just wanted some additional amount and guaranteed supplies from Seven Seas....Seven Seas was managed by Unni, a very nice gentleman but had his own issues in terms of getting the raw material on time and also labor...but a couple of meetings with him and also with his boss in Chennai, could get the supplies as committed and Surulivelu delivered....

The exciting thing during my one year stint was our presentation in the sales conference in 93 September. VJM's was gracious enough to agree to the managements proposal to host the conference in Nairobi followed by a 3 days trip to London....As always every region was to make a presentation...and mostly its on performance and balance of the year....we decided to change the format....in 93 there was a programme in DD called Super hit Muqabla....it was a program on Bollywood chart bursters and was quite popular...So title of our presentation was Super Hit Muqabla....and the content was all about glorifying the sales guys contribution in making things happen in the very competitive environment. We sought the inputs from our agency (I think it was redifusion) and every single slide was interspersed with a Bollywood song...a la super hit muqabla....BR Haran was the presenter and he did a fabulous job...we also highlighted the meteoric rise of DR with few slides to showcase how HL rewards its people and we chose the popular number that time 'papa kehate hai bada naam karega' song. The climax was all about a day in HL sales guys life in the market....we dubbed the 'Romeo Naam Mera' song from Mr. India with our own lyrics....it went something like this....'Herbertsons Naam mera...selling hai kaam mera...mein Bagpiper Bechun, honey bee bechun'...and our versatile Kalyan played the role of the salesman....with his typical style and dance....as I mentioned it was the climax and when he finished his part, the entire auditorium was on its feet with a thunderous ovation....VK Arora came running to me, hugged me and was all praise...Gill, my counterpart from North told me that it was like watching a movie....DR was spell bound....Tomy was all smiles....my team was on Cloud 9....euphoric is the word....Haran and Kalyan were the celebrities...and VJM thoroughly enjoyed it and was seen commenting, clapping and laughing....but SSG was so upset that we portrayed DR as a hero in our presentation and overruled others and awarded the first prize to North....there was pin drop silence when the award was announced....VJM was not present when the award was announced and even PS Gill and his team could not believe....we were in tears....Haran was unconsolable....SS Gandhi, the tormentor didnt say a word...but as I realised later, after reaching London...DR called me for a walk and confided to me that he had quit and would be joining a Liquor MNC who is setting up their operations in India....he also told me to be ready to join him...Didnt tell me anything more....so SSG apart from his dislike for DR also knew his leaving HL and our portrayal of DR as an icon of HL rubbed him on the wrong side....

Nairobi, we were all taken for a safari and the conference dinner was something enshrined in our heart....VJM is a great host and the spread and booze was awesome....we thoroughly enjoyed the settings and the booze and food and completely sloshed...we boarded the flight for Heathrow with a heavy heart and fully drunk....but London made us to forget the episode in Nairobi and we thoroughly enjoyed our outing there...Kalyans brother Dorai was based at London with a bank and he invited us to his home for a meal....all bachelors outing in his place....

Upon coming back to Chennai, I get a call from SSG one evening asking me to come down to Bangalore next day as VJM has called for a meeting....he even told me about what flight I have to take...SSG was such a micro manager...Next day I reach Blr and McD's office at Richmond road....it was a Saturday and no one in the office....After I reached, Ashok Capoor, VK Arora, PS Gill and Pradeep Arora, Sanjit Padhi from marketing....we were all there sharp 1000......Waited and waited and waited for the call....went out for lunch and came back but still no call....Ashok got bored and climbed up on the table in the conference room and slept off....around 930 in the night we got the call to come to UB office to meet up with Chairman....we rush there and the moment we reach there, were ushered in to his chamber where Rekhi, SSG and other seniors were all seated. VJM asked us to pick up our drinks and snacks and spent just few minutes telling us all not to get perturbed by MNCs and stay focussed and committed...UB would take care of us...hardly 15 minutes....I immediately rushed to the railway station with the help of Rajendra and somehow got in to the mail for Chennai. 

It was work as usual and one day when in Cochin on my trade visit, I got a call from Rekhi's office and his secretary wanted my address...and she whispered in my ears that I got promoted as Controller-South....in terms of job content, no difference but got in to the next level....

UB organised a big meeting of all the exec and the distributors of the entire country in Blr and in the evening VJM addressed us all....his speech was electrifying and everyone was motivated....this was organised to keep his flock together and send a message that UB is very proactive.

In the month of January 94, DR called me and offered a job as Controller-Sales South based at Blr with IDV, the company he set up in India....IDV, International Distillers and Vintners, known for Smirnoff, Bailey's, J&B, Malibu, Archers et al....the first liquor MNC to set up their operations in India...I didnt negotiate and took the offer.

I called Ashok Capoor and told him and he came down to Chennai next day...we sat in his room in Park Sheraton and he did his best to convince me to stay back. He told me that I am one of the blue eyed boys and has a great future with UB...over a few drinks....he finally said, it was left to me but he would expect me to stay back....he left for Bombay next day...It was a tough call for me but decided to go with DR and called AC next day and told him that I cant go back from my commitment and hence requested him to relieve me asap. The moment it became official I was asked not to come to the office...KGS was all smiles as he was made the RM for TN and Kerala and EKS for AP and KTK....I was persona non grata at HL office....

And UB decided that anyone leaving UB would never be taken back....

Finally my HL days came to an end....1979 to 1993.......14 years...what a journey....and what an experience....learning and wisdom....the number of friends I had gained and also the progress in my professional and personal life....and moving to an unknown, supposedly green pastures.....

I cant thank enough all my HL colleagues, trade partners and my family for all the support I got during this stint of mine....and the almighty for such a wonderful 14 years.....

Its bye bye HL and Chennai....hallo Bangalore....and IDV.......

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

Episode 14....

Bombay-the city of dreams....

Second time, outside the comfort zone....the first being Hyderabad and now the biggest of all...Bombay-people come here with huge dreams and many realise theirs too....

When I left Chennai, there were few things I was happy about. Obviously Rithvic was born during this stint and professionally few of my guys got promoted....KGR got promoted in 90 and moved to Vijaywada, KSR got promoted as ASM and Dwarak got promoted as ASE, and Narasimhan....for a manager, what gives immense happiness is his people's contribution getting recognised...Also BP Gold was a hit and started picking up....And Tomy was quite happy on my elevation....what else one could ask for?

We reach Mumbai city, a completely alien place (I visited Mumbai earlier too but as a tourist), with 2 YO Rithvic. After marriage, Chennai to Hyd to Chennai and to Bombay.....all in just 4 years of time. 

HL's union leader owned 2BHK, on the first floor of an independent house (Simplex coop housing society) on the 11th Road of JVPD Scheme-one of the posh areas in Bombay. On the top floor the simplex owner was the resident-an old man. The one opposite to our portion on the first floor was always locked...we were told that UL would visit once a while but never ever met him in our two years stint in that place. We moved in the month of April 91...It was a simple two bedroom, hall, kitchen place with a nice balcony-facing our neighbor's bungalow-hold your breath-the neighbour was Amrish Puri!!!). We were probably the first occupant of the house and hence a lot of cleaning had to be done. The location was one of the best in suburban Bombay-Juhu scheme as known. 10th Road was Amitabh's residence, 11th road slightly ahead was Danny Denzongpa, Manoj Kumar was two roads ahead, ISKON temple just 10 minutes walk and the Juhu club was also close by. But the drive to my office, which was in Parel was around an hour and sometimes more also...HL had their HO at Ewart House, Flora Fountain, and my office, the regional one, was in Parel. My predecessor, PK Chatterji was moved back to HO. Parel office was big as it also had the bonded warehouse. EC Bala, Sebastian, Ramu and Chandu to manage the office. Nagappa, ZM for Maharashtra based at Pune. Deepak Katty-ASM at Bhopal with Rajinder Kalra as the ASE for MP. Two TSEs at Gujarat to manage our Finit business and some liquor stores. Goa was directly under me as Ravi Nambiar who was managing Goa earlier as ASE got transferred to Bombay. It was Ravi and Chavan as ASEs for Greater Bombay. Around 6 TSEs to manage the Bombay local market with 2 ASEs, 10 TSEs with 2 RSEs in Pune and just one TSE at Goa. A big team. Naaz was heading the Liquor division 2 and Deepak Roy was the CEO of HL.  Deepak Desai, finance head, Rodney in accounts Cyrus Madan and Mohan Madera in supply chain/logistics, Sanjit Padhi-Marketing Manager,  Sandhya Nikam, Shekar Mulatti, Anil Sawant, Amar Sinha, Pradeep Gidwani all under Sanjit in marketing, Gerry D'souza head of HR and later Indru Balchandani, Mrs. George-secretary to DR (she was the secretary to SSG too), and the beautiful Vidya Nadkarni at the reception desk and with an admin department ably assisted by Amita Arora. That was HO.

But HL was a very small player in Bombay and in Maharashtra Nagpur was the only region where HL had a good market share and rest were pressure selling. MP was decent and Goa was small but Honey Bee was a big brand there....

I take charge without any proper brief as always...Deepak had portrayed me in the HO and to his circle as a super hero who would make West to deliver big numbers....did it happen? 

We had two distributors in Bombay in H Parson, and Candy wines...HP was, run by Nitin Pitale as their CEO (remember Nitin? He was my predecessor in Hyd!). We were also told VJM had a stake in HP. Deepak Avathramani with his brothers Kishore and Suraj was running Candy Wines, our second distributor based at Mahim. 

HP was like a government run organisation..but Candy was totally professional and very well run. They also had their own wine shops and the three brothers were wonderful to deal with. Deepak used to commute by train to his office and very focussed. They were also the distributors for Officers choice those days it was No1 seller in Bombay. HL was nothing great. Very small player in Bombay with around 3 to 4k cases of average sale of all our brands p.m. 

I was told BP was doing well in Bombay and when they changed the source from Udaipur to another unit, consumers rejected it citing change in taste/quality. Whatever HL did to reverse the trend and consumers perception, didnt work out...the sale went southwards....The lead sellers like DSP, OC and Aristocrat were all from Aurangabad and god knows how and why, Aurangabad had a great name with consumers....Those who haven't visited Aurangabad, its just an industrial hub and a very dry place. SW had an unit there and also some other companies. SW supplied RCW from their Aurangabad unit and thus Aurangabad became prominent..consumers started perceiving Aurangabad as the Scotland of India...all perceptions only... So anything from Aurangabad, the consumers thought would be good...you got it? So DSP, OC everything from Aurangabad....But Aurangabad do not have any semblance to Scotland either in terms of weather, land, river, water resources et al....In Maharashtra Konkan, Nasik, Kholapur, Lonavla, Mahabaleshwar areas are great water resources....but hardly any distilleries there. Seagrams and McD has units in Nasik and McD has one more in Baramati....Yes, Baramati is another fertile area...

So a struggling west for HL with very low volumes in Bombay, Maharashtra barring Thane and Vidarbha was also struggling. As mentioned Goa was for HBB and RTWhite rum and MP was delivering decent volumes with BP but MP receivables were always a nightmare..with the WS dictating terms...

HL tied up for bottling with a unit in Aurangabad...this made life easier for us as we could turn around permits faster. 

Bombay region...I was used to the HL TN way of working. The HL culture in TN-never used to look at the clock or calendar and it was always work n work n work for most of us....guys were business hungry...When I went to Bombay I was in that mode but the reality there struck me hard....people in Bombay undergo lots of struggle in their life. Everything is machine like precision for them. If some one is coming from Goregaon to Parel office-an example-they have to first travel to the local railway station-if they are close by, they walk up or take a bus or go by their two wheeler, park it at the station and catch the local train...and their local trains are fixed...if it is a 8.23 it is a 8.23 local....so they have to reach the platform by 8.20. There are fasts and normal trains. And if someone has to come from Goregaon to Parel, they have to get down at Dadar and change, as Goregaon is on WR and Parel is on CR...there is also a harbour line which connects CST and New Bombay....head is spinning, right? So when they reach the office they are irritated and tired. They need some time to refresh, unwind and probably have their BF and start the work....initially I used to get maha angry but when I understood their plight, started empathising with them. The TSE's are different. They dont have to come to the office everyday and hit the trade straight. Most of them commute by bus and train only except a few who had two wheelers. And Saturday was an off day for the FF, office and HO. This also irritated me so much as the market was open on Saturdays and also my distributors. I once told my TSEs that they should work on Saturdays and JV Gandhi a very senior TSE (around 58 YO-a bachelor) advised me not to push this. When I told him what his colleagues do outside Bombay, he told me Bombay is different....as they get only Saturday to attend to their personal work including banking and et al and Sunday is the only day with family. Most cases its double income group....So I have to let go....but I used to work on Saturdays visiting my distributors as the traffic on Saturdays used to be lighter especially in South Bombay. The moment you cross Thane, its different. Most of the distributors for Thane and Kalyan had their offices in Ulhasnagar....almost the entire trade was in the hands of Sindhi community that includes retail. And these guys were hungry for business. I had a great guy in Ghanshyam Bhatia who was new to the trade and was fresh....First time I drove down to U Nagar but it took more than two hours...I changed to local train to visit these markets. Reach U Nagar by train and market visits with the distributors in his vehicle....the market visits were always wonderful as the dealers were very nice and hospitable. I remember even today, one of the biggies in U Nagar, Pradeep Kalani-distributor for SW and as he had retail also we used to visit him regularly. Most of the guys related to each other as they are from the same community. And when you go to their office, there is always some dry fruits and nuts for you to munch on..Pradeep started cracking the shell of pistachios and I thought it was for him...but to my surprise after he cracked a handful, he offered the entire thing to me....what a hospitality...this is continued even today. Lunch/dinner is always with either the distributor or customer....

Pune was also H Parson but we were too small.  Kholapur was decent. Aurangabad we had Deepu (he lost his life in the plane crash) but again small business..strangely Aurangabad was controlled by on trade than off. Ahmed Nagar was also small for us. Sholapur-Uday Bakshi was our distributor...wonderful person but small business for HL. Vidarbha we had Sonu Traders-run by Poornayya-was the ZM of HL AP under SSG but was axed by SSG for some improvised receivables management , but the trade was owned by Harminder Singh-a WS and distillery owner from Hyd. Wondered what made HL to give the agency to an outsider instead of giving it to a local...This market BP was a decent seller competing with Diplomat (only market in Maharashtra where this brand had some consumer demand) and OC....Vidarbha a big area geographically consisting of around 4 districts with one of them 'dry'.

As mentioned, Nagappa was the ZM and he did a decent job in Maharashtra considering our products local standing. We had some stalwarts in KB Thole, Patil, CR Shetty and Dhiria.  The problem used to be managing the credit...also the local tactical AMPs. Lucky draws were quite popular and hence 3 to 4 times in a year, we need to work out some exciting lucky draws for our brands....and the lucky draw events have to be also big...In U Nagar the event cant start before 1030 and by the time it gets over, it would be early hours....The events were more of a dealers get-together and absolutely no untoward were ever happened....but the cost of running it was always on companies head...

Once there was some heated exchanges between me and Nagappa on some issues and as usual I let the steam and forgot about it. Didnt know Nagappa was harbouring it...one day I was in my Parel office and Nagappa walks in quietly....he says hallo with a sheepish smile and when I showed my surprise on his un announced visit, he reveals  he came to meet Deepak Roy to complain about me....Whats the complaint, my friend...you took my trip on that day and I didnt like it so went to complain...so what did he say? He asked me to sort it out with you....hahaha....that was Deepak Roy for you....he had so much of confidence in my abilities and my style of functioning and he never bothered to broker any truce or call me and ask....we buried the baggages and Nagappa and self are still good friends. Those who have worked with me knows my style. It sometime can be tough but I never took it to personal level....

My visits to MP used to be once in two months....another tough market due to its complexities...The trade was on auction every year....there was always anxious moments in the months of February and March every year...so the targets of 12 months have to be achieved in 10 months flat and the credit has to be controlled from December itself....Indore was the biggest followed by Raipur, Bhopal and Jabalpur. Mahesh Mehta was our distributor for Indore region and our best.  Raipur distributor was a great guy but tough to get the money from him. Deepak joined us after his PG in marketing and was very structured in his approach..very soft spoken and was just married. Rajender was our ASE based at Indore. There was only one hopping flight from Bombay to Indore-Bhopal-Gwarlior-Delhi...Return direction also the same route. The morning flight used to leave at around 550 and one has to be at the check in counter and 450 and to catch this flight I have to raise very early hours...it was tough initially but as there was no alternatives, I have to, once in two months, undergo this ordeal. The return flight from Indore was around 830 in the night reaching Bombay at around 1000pm. Once on my return boarded the Indore Bombay flight and just before take off, we were told that some rat was spotted in the cockpit and the captain has to check whether all the wires are intact and the flight would only take off after a thorough inspection....2 hours of wait inside the aircraft...finally the captured the rat alive and no damages and flight took off....there are plenty of such stories for the regular traveller.....

Goa....We had a company conference in Goa just before I got transferred where I met Ravi Nambiar. That time I didnt know about my elevation...within a couple of months I get elevated and shifted to Bombay. My first visit to Goa after taking over. Rainy day and at the airport my distributor Agencia Commercials owner Kerker fondly called Baauji, was there to welcome me along with Ravi....Such a simple soul and soft spoken. His children, Praveen, Vivek and Pradeep are the most respected distributors of IMFL even today....they have followed the tradition left behind by his father. That first visit of mine was still enshrined. In 91 there was only one flight from Bombay to Goa...an IA Airbus 300, always full....from airport we have to go to Mapusa....to Panjim and from there by a ferry as the bridge on river Mandvi collapsed...to his office at Mapusa for a brief on our business and then to his lovely home for dinner...The problem with Goa, even today, is the credit control..the money is safe but the customers, barring a few, would take their own sweet time to pay back...but would never hesitate to order quantities. Also any product launched would do very well first 3 months and would stop after that as the consumers in Goa always try new brands-especially the floating population-and either go back to their own brands or try the next one when it is launched.  Also the universe is huge with a portion of residences serving as bar in remote areas. Distributors do not service these small vendors due to accessibility and very low volumes and hence in every town there is one big retailer who specialises in servicing these outlets...and they play a huge role in terms of RTM as they are the ones who has the pulse of these vendors and also extend credit to them...for example in Margao Vaz Enterprises, Panjim-Bosotto brothers et al. The problem is managing the credit...Goa was one state where you would huge bill boards advertising alcohol brands...lively market to work...friendly trade and distributors and beautiful hotels to stay too. I used to stay only at Hotel Mandovi as the rooms were quite spacious and with in budget...and Prabhu, the GM a great guy....we also had couple of dealers meet there...Goanchin-very good chinese joint in Panjim...now Goa is infested with many more restaurants....but in 91st Goa used to be quiet and very few restaurants only. Kamat was the only veg rest to the best of my knowledge.   

Next day morning we start our market visit and in the very first outlet Bosotto Brothers, he asked me for a nice scheme on RT white rum (this was just launched). We worked out an on the spot lucky draw scheme, taking some inputs from Maharashtra, and it was an instant hit....Even today, I love working the retail trade in Goa....Many outlets are small in nature but very friendly and ready to help but collections, a big ?....barring a few...

My distributors were complaining about the low margins of theirs and that was their only complaint....I took some tough call against my boss's displeasure and increased their margins....Honey bee was a major seller and not BP....little bit of other brands....I believe HBB currently sells over 50k per month in Goa!!!! The seeds were sown in 91....

So first few months, understanding of the market, restructuring the team, building confidence with the distributors n trade and also making the team to be passionate about our brands and company....I think I did a fair job on that. Business was tough and we could not crack Bombay still but managed some extra business with other portfolio brands. Maharashtra we did well and so as MP. Goa we delivered the numbers but less profitable.

Few things...when I took charge, out of the 3 very important and powerful retailers in city, 2 turned a blind eye to our brands....PK wines, Shah & Co, India International-all in Crawford market, the trading hub of Mumbai city-PK was okay and as in my earlier post, Shah & Co barrier was broken. India International, Hoshi was a tough nut....he had a big attitude and was very difficult to handle...but I managed him really well. I took him once with me to Goa as HL's guest for two days. After this he became a great supporter. His family also became close to us. He had a very beautiful daughter Piroja just a couple of years elder to my son....wonderful hosts....

Zorast of PK, another Parsi dealer, was tough too but much easier to handle. These three were cutting each other in terms of RSPs and the consumers were really enjoying the benefits but the retailers in the vicinity always complained as they could not compete with these big 3...In the suburbs also there were biggies - Bhatia at Kurla, Deepak at Ghatkopar, Raj at Sion Koliwada, Bebu and Sunil at Bandra and others....That was the time the retail association of Bombay was getting stronger but only in Suburbs...the city guys never wanted to be part as they were not willing to give in on their cutting edge on retail prices but enjoyed all the benefits the association brought. The retailers association introduced the new rule of 4 bottles free for every single case as a mandatory launch offer... Thats quite a lot but they stuck to their grounds...and we had to give in...So launching a product became quite easy due to this but without any guarantee of success and also quite expensive. During the launching phase, one has to also provide shelf space which came in with a cost...

Royal Challenge was the best seller in premium segment. McD's vintage n Mcd premium were nowhere in the horizon...none of the on trade could run their business without RC. It was 91 and there was no Seagram or IDV...keep this in mind. The problem with HL was no clear strategy in terms of either portfolio or brands. HL, in their illustrious history, kept launching brands after brands. RT rum, HS Gin, Romanov Vodka, entire Herberts series of brands and many more...except BP nothing actually worked well for HL... We launched Dynasty followed by BP Gold but both bombed big time barring TN....So the HO came out with another brand in Royal Velvet-head on with Royal Challenge...whats the strategy? Nothing..we dont have a filler in this space....we were told its a better blend and better presentation. Yes the presentation was good but content? Who has to decide on the content...finally the consumer...whats the compelling story for them to shift? Another whiskey in the same price bracket and will the consumers grab it because it looks good? Thats what the company thought....as SW was not in to push games and their trade schemes were never high and since RC was numero uno they were very tight fisted on spends....so the strategy for Royal Velvet was to spend more and get the trade on our side...yes, the trade with the launch offer and our personal rapport supported us...Hoshy of India International bought in one go, 101 cases....everyone was shocked as he would never invest in a new brand so much...its because of the personal relationship....but sadly, there was no clear strategy from HL to 'pull' the consumers from their favourite RC... all we did was bar promotions with 2+1 or some gifts with every peg...the standard stuff....consumers didnt find the content great....so added pressure on the sales team....when you keep launching in different markets the volume in the first year would certainly happen but the repeats were elusive....Goa did well first three months as usual and later it dissipated....there is a huge learning here.....

Another joke was Regal Crest....SW's Haywards was a huge brand in Maharashtra....and HL wanted to tap this segment...lesser margins and HL felt we should pitch in that space and get some volumes....no market/blend/consumer research was done. One afternoon Pradeep Gidwani undertook a market visit with me, met some 3 to 4 vendors in Juhu and four bungalows and came out with a strategy...Pradeep is a well known name in the beer industry now...but his stint in HL and the hurried launch of Regal Crest, something he would be really regretting even today....

So two flops in my tenure....fortunately it was not sales doing....both these brands bombed across the country....it was a black mark on HL....even today, USL has not figured out this segment...Signature initially did well but nowhere closer to the brand leader....and we all know what happened to RC after it went to USL...today RC, in most markets, on par with Royal Stag....this is what USL has done to a premium brand....

Guys, one has to have a very clear strategy especially when you enter the space of premium as to take on an established brand, you need to construct a very compelling story....we will discuss this later with live examples...half baked, launch for the sake of launching, not much of differentiation and without a clear investment plan, brands would certainly go down in the drain as fast as it appeared.....

It was just BP which kept the cash box ticking but with lots of pressure. We have to change the distributors in some markets which included HP in Bombay and Pune....it was a very tough call but had to be done to get some distribution traction. I appointed Prakash of Pancharatna as a 3rd distributor and he did a decent job too. 

HL, in the booze industry, started the concept of hosting overseas conferences and it used to be the entire sales n marketing plus department heads from HO. The conferences were something we used to look forward to as it gave us an opportunity to be together, shop and have a great time despite the one or two days pressure on presentations....but we mastered the art of presentations....will give you more meat on this later. In 92 the conference was in Manila and we were told VJM would attend the event. As HL was struggling in Bombay and Maharashtra with very few markets contributing for BP, I thought that we should suggest launch of a new brand with very attractive name encashing on the UB umbrella....and in the same price bracket of DSP and OC...Brain stormed with my team ie Deepak Katty, my Bombay ASM (sorry name forgotten...a Sardar) and Nagappa. The team liked the idea. We got cracking and got a local agencies help to design the pack....name....hold your breath....UB Special Rare premium whiskey with the UB insignia, Pegasus, promptly displayed on the label. The pack came out very well and the pricing too. We prepared the cost card, marketing plan and also a 3 year projection market wise with net contribution and a comparative analysis with BP. (the MBAs do a great job on this). We also wanted to completely dramatise the presentation...my Bombay ASM was made to anchor. The presentation was very hard hitting with the market realities and the difficulties in establishing BP and also the failed attempts with other brands and the reasons. After dwelling in with the market dynamics and issues faced, the proposal would be unleashed. So what we did was, created a big wooden box with a machine fitted inside (fantastic job by Kiran Talcherkar) and at the press of the button the lever inside would start pushing up, the box opens on top and the pack of UB Special would come fully placed on the pedestal inside...as it pops up, some light and sound effect too...we also dressed our Gujarat TSE mimicking Zorro...his job is to come when the slide on our proposal starts, stand in front of the box and do a mime act....the attire was exactly like Zorro with hoods and eye shades...we trained very hard in Bombay and when DR asked me about what we would be presenting on, I told him that its a secret and cant be shared. He told me 'dont you do anything which would cost my job' with a hearty laugh....All set and we reached Manila, and the previous night of the conference, we started rehearsing and as luck would have it, the mechanisation inside the box, crumbled....We were devastated for a while...phoned Kiran but he could do nothing. The hotel guys also tried their best but could not crack...for an hour or so and after breaking our head and a few drinks down, we realised nothing could be done with the machine and hence did some improvisation with the available materials. We increased the height of the pedestal by a couple of feet and kept the 'pack' plastered on the pedestal, covered the entire box with a beautiful black satin cloth (courtesy hotel). The Zorro character has to act like a magician with a wand on hand, and when the BGM touches the crescendo, he would give a look at VJM, nod his head and with a big laughter and in a flash remove the black satin, take the pack, walk up to VJM, hand it over and knight the 'new baby' with his knife....wah.....rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed...all my commands were in English only and some one has to translate the same to our TSE....the team wanted to get it absolutely right....there were curious on lookers trying to get hold of what we were upto and we sealed the entrance with two of our ASEs guarding ii😇...we came back to the room at 6, showered, assembled at the BF table around 8 and at the conference hall at 9. I requested our presentation to be the last as we wanted full attention from VJM n the leadership team and also we wanted time to keep mentally rehearsing our stuff and take a note of what the other regions were doing...We even skipped our lunch and just got some snacks to the conference room...mind it guys, in 91 the technology was limited...it was all PP with slides...South did a good job and it was just before ours. When ours came up, we were all completely drained but we did some pranayama, got the energy and unleashed😅.... I did the intro and Sardar took over. He did a great job and when Zorro appeared, everyones mouth opened up in complete awe....they just could not believe what they were seeing. VJM's eyes lit up....I saw him leaning over to Naaz and asking about the team...our Zorro did a fantastic job and the BGM was just awesome with stereo blast...we switched off the lights completely and when the satin got removed, the 'pack-the baby' was taken on hand by Zorro and with the special effects of lights and sound, he majestically walked up to VJM, presented the bottle and knighted it...perfect as rehearsed....everyone in the hall spontaneously stood up and started applauding👏....standing ovation....we all had goose bumps and tears started rolling out....we had really put in lots of efforts. After a while for things to settle down, VJM called me, put his hands around me and told the entire gathering that he had never ever seen a presentation like this in his career and with so much of passion and content....what else you could ask for? He also said he likes the idea but UB Special was a question mark as it requires lots of discussions at the corporate level. For those of you who do not know the history- it was 92 and under the UB Group umbrella, there was beer division, Liquor division 1 and 2, Mangalore Chemicals, UB air et al.....DR and Naaz were so happy with our presentation and they personally congratulated every member of my team and we were on cloud 9...drank to glory that night...anyway to cut the long story short, the UB special didnt materialise as VJM was not comfortable lending the name for a regular segment whiskey (there was a UB Export lager Beer though, quite popular then in KTK and TN). I also got transferred after the conference....and the efforts of the team went down in the drain....probably the HO thought it was not worth putting in money on another brand at that time....BP continued to struggle in West but it got a shot in the arm around 2000...that story at a later date...thats a crazy story though... 

I had mentioned that we were staying on 11th Road of JVPD. Our son was put in to a play school just across our home. Thats where we met one of my best friends till date, Sujata and Deepak with their lovely kids Akshay and Shweta. They were and are still on the 8th road...next year we went for an admission interview in Jamnabhai and met Sujata and Deepak there too...they were there for Shweta's admission. Shweta and Babloo got admission in Jamnabhai. 

When I came to Bombay and before settling down in our JVPD home, I stayed for a few days with my dear friend MSA Kumar in his Worli apartment. It was on top of Bombay Brasserie, one of the very popular restaurants in Bombay. He used to laugh at my broken Hindi and on Sundays I used to manage some cooking too...his wife Mini Chechi was in Calicut that time...I had mentioned about Kumar in my earlier post...my Madurai days....We had a new year party at our home in Juhu, with Kumar and Mini Chechi and also invited Sabarish who used to work in HL but as Trade Marketing in HO...after a few drinks there was big argument on MBAs and Non MBAs and that led to myself and Kumar cutting off from each other for almost an year...but Jeyanthi and Mini Chechi kept in touch and thanks to them we buried our baggages and still maintaining our friendship. Kumar is IIM A and now settled well in Kochi and does coaching for family run business...and quite successful too. 

Deepak Desai family, Amar and family, Sanjit and Mitha we all bonded very well. 

The Babri masjid demolition impact was huge in Bombay. Everyone knows what happened there and so not getting in to the nuances. But this story is different. Deepak Desai called for a get together at his place in Bombay central. It was around 9th or 10th of December. We debated a lot whether to go ahead with the party or cancel it. Deepak Desai called us individually and told us that things are okay in Bombay central and city but we all need to leave together and come in a convoy...and hence decided to go ahead. From Juhu we all left in a convoy. Sanjit, self and Pradeep in two cars with the respective spouses and children. Till Bandra everything was normal but the moment we entered Mahim it was chaos....I still remember. We stopped at the Mahim Naveena Church and asked a patrolling policeman whether to go ahead was safe....he told us to be careful but gave us the green signal. There was absolutely no traffic and we reached central in no time. Those who know the route from Mahim to Central...you drive straight from Naveena church and go via Shivaji park and straight to Prabhadevi, Worli and take a left at Tardeo. Everyone was there...DR, Naaz, Jerry, Jasmine et al....We all enjoyed discussing the impact of and the fall out of the demolition...there was some fear too as what we heard from people around was quite horrific. Despite pressure from the Desais to stay back, we decided to leave around midnight. It was horrific on the road. While coming back we had to take the other road and not the same Shivaji park road....There was eerie silence and both sides of the road were burning and we could see smoke and fire... we told the women n children in the car to keep their eyes shut and drove madly. The moment we entered Bandra it was different....life was normal and in Juhu absolutely business as usual....in hindsight, we were stupid enough to take that trip...anything could have happened but god saved us that night....

A couple of malaria attacks during the second year in Bombay. I took Babloo and Jeyanthi to Goa with me once and the moment we checked in I fell sick and it was malaria...Babloo also got it....so trip went for a toss. On return to Bombay another attack....but one great Dr treated me well and got out of this issue.

Also the first experience of Bombay monsoon. Our Juhu simplex building water logged till the first level of stair case....fortunately while entering our road I realised it and parked the car on the road and my car got saved. We had to go with out power for a day....

Bombay teaches you a lot....there is no rich or poor...everyone has to go thru the same ordeal  and they are treated the same way...you can be very poor and still survive....the poor dont envy the rich and thats the reason Bombay always move forward. People just live on Vada Pav but you would not find anyone complaining even during very heavy downpour....or trains stopping midway...pot holes and water logging...its tough life but people take it with just a pinch of salt....and live their life well...

My HO visits used to be always exciting either in terms of getting rogered by DR or going out for a meal with the HO team....Fountain cafe was walking distance from Ewart house and most of the times, we visit this place for lunch. Mostly it would be on DR or we would dutch it. But that place was affordable. 

Amar Sinha used to live on SV road, Bandra. One night I get a call from him around 11 telling me he is driving down to our house with his daughter Nikhita who was around 5 yo. She was running high temperature and was crying non stop and wanted to see Rajah uncle.....I didnt know this and was very tensed on what happened to Nikhita, so went down and waited at the gate for Amar to come...the moment she saw me she jumped in to my hands from Amar and with a big smile on her face....fever disappeared...I could feel God that night in her....such lovely memories of Bombay.

Throwing parties are quite common and once we invited our HO team including Naaz and DR to our home but we were never used to such parties and really struggled. We had no assistance from anyone and I tried my hands on cooking taking instructions from Mini Chechi and made fried rice. Finally we got some food from a close by restaurant and managed it...there was no Swiggy or Zomatto those days..

Diwali is big time in Bombay. I learnt Banko, a cards game, which can make you a pauper in no time. It used to be card sessions during Diwali and from around 10 in the night to early hours....with drinks and dinner....exciting times.

I recruited an ASM to manage Bombay with an agency background...that didnt work out...he was good but somehow didnt understand the industry....

We got a GM sales....Bharath Malhotra joined us from ABD, makers of OC...with lots of expectations..he even gave a commitment that he would make Ulhas Nagar to deliver 10000 cases per month....but all air bubbles.....he didnt last long....Vijay Arora who was the RM North got promoted as GM sales....his trade mark statement used to be 'BP is the clear leader in Punjab but how come it is not selling in West?' But nice guy.

Around March 93 VKA came home and told me whether I would be okay to move to Chennai as Regional Manager South but only to look after TN and Kerala...They wanted to split South in to two due to its huge volumes...but I flatly refused....Somehow DR also got convinced with my logic, and he vetoed that move and made me RM-South....2 years was short but I created some very good positive vibes in the market and the trade started supporting us...what I did was to instil confidence in the team by working with them regularly and addressing their issues with solutions....made them to honor their commitments to the trade with in the time frame. We also identified key outlets who are friendly and trustworthy and developed a volume plan for them. This helped and after a long time the sales team of Bombay started putting in hard work and even started visiting bars late hours...Babloo was just settling down in Bombay and we had to shift again....but the beauty was that the family always moved with me....

So bye bye Bombay.....and hallo Chennai....

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

Episode 13

ZM...TN...Chennai days again....and what a roller coaster it was....

Two years of great learning and life in AP and everlasting memories. Lived in the same house and same car....didnt change. Jeyanthi left for Trichur in the month of April for her delivery and I left mid of April for Chennai. The Hyderabad office was renovated and the team was well trained. Our office owner Pankaj was a happy man. And more over no Dipy's on our shoulders. HL became a liquor company...

KPT was the RM for South. I come back to Chennai and report to him. Was given the cabin adjacent to him in Rosy Tower. We also acquired the massage parlour area and annexed it thus creating more space. That area became our ASEs space. 

1989 DMK came back to power and alcohol industry was put on some kind of pressure by cutting down the basic prices and the government setting up a spirit corporation apart from TASMAC. I straight away landed in some kind of confusion and chaos. I was told that the margins have thinned but we still have to sell and go after numbers but there will be very less tactical support. 

But I had a great team. Raghavan, Dwarak and Ravi were still there. Purushotham from Karnataka...Kalyan at Madurai and Noor at Coimbatore. Haran at Chennai. I recruited Krishnakumar and Vivek in to the team. Real stalwarts...The task was to manage TASMAC well and also manage Balaji as their margins also dwindled. Navratan Dugar was heading Balaji and it was a big task to manage him as Balaji's loyalty was with McD. HL and Carew Phipsons were given the proverbial 'step motherly' treatment....this is not a complaint but fact. CDL another arm of UB group with CG brandy also to be supplied by Balaji...

The retail trade was still with private and mostly the same players. And some of them were stalwarts too. Real biggies. 

We had a great guy as MD of Tasmac. Mrityunjay Sarangi IAS. Native of Odisha, TN Cadre, an officer and a gentleman. Rare species.  U remember my earlier post where our Raghavan met him accidentally in the train to represent our case!!! Same person. We used to take our fights, the never ending ones between McD and HL, to him. Once he quipped "you guys are like Pandav and Kauravas and you want me to do the role of Krishna? You guys sort it out between yourselves and dont bring it to me". He said it with a smile but that was true. In HL we were made to fight for our rights always as we never had our own unit and were mostly dependent on McD units to source our requirements. HL had one in Rajasthan but with limited capacity. Phipsons had Kalyan Ganguly as their RM and they managed well as VJM had a soft corner for Phipsons too. Jayaram was the ASM for TN- another great character. 

So what was the task? Deliver the numbers...do not ask for schemes...manage with whatever you were given...but top-line delivery is a must. I was once told by KPT we just get Rs5 as royalty from Balaji (dont know how true it was!)..but HO wanted the numbers as TN had the potential. There was no concept of bottom line....just the top line deliverance....

And we delivered. I was the incharge of the entire state. As soon as I moved in, I took a house on rental at Alwarpet-it was the first floor of an independent house but Chennai was suffering from acute water shortage and this house was no exemption...the day I moved in to the house, I got the happiest news of my life-Jeyanthi delivered our dear Rithvic on the 10th of June 89....my brother got the call from Trichur  and he came with a pack of sweets to my place. Took the train that night to Trichur to see the baby....it was always the Cochin express(now Alleppey exp) -the most convenient train to Trichur those days....how many trips! My friends niece Aarthy is the one who suggested the name for my son and since it sounded different and good, I gleefully grabbed it.

Some stories worth sharing...one of them is how we used to recruit sales guys...once we interviewed Basha, a muslim and I found him ideal fit. But KPT insisted that I meet up with his parents and take their consent too as traditional muslims look at it as haram. I followed his instructions and recruited Basha. Tomy always insisted that we should know the family of the guys whom we recruit, which I second. Being in liquor industry you have so much of attractions/distractions...the booze is always at your hands reach...during the trade visits most of the dealers would insist to give them company for a drink and it is never ending. I mentioned in my earlier post that we work late evenings visiting outlets and invariably food is always with some retailers/colleagues. If you are an FMCG guy, market visits get over by maximum 5pm and after that you are on your own. Medical reps sometime work in the evening as per Drs availability. But for alcohol industry evening and night trade visits are mandatory to understand consumer behaviour and also to strike a chord with the trade. And when you work upcountry markets sometimes it goes even beyond midnight as despite mandatory closure times, retailers keep their shops open beyond that...Madurai used to be one such place where some shops were 24x7....and didnt I enjoy my trade visits!!!

In my earlier stint as FSO, Coimbatore was not part of me. But as ZM-TN I visited CBE officially first time. Noor and Vivek were our guys there. And these guys had such a great hold in the market. My mode of travel was mostly by train and reach early morning except when I travel to Tirunelveli. Check in, shower and guys would be there for breakfast...review of numbers and trade visits. In the evening after the trade visits drinks and dinner. In Coimbatore it was always Annapoorna Hotel...what a place...receptionist Kalai was such a gem. Mostly drinks and dinner in the room only. I could not claim alcohol on company account so it was always out of pocket. But my guys were smart and they would get it with some great discounts. Snacks from Annapurna-the best in CBE-were always free for us.

Madurai it was Aarthi hotel. Trichy Rajali...

And as ZM I was allowed to travel by Taxis. AC ambassador cars...thankfully, and AC 1st class in train.

With the limited resources available the need of the hour was improvisation as to push numbers one has to have some kind of bait for the trade...McD managed well as, probably, they had more money. We used to manage with our give aways-which we were using it so generously earlier-and once in 6 months some decent schemes. But we were very creative with our schemes. Our lucky draws were always looked upon by the trade. We also specialised in display contests. One such contest in Madurai region is still enshrined in my heart. Contest boiled down to 5 guys finally. The winner would be decided on certain scores and one of them was their off-take of our brands. Dealers used to keep their spies at Tasmac depots to track the off-take of the contestants to score over them. Tomy came to Madurai to judge the display contest and when he visited Meenakshi Wines of KP Kandasami (one of our staunch supporters), a beautiful board was kept outside his shop with the following inscriptions...'Welcome To My shop Tomy!" (got it?)....and few steps away Aruna Wines(Arunachalam)...another contender for the fist prize- and Jaya wines(Swamy Ayya)....finally we have to give two first prizes and one special prize but we got the market in our control. Our dear Kalyan played a big part in making this a huge success.

My team members were known for their 'I am achiever' club. Stalwarts!! ALP, Manohar, Vivek, Noor, Thulsi and Mohandas. Apart from Narasimhan, KSR, KGR, Raghavan and Haran. 

After I moved in KSR got promoted as ASM.

Bala was at Tirunelveli for sometime and he was another character. Some times our parties have turned so nasty and one such was, when Tomy invited all of us, after our review meeting, to his home for a drink. Our guys always indulge. After few drinks we were to dine at Amaravati on TTK Road and they all left either by their two wheelers or by Auto...self and Tomy went in his car and as we approached Amaravathi, there was a huge crowd outside. I requested Tomy to go in and got down to figure out what was happening outside. ooops...it was our Bala on the road completely zoned out....I pulled couple of our guys and lifted Bala and pushed him in my car and straight drove up to our office in Rosy tower. We opened our office, carried him inside and he was stinking with vomit all over, stripped him completely and covered him with all the news paper around and left him there to cool off, went back to Amaravathi and joined the gang as if nothing happened. Tomy gave me a wink and I realised that someone had already informed him. That night LT Murthy of our office picked up a quarrel with another colleague....and our dear Narasimhan broke the bathroom sync....what a party finally it turned out to be. Fortunately Kalyan was not drunk.... Next day morning Bala got a mouthful from all of us and he had to be shown the door. This episode brought lot more discipline with the team as I enforced lots of restrictions on the team in public drinking.

Our monthly reviews were fun to be....lots of screaming and shouting but in the evening over a drink we laugh it off but sometimes it goes out of hands too....as happened at Amaravati.

I moved to a better flat on RA Puram and celebrated my sons first birthday there...It was a great get-together with colleagues, family members and friends...my nephew Vinu did a solo dance that evening...he danced for 'Annatha adurar' song and he stole the show. 

Haaa....one more thing I need to share here....I mentioned about our monthly review meetings. One such meeting we decided to do something different. Datta had a great contact with G Venkateswaran, producer and brother of director Maniratnam. He had a farm house in Mahabalipuram- 'the coconut grove'. It was right on the beach. Datta managed to get the place for us for a night and we travelled to the beach resort with a single objective of having a great time. It was full moon and the setting was awesome. The farm house had so many casuarina, palm and coconut trees. The care taker of the place cooked food for all of us. We were around 15. Suddenly out of nowhere I got a crazy idea and called all my guys and told them that we will all completely strip off and go and reamin naked through out the night. Believe me guys, I seriously suggested it...and every single member of the team agreed....Dwarak was a bit hesitant but he had to give in....so 15 of us walking, running, screaming, singing and drinking on the beach, under the moonlight fully naked. Thats the kind of team we were...the team I had in TN that time, was one of the best...the achievers club.....as am travelling down the line, I realise how fortunate I was to have such great guys as team mates....the beauty is that we are still in touch with each other barring a couple. And we lost our dearest Kalyan and Haran a couple of years ago.

In one of the review meetings with HO, when it boiled down to profitability, I suggested to them to develop a brand at the same price point of McD No 1 Whiskey. They agreed and started developing but took lots of convincing of VJM as he didnt want any trouble for McD No 1....We launched Bagpiper Gold in TN...and we put in our best efforts and made it a leading brand in TN in a very short time. The team did a fabulous job....initially we got the stocks from, Rajasthan and later shifted to Balaji...we didnt want to shift to Balaji due to very poor realisation but were forced to. Evan as ZM I was not shared the cost cards and hence always wondered how one could get more margins importing from other states than supplying from local...but once shifted to Balaji, the volumes started coming in....the game was always volumes, right?

2 years stint as ZM has made me stronger in terms of team and supply management. Also strengthened my working relationship with MSR group in Chennai HO. Dugar was tough but still managed him well. Lots to learn from him too. He always kept a piece of paper in his pocket and in a jiffy he would tell you MTD production and dispatches brand wise. Mind it, there was no cell phone those days....

Most of the days, after our office hours, self along with Raghavan, Haran, Ravi and Datta used to spend some time at the parking area of Rosy tower and chat a lot. My friend Raman and Manohar of Blue Star used to also join us. We would never return home before 8. 

Also some times we used to go to the Blue Diamond theater which used to run continuous shows....with a ready mix!!!

As I mentioned it was managing the logistics and redistribution....my office staff were of great support especially Datta as he handled the excise all by himself. During this stint, Dwarak and KGR got promoted as ASEs....

Naaz  Rovshen was the boss of HL and he was such a sweet guy...left it to Deepak Roy to manage. SSG fell off with VJM and left the group but came back as head of McD later. HL was growing in stature within the group, thanks to the combo of Naaz and Deepak. They changed the people and brought in fresh blood and started focusing on consumers more.  

But TN was becoming very mundane....DR during a review asked me whether am mobile...without realising what it was, I said immediately YES....and within a month he called me and told me that he is promoting me and transferring me to Bombay as RM West. Deepak Roy is the one who is responsible for whatever I am today. He noticed the spark in me and despite my short comings on Hindi, he somehow felt I had the potential and should be nurtured. So after spending two wonderful years in TN and with 2 yo Babloo, we decided to take the offer and move to Bombay....an alien territory....Guys, never ever hesitate when the opportunity comes knocking.... 

Bye bye Chennai and hallo Bombay......