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

Episode 37...

The MBDL saga......typical Hollywood potboiler......

Before we entered TN and our agreement to bottle with SAFL, Sipping Spirits owned by a very young and dashing Prasanna started bottling their Pink vodka there....this brand was unique for the TN consumers and the very first super premium Vodka in TN....and this brand was touching almost 10k per month....

Even after Samsudeen's return to SAFL somehow this brand was not touched by him as VSOP Gold was not in the horizon then. Also they just done away with the bottling partnership with SW/USL and hence needed some premiums in their portfolio....and the fact they were struggling to complete their licensed capacity of 4.15 lac cases per month. Things started changing only after the launch of VSOP Gold and Prasanna also started feeling the heat as he was not given production line and his volumes started dipping.....since both of us had similar problems we started discussing more with each other and also how we could do better with SAFL....but the issue was continuing....

Meanwhile, in 2011 when AIADMK came back to power, I thought MBDL (Mohan Breweries and Distilleries) would start doing better....My ex colleague J Krishnakumar was their Sales head and moved to Chennai from Blr....I used to visit their office regularly and meet up with their chairman Mr Nandagopal and even once told him that they should start investing more in to this business (they were doing bad in that time)....Natarajan, his son, was also involved in the business....but he was shuttling between US, HK and Chennai....developed a good relationship with Natarajan....but somehow they were not able to get it right and could not improve their business mainly due to their debts and cash crunch....it was going on for some time....Balu an ex SW person was heading their sales. Natarajan's younger brother Arvind was also getting inducted in to the business....

I wanted to meet Maran and impress upon him to provide us at least 5000 cases per month of both our Hobsons and Clovis put together....went to Singapore to meet up with him....which I did promptly...it was 14th of April and i think it was 2012 or 13....the meeting was just for an hour in his office in Singapore and he assured me that he would advice his people to provide our requirements without any interference from Samsudeen and Mathew would help me....i came back with lot more confidence and met up with Mathew and briefed him too, but nothing happened...again everything boiled down to Samsudeen.

Sipping Spirit also had similar issues and I came to know they severed their bottling arrangement with SAFL and tied up with MBDL for bottling....one has to note down here that Prasanna of Sipping Spirit's relationship with MBDL is different as his father was a partner in their Binny's business.....

On hearing this I approached MBDL and met up with Nandagopalji and requested him to consider bottling for us....he asked me to meet Natarajan....Natarajan agreed and asked me to discuss with his brother Arvind....earlier MBDL was only doing their own but as they were under severe cash crunch and dwindling volumes, they had to look at options and one of them is bottling for others....They also had units in AP and in Kerala but were still under pressure....Krishnamurthy was their CFO, a very good person but was always under pressure to generate money for running the business..Sikka who was Natarajan's go to man for any manufacturing related understanding...Ravindran head of manufacturing and Tyagi their blender and quality control...their bottling unit is in the City and prime place....the liquor bottling unit and the brewery were at the same premises.....they also had an ENA plant in Chenglepet. Sikka became a good friend. They wanted to launch a product in the same segment of Hobsons and I helped them to tie up with a supplier in France (this was before we launched Hobsons) but they ran in to problem as they didnt have money to clear the goods when it landed in Bombay port and ended up paying huge penalties and finally the product bombed during the launch phase itself.  You may remember from my earlier blog that Vijayakumar of MBDL who was their PR person, helped me to get an appointment with the JC and had fantastic relationship with the excise and in the commissioners office.

Arvind was very open and asked me to just match Sipping Spirit's offer on bottling fees and deposit. The deposit demanded by MBDL was a whooping INR 10 million (!)...Am sharing this with you just to emphasise the point that in TN it should be the other way ie the bottling company should pay deposit for the label owner as the investment on materials is done by the label owner and the payments received from TASMAC would be by the bottler....so the deposit demanded is, as claimed by Arvind, for investment in their bottling plant...Self and Prasanna discussed with MBDL chairman NandagopalJi and impressed upon him, before signing the agreement that we should request TASMAC to pay the invoices raised for our brands in a joint account to be operated jointly by us....It took sometime to convince NandagopalJi and a letter was given to TASMAC but the letter is still gathering dust as, probably, the local bottlers do not want that to happen as it would not only affect their cash flow but also make them less powerful....so till date this has not happened. Also we should not have progressed without this in place as it was part of our understanding. I have to really stick my neck out with Vishal as MBDL was not a well rated company that time and Vishal had his own reservations....but we were desperate for volumes and MBDL had that extra capacity as they didnt have any premium brands in their portfolio. Vishal reluctantly agreed and also taking our plight with SAFL...but we were told that Edelweiss has approved a loan based on some kind of understanding with MBDL and they were getting around 200 C which would give them the required infusion and business would become normal soon....this Prasanna also confirmed and this was one of the reason for me to go ahead....also the need for getting some volumes....our 3rd brand, Le Roi' in SNJ was not doing great and hence we were primarily dependent on around 2000 cases from SAFL....we didnt want to approach any other bottlers. I had mentioned in my earlier post about Shiva Disty....but they were not interested and in fact they were not even showing any interest in their own brands and were happy with whatever they were getting from TASMAC. Midas was an option but came to know that its difficult to do business with them...So, I felt, considering the above, MBDL had a possibility of turning around their business and we could encash on that and get around 5000 cases of volume for Clovis which would give us a breather....We also were stuck with lots of inventories in terms of both raw and packing materials. We imported huge quantity of French Grape Spirit (FGS) based on the initial forecasting and due to the delay in the launch and also the issue faced with SAFL, we were left with so much of FGS-a high investment area-

I still remember the day when I took a cheque of 50 lakhs to be handed over to MBDL. Krishnamurthy was coming to TASMAC office and I went there and handed over that cheque.....assuring him that the balance would be paid in a couple of days which got paid simultaneously....meanwhile, we informed SAFL that we are launching a different Clovis and in bottling tie up with MBDL...we named Clovis from MBDL as Geo's Clovis as Clovis of SAFL in the same name cant be bottled by another bottler...(this is also another flawed excise rule in TN).....so agreement signed and we were allotted a line in the plant...fresh investments from our side in terms of labelling machine, guala holder et al.....the bottling plant needed lots of  improvement and we realised it was going to be an uphill task....we recruited Damodaran to manage MBDL. Suresh who was managing SAFL and manufacturing, left to join SAFL and we recruited Kumaran to manage our mfg....

Price approval and GO happened fast and we started our production on 25th of December, 2012....myself, Krithi and Sudeep went on a turn basis to be at the bottling line as there were lots of issues we faced while bottling. We were made to invest more on the bottling line and we had to do to improve our productivity.....We started getting good distribution and the Clovis numbers started improving.....but getting the money from MBDL?

Meanwhile, another interesting episode happened with MBDL. Something I can never forget.....Sikka called me one day for an urgent meeting....when I reached his office, he took me to his cabin and told me in a hush hush tone that Natarajan had come to know that we had paid money to Krishnamurthy (CFO) to get our numbers and he wants to meet me to discuss this....I was completely taken a back as i didnt know how to react to this nonsense...on the contrary we had faced issues with Krishnamurthy as he was behaving funny with us, not taking my calls and also not helping us in getting additional orders for Clovis from TASMAC.....Krishnamurthy was the face of the organisation with TASMAC and any representation to TASMAC has to be in MBDL letter head and signed by him....went and met Natarajan and what he told me baffled me to no end....he said 'we know Krishnamurthy is on take.....and pl accept or else we will not produce your brands"....he had the Shirdi Channel running on his TV in his cabin and was a serious Sai Devotee....I looked at his eyes...and said, 'Natrajan, this is utter nonsense and baseless...how can you come out with such an outlandish claim?"But I kept my cool as I felt there was something more to it than just sheer nonsense...I felt they were (Sikka and Natarajan) trying to frame Krishnamurthy and were looking at us as a possible scapegoat as they had come to know K was acting funny with me especially...I kept probing and probing and finally he told me that this was conveyed to him by a person called Suresh of Red Spirits, a pondy based bulk grape spirit supplier that we are paying bribing Krishnamurthy....his point was that Geo's Clovis was able to get bigger orders and also the production and hence he believed that K was on take....he gave me an ultimatum that with in 48 hours I have to come back and accept or else no more production.....guys, this is a game he was playing to get probably Krishnamurthy out of his back....some internal politics....

I was furious and went to the office and hatched a plan....called Suresh, whom I had a great relationship and told him that i want to discuss something with him and coming down to Pondy next morning....briefed Sudeep n Krithi on what transpired....the plan was to meet Suresh and record our conversation....next day morning we met Suresh and switched on our recorder...Suresh confided in us that it was Sikka and Natarajan who told him that they would give their entire raw material business provided he goes and tells their chairman that he made payments to Krishnamurthy on our behalf....(!)....and when I asked Suresh whether he was considering doing it, he said 'nonsense, I would never do any such things and I will stop my dealing with MBDL after getting my payments'...I had goosebumps hearing this from Suresh and I told him a big thank you and left....and felt bad that I recorded the conversation without his knowledge.....

That evening after our visit, met Krishnamurthy in Chola for a coffee and briefed him the entire episode....He was dumbstruck.....and at the same time was so touched that I discussed with him and also took him in to confidence....as we didnt do anything to corrupt anyone in MBDL, told Krishnamurthy to keep our meeting to his chest and also told him our plans to meet the chairman and confide in him. Next day I met the Chairman and briefed him fully and also played the full tape. I told him after playing the tape that we would take our entire money including the deposit and leave MBDL as we dont want to deal with a company which stooped down to this level.....and also we dont want to create any stress between the father and son.....he listened to me very attentively, thought about it for few minutes and told me that he would ensure our business is not affected and I dont have to deal with Natarajan.....I have to take this assurance with a pinch of salt as we already had around 2 crores as outstanding from them. NandagopalJi is a soft spoken person and regarded by all in MBDL and outside. I felt mismanagement of this company led to their downfall and also the royalty they had to pay to Mohan Meakins....

Natarajan didnt discuss anything on this with me after that, Krishnamurthy became a great friend, Sikka disappeared and after a while, Arvind took over as MD......and Krishnamurthy was transferred to Binny's and they brought Bala as CFO....I came to know later that Arvind always listened to Krishnamurthy and was his go to man and hence he transferred him to Binny's...but the issue with payments continued and at one stage our dues reached  astronomical levels and we have to stop production at MBDL....I met the chairman and told him as money was not coming and we are under pressure from our partner Jaiswal in Nagpur and he was insisting that we send a legal notice with copy to Excise and TASMAC....he bought some time with us but nothing happened....their CFO Bala, a nice guy but didnt have a clue on where the money was going to come from....so we proceeded with the legal notice...that time MBDL was negotiating with the banks and didnt want any legal hassles....Sudeep went and met the chairman that our money to be paid immediately....finally he convinced chairman and got PDCs with an assurance that we wont proceed with the notice......to be deposited over almost one year....look at the audacity........and the very first cheque bounced....another legal notice....this went on for a while....every time I met up with the chairman, the dialogs used to be the same...intent is there to pay and we will not cheat you....the dues were coming in trickles only......Arvind also the same story....and the fun didnt end there....Samsudeen joined them as CEO....Samsudeen left SAFL sometime ago and was looking at all other local bottlers and finally joined MBDL...I went and met Chairman and Arvind immediately and they confirmed he was joining...I told them that we will not deal with him and we would deal with only the chairman and MD....but later I felt i should not antagonise this person and hence went and met him.....it was very formal and told him we are only interested in getting our dues and do not want to progress with them in terms of supplies....and he paid us 5 lakhs that day....(Joke).....and told me that but for him even the 5 lakhs would not have happened....to cut the long story short, it took a while for us to get all our money....but somehow we got it including the deposit of 1 crore and wrote off around 10 lakhs.....and Samsudeen didnt lost long.....MBDL gave him a Merck....but MBDL's cash issue continued and he was asked to leave.....2012 to around 2017....what worked for us was the PDC......otherwise, the money would have never come...we still did some volume with them as there was some material and spirit left with them....I think in 2018 or beginning of 19, MBDL was taken over by the founder (Udayar)'s grand son, Senguttuvan....our dear friend Meganathan was Senguttuvan's go to person and Kumar brokered the deal between us and MBDL once again but this time we tied up with them on Royalty basis....Prasanna of Sipping spirit also helped us to get our business going with MBDL..Senguttuvan is young, dashing and found to be committed to improve MBDL....as Geo's Clovis was still alive with TASMAC there was no issue.....we introduced Wassup Vodka and today we are doing both Wassup and Geo's Clovis with the new MBDL on Royalty basis....

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

Episode 36...

The then MD of TASMAC Soundayya was very courteous and always there to listen but he could not do anything.

So the 'knocks' went on and on....meanwhile, the trick played by Samsudeen worked out very well for SAFL for two reasons...1) This is one new brand from SAFL at a very attractive RSP with a decent presentation and 2) Between August and December 2011 there were no new brands in the market and Samsudeen exploited this fully taking this brand to 100k cases per month almost.....Our bottled stocks of 3300 cases were as is where is condition at the warehouse of SAFL....Bardinet's Patric paid a visit to SAFL and saw with his own eyes our plight....

We started using our available resources to push Hobsons across UT of Pondy, AP (unified then), KTK and Goa....but the volumes from these places were not in line with our efforts....our business model was TN centric....

I used to spend lots of time with Samsudeen in his office and I always found him warm, hospitable and discuss in details many a things. But there was another part to his which was the real HIM which we figured out later....The meetings with him would last for few hours always and if it was lunch time he would order for me too...from the kitchen on top of his office which was primarily kept for Maran. 

Maran also appointed an ex bureaucrat, Mathew, as the ED of his company...he was very nice but helpless when it came to doing something for us.....Augustine the head of legal then, Mahadevan the CFO then and many others....the company was run by a board and they were reporting to Maran but Maran always took the final call...the launch of VSOP Gold made their bottom line very good and Samsudeen exploited it to his advantage....which is absolutely the way it should be.....

We worked very hard to improve Hobsons in KTK, AP, UT and Goa but these markets had very little potential for this Super Premium Brandy....In UT of Pondy we expanded the distribution across Pondy, Yenam, Mahe and Karaikkal but the volumes were very small except Pondy....there was an issue with the excise policy where the super premium was charged very high. I met the Commissioner in a get together and told him the USP of Pondy is the price of liquor but that was getting eroded with the huge duties on premium brands....the tourists from TN and Blr who flock Pondy during weekends and holidays do not drink cheap liquor....they go for premiums and also brands which are not available in TN....of course they are also price conscious as the rich go for Black and cognac and not made in India....he agreed and asked me to meet his deputy, Anbazhagan who was the DC then...Anbazhagan was known for his clean hands and I explained to him why we feel the duties are high for premium brands....and he had the CMs ears too...it was Rangaswamy the CM of Pondy then.....after a couple of meetings he got convinced and he made some alterations in the additional duties for super premium brands and thus the MRP of Hobsons came down a bit..am sharing this with you as there are, at times, good and clean officers who, when presented with logics and revenues, not only listen but also take efforts to convince their bosses to change things for the betterment of the state and its revenue....

We developed Clovis and the product and presentation came out very well....Sudeep did lot of ground work on the blend in terms of research and then we ticked the blend...and also started bottling the same at Gemini Goa....and dispatched first consignment to Pondy as mentioned in my earlier post....the consignment reached Pondy just a day or two before 31st of December 2011....

Meanwhile in TN, beginning of December, there were some major headlines and Natham Visvanathan, minister of excise was made the Chairman of TASMAC too....first time a politician was appointed as Chairman-it was always the Home Secretary who was Chairman of TASMAC....We were supposed to go to Colombo along with Nalin and Sridhar and spend some time with Amar who was managing the franchise of KFC and Pizza Hut in SL....we booked the tickets too but last minute I backed out as I sniffed something good is likely to happen in TN for us....I went and met the home secretary who was the chairman of TASMAC and he also told me things are getting materialised.....so there was something about to happen....

Around 27th when I went to meet the MD of TASMAC he told me to meet immediately the minister and present our case....which I did immediately...there was lots of difference between my first meeting and this time when I met the minister....first time he expressed his helplessness and this time he was full of confidence....he okayed our entry and on 31st of December I got a call from Raju of GV that they are releasing their new brand order that day....(Golden Vats moved the court against the partial treatment meted out to them by the government that time)....I rushed to TASMAC around 3 pm and Raju was sitting there...I met the MD and he also told me the order would be released but in the next couple of days...the episode of August 11 appeared in my memory and I pleaded with him that he should consider releasing our first order that day itself...TASMAC had fewer staff that day as it was 31st Dec but I didnt relent...I even told him that if he is okay that I would extend any secretary services to him for which he laughed and asked me to wait....the time was ticking.....I had only Rajeev in the office....I asked him to come to TASMAC....Around 6 pm Raju got his new brand order and mine was still happening.....I went and pleaded with the guy who was preparing the order....guys pl note that Geoscope was not an entity...it was SAFL.....but I was pushing hard....that evening the NY party was scheduled at Krithis house in Chennai with all our friends and families meeting up there....and MD told me that he would sign the first order and leave....around 7 pm our order got released and Rajeev picked it up from the section and handed over to me....I thanked the MD big time and also Raju who gave me this info....I rushed to Kapali temple, thanked him profusely, bought some sweets and rushed home.....my neighbor that time was Vijay Sheth, a Gujarati and we became great friends...he knew everything on our business front and tried thru his contacts thru for a break through...around 3 to 4 months time in 2011 I stopped taking sweets and told myself I would eat only when the first order is on hand...this Nandini, Vijays wife was well aware of....when I entered home around 730 or so, she came rushing with some home made sweets for me....every one felt so happy for us as my close circle knew what we were going thru.....and we rushed to Krithis home with the order copy and a bottle of Hobsons....Manu, Krithis wife made a rongoli at the entrance with all Green (the color of Hobsons then)....we really celebrated that night as it was a major relief and 'we have arrived'......Sudeep and Vishal celebrated in Blr and Nagpur respectively....

1st was a holiday and I think 1st was a Sunday....Viswanathan our ASM for TN was in Mahe and coming back to Chennai on 31st Dec and he got so excited....

We looked at many options for distributing our brands in TN but I felt ( i will take the blame) that if we give the distribution to SAFL it would help us as they had a big team and they had no competing brands)....I discussed this threadbare with Samsudeen and told him we would do a briefing to the SAFL sales team on 5th as by the time the dispatches would have been completed....We have to also provide to SAFL advance for excise duty and the consignments are combined with theirs as Hobsons initial orders were spread across almost all the depots and some of the depots it was just 10 or 20 cases only.....we didnt realise then it would become a huge thorn for us....

We appointed RSEs in Madurai, Coimbatore, Trichy and Chennai to oversee the SAFL team with Vishvanath to supervise the entire operations.....Vishwanath is the brother of Rajashekars wife....and incidentally Rajashekar aka NRR and Samsudeen were colleagues for over 2 decades in Shaw Wallace and NRR was reporting to him and they were like brothers.....but Samsudeen fell off with NRR as when he asked NRR to join him in SAFL during his initial stint NRR turned it down and he stopped talking to him....NRR went to his home to invite him for his first daughters wedding along with his wife but our friend sent them off without even showing his face (!).....this story I heard from NRR though it is his side.....

5th was our scheduled meeting with the SAFL sales team. Manohar was their ASM for TN who happens to be my colleague from HL...a street smart guy....

On 4th evening I got a call from Samsudeen....he asked me straight whether NRRs brother in law was my ASM for TN and I confirmed it...he told me, believe me guys, that he would not allow him to enter his office and if he is going to be our ASM they will not distribute our products....The great Samsudeen....spent decades in Shaw Wallace and then in USL after USL bought over SW and later in other companies...also did a executive MBA in Harvard.....had the audacity to say this to someone whom he considered as friend and whom his company has tied up for bottling.....how one should react to this utter nonsense....I tried convincing him but he was curt on the phone and hung up.....I smelt the venom in him directly the second time....the first time was just a few days before our first order when I showed him Clovis....he eyes turned colorless......I could see the jealous oozing out......this is the second time....We had just two options....1) to tell him #### off and appoint our own team or another promoter and the 2nd was to manage for the time being...we took option 2 as we didnt have enough time....

So I went to their office next day to do the briefing....He told Manohar that he should not give me more than 30 minutes....and as expected the partnership to distribute Hobsons didnt work out well and we have to severe our distribution arrangement with SAFL....

But this is just the beginning of the bigger game this man hatched in his mind...I wanted to abstain from saying bad about anyone in my blogs of my life but this one and also a couple of more, I decided to share with you for you to know how people change their colors despite being known for ages and being part of the same industry....

Since that time it was just Hobsons we decided to go with a distributor-in TN the distribution is done by TASMAC but someone has to do all the follow ups and hence we call them promoters.....

Meanwhile we have to say bye bye to Vishwanath-nothing to do with Samsudeen's episode though-and we recruited Jai Mohan....he had worked in the industry earlier but I think it was either in CBE or in some parts of Kerala....Sudeep was very convinced this person would be ideal fit....so we appointed him as our ASM...soft spoken and non controversial and built good relationship with TASMAC....

Hobsons was becoming popular across TN especially in the cities....Chennai was topping the chart. TASMAC goes with some formula where the first 3 months, if you manage your logistics well, the brand can become big/decent, based on the price segment its in....we did well with the first 3300 cases and to our surprise the nip pack started doing very well. We consciously didnt go with pints as we didnt want to invest in another pack with MGQs...Places like Madurai and Tirunelveli the movement of Nips was heart warming....I have started conducting the brandy appreciation sessions across cities and also in many Rotary clubs in every city...We also conducted one session exclusively for the media and got fantastic coverage. Rajeev did a great job in getting a very good presence of most of the top media groups. The coverage given by Express, Chennai edition gave us the required impetus....but the problem started with SAFL not giving us the production line when we wanted....

SAFL has allotted a particular line for us which was 'Semi automatic' as our production cant be run on automatic due to packaging intricacies....and with the best of work force we could do around 800 cases of nips and around 600 of qts....but we never had skilled workforce for our lines and we always had problem with something or other...One day Samsudeen called us to the office and told us since their productivity falls when the bottle Hobsons, the bottling fee to be increased.....we are at their mercy and have to agree....okay you got better bottling fee...an example here...if one is paying X as bottling fee in any other parts of the country, in TN it is X x 3 or 4 plus deposits...I still do not understand why someone has to pay any deposits with the bottler in TN as the entire invoice amount is paid to the bottler and the label owners are at their mercy to get their invoice values....the bottlers mostly do not pay to the label owner upon receipt of the payments from TASMAC....and TASMAC is one of the best paymasters in the country for local bottlers...they pay 50% of the invoice value with in 3 to 4 days of dispatch once the delivery challan is submitted and the balance payments with in a maximum of 15 to 20 days....but we the label owners have to follow up with the bottler for our payments...SAFL was one exemption as we never had any problem with them in collecting our dues....

When TASMAC released the second order in the 4th week of January, despite our having all the materials at SAFL, Samsudeen put pressure on the unit and they refused to provide us the production line.....this problem we encountered very regularly.....frequent meetings with Samsudeen and manufacturing and with Mathew could not get us the desired outcome....Maran was operating from Singapore and was not available in Chennai....and Samsudeen's defence was that they have to first complete their requirements and only if there was a window they would allow us to bottle....and the unit was an old one and they had a licensed capacity of only 4.15 lac cases per month....they somehow didnt bother or just lack of understanding, to go for additional capacity.....so we have to keep praying and begging for our production and we lost the first 3 months window given by TASMAC....meanwhile, we were also pushing for Clovis to be bottled and Samsudeen refused point blank...it was not that they had any new brands....but he didnt want to honor his commitment.....So I took it up with Maran who was in Chennai for a review.....this episode we cant forget....we came to know Maran was in town and told his secretary that we need to meet him and he asked us to come in the evening....when we went there in the evening we were told that he had called us for dinner and he would call us once he arrives in the guest house....we waited and since nothing happened till 930pm, we decided to for a movie and around 1130 we got a call from his secretary to come down....Maran is a great host and takes care of the guests very well....I took him aside and briefed him on our plight and how Samsudeen was taking our trip...also told him that our materials are lying at the factory and we need to get our Clovis bottled and agains Samsudeen has not been letting this happen...mind you guys, Samsudeen was only head of Sales and marketing but nothing to do with manufacturing....but he somehow managed to wield his power by terrorising them showing all the pending orders.....and to be fair to him he was protecting the interest of his boss but failed in his duty that his boss has signed the bottling arrangement with us....Maran also knew that his own brands have started doing well and his interests are well protected but at the same time he wanted to help his friend Rajah....but we felt he didnt convey this clearly to Samsudeen and he exploited this.....Samsudeen got the message from Maran that Clovis should be introduced and he didnt like it one bit as he thought he had stopped Clovis.....but he had to go with his boss's commitment and very reluctantly he allowed us to launch....we went ahead and launched Clovis....again a great looking product and with fantastic blend....fantastic response.....

Meanwhile, Pondy received the first consignment end of December 2011 but on 31st of December Pondy was devastated with Cyclone Thane.....We lost few days because of that and launched just a few days before Pongal 2012....great response from Pondy and KKL.....

Our problems become worse in TN.....it was a struggle everyday in TN between us and SAFL.....

I will be changing tracks in my narration but would always connect the dots....so bear with me please.... 

Meanwhile, we felt (we here are self, Sudeep and Krithi), we should do something and look at other options in TN....

I need to mention here about our dear brother Kumar...known as McD Kumar.....During my IDV time, I offered him a job as TSE in Kerala and he was working for McD then...but he didnt join....and later I got him in to Moet Hennessy when Ashwin was the boss.....and Kumar has been a great source for me....during my Flemingo days when I was helping a new entrant in TN, Kumar prepared the entire financials for that company and I convinced the boss of the company to absorb him as head of sales which they did..also I got Thangavelu, from ABD to head their manufacturing.....but I had fallen off with that boss and later started Geoscope....Kumar continued with them for some time and later joined with SNJ and then moved to Accord...Kumar was an enterprising guy and always their to extend a helping hand to me especially...he was like a younger brother....but Covid snatched him away from us....

There is another friend in Meganathan....this person is more of a PR guy and was a freelancer....during our initial time when we struggled to get our Hobsons liquid, he tried to help us too....he called me once and said he would set up a meeting with Jayamurugan of SNJ to bottle one of our brands....Jayamurugan, got his bottling and beer manufacturing license when DMK was in power and learnt the business quite fast....he was novice in the business when he started...he tied up with Radico for Morpheus and also roped in Bacardi...we tried to bottle SMV with him but that got shelved....Sudeep had a great equation with him from his Bols days and also his manufacturing head, Sakthivel Samy.....We met up with Jayamurugan along in the presence of Meganathan....by this time, I think it was in 2013 beginning, Jayamurugan learnt the tricks of the trade using all his muscle and almost managing a volume of more than 600k cases per month....he launched British empire cross line with Morpheus and Bols and his team started exerting maximum pressure on British Empire (dont know what British has to do with Brandy) at the cost of Morpheus and Bols....TASMAC changed their ordering pattern and instead of issuing brand wise break up to the bottling units, they allowed the manufacturers to use their discretion....this was a flaw in TASMAC ordering...this has allowed companies like SNJ and SAFL to tweak around and push in their own brands at the cost of their bottling partners brands....and SNJ (Jayamurugan) changed his business model from bottling fees to royalty.....a %age of the EDP (ex distillery price)....and no guarantee for any volumes....and also deposit for duty payments....we deliberated this but needed the volumes to keep us floating....we got our 3 brands registered with TASMAC as mentioned earlier....and hence we decided to shift Le Roi' brandy to SNJ....as it would be easier to shift a brand than go for a new brand which means one has to go thru the same rig morale again.....SNJ got LR shifted to his unit and we launched LR thru SNJ with his team involved in the distribution....in hindsight, we should not have given the distribution to SNJ as we figured out later, they didnt bother much about LR and kept coming back to us with issues after issues.....we launched LR in Pondy with the mono carton on all three packs but in TN due to low margins, we had the mono carton only on qts...we had a honeycomb design on the bottle and it was in the neck of the bottle....we started getting complaints that the honeycomb area on the bottle started attracting dust as the TASMAC outlets were open to dust and the stocks were never kept well and also dusted off....TASMAC, I think in 2014 or 15 only started the elite outlets but in terms of numbers, these were very less compared to the size of the universe and the drinking populace and foot fall at the outlets.....and we had very minimal say in which outlet the stocks should be supplied and which should not.....and if your stocks are stuck over 90 days either in the depots or in the retail outlets TASMAC would debit you demurrage charges which are calculated per day per case....and can run in to lakhs.......do we have a role in controlling this.....I would say very less....if you are a local bottler you can still manage and control but people like us do not have much say on this as we are totally dependent on our local bottling partner.....(sad, isnt it?).....

We had a very considerate and a great listener in Soundayya MD of TASMAC....he had also tried to convince Samsudeen to help us out but Samsudeen was very adamant....we were getting with great difficulty 1000 to 1500 cases per month from SAFL both our brands....we also faced issues as we have to combine our brands with that of SAFL.....and most of the time SAFL cited this as the reason and never indented our brands while submitting their requirements to TASMAC.....It was like waking up to new issues....

We reduced our FF and appointed a promoter...this promoter was doing Mansion House and Anand of Happy wines set this up in TN to manage MH business thru Elite distilleries...(Accord).....The person who was managing was a guy called Kumar an ex banker and a wonderful guy....he didnt know anything about alcohol but learnt the rope fast but this set up didnt work for us as they were not able to live up to their commitments and finally we have to revert to our own team...we went on a recruitment drive and Jaymohan managed to get it in place in a very short time possible....great work....We thought between our 3 brands if we get 10000 cases (which was possible) we can stabilise our business and turn it around....but the same issue continued for us.....supply....supply....supply......struggling for stocks....LR became a liability for us due to initial negligence of SNJ and the volume started coming down....Hobsons and Clovis were struggling due to lack of supplies.....

We started getting desperate in TN and this led to a disastrous move by us and by me as the leader of the team.....

more in the next episode......

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

Episode 34...

We are a start up now!!

Sudeep was gung-ho....Krithi was quite but didnt say no....I was looking at something to exit Flemingo...so we decided to move forward....first 'how to name it'.....Sudeep had roped in someone, a freelancer, to work on the brands specific to TN and South and also presentation. 

She provided few names for the company and we chose 'Geoscope'....Geo in Latino means global and scope-you know....Geoscope became Geoscope Exim pvt ltd...We registered the company with ROC and we got the approval from ROC on the 7th of Sep 2010....so Geoscope was born on the 7th of Sep 2010....

Darpan Kaur, who was our colleague during our Diageo time (she was handling SMV in India and later got a job in Diageo Singapore in brand management-worked there for few years and came back to India and was trying to figure out what next?

Myself and Sudeep knew her potential well and convinced her to be part of this start up and roped her in....We are a start up and the compensations cant be high which Darpan also knew well....And more than anything, she is a good soul and self and her respect each other and hence she decided to work on our brand strategy along with the one at Blr....Also Darpan started doing the hypno therapy course under Yuvraj Kapadia and was revving about it...Will come back to this later....

So, name done....work on brands in progress.....strategy and money?

Pramod Menon, who was with Diageo India and was with me in Dubai-a wizkid, came back to Bombay during this time and I met up with him and requested him to help us to work out the financials....and guys, hold your breath....the template he used 12 years ago is still being practiced by Geoscope...He did a fabulous job and challenged all of us enough on the numbers, employees, salaries et al.....I left India in 2005 and returned in 2010 and lost touch with the market dynamics (domestic esp south) and hence there was lots of dependence on Sudeep to provide these. Also Sudeep was still working for Kyndal and midst of his travel would contribute to the financials which was getting prepared by Pramod.

Krithi was a duty free guy and never. had any understanding on the domestic front but was very good in following up on initial setting ups et al. Also his job was to get us some export trading...we added the 'Exim' in Geoscope was to emphasise on the 'export-import'....

None of us had any idea on the upfront investment required for this project as we all had another job on hand and have to shuffle between these....

So when Pramod finally presented to us (including Darpan) we were in for a shock...because there was upfront investment required plus the investment on materials, brand registration fees, salaries et al....

Sudeep, on seeing these numbers, over a drink, with Krithi present, suggested that we mortgage our homes and raise the money....I was very clear from the very beginning that there will be no mortgage or any sort like that as none of us were rich enough to take that kind of risk....

So we decided to pitch our business model and the investment required to few known faces....Krithi brought a guy, known to all of us, and after hearing us out, he said when the money would be repaid and what would be the interest? He was under the impression that we were looking for short term loan....but that was not our pitch...

Sudeep and Krithi have to be behind the scene as they didnt want to rub their bosses on the wrong side and lose their regular income...but I have already done the rubbing and hence for me nothing to lose...It was almost a done thing with Flemingo for me...but since I kept the relationship going, I approached Viren but didnt sail through despite the fact that Viren initially agreed to this...these were all hit and runs...

I presented this to Jairaj and Neil in Blr....I had mentioned to you about these two lovely souls in my earlier blogs-during my IDV-Diageo times....Jairaj and Neil were school mates and Jairaj roped in Neil to partner with him in his business...they had few bottling units across India and their main focus was 3rd party manufacturing...I took our business proposal and met up with these two at their Blr office and we discussed in length but they didnt want to get in to branded alcohol business..so we need to start afresh...

One day self and Sudeep were in Bandra and over lunch we started wondering where the money going to come from to start our business. I told Sudeep that we will meet Sridhar Iyer-our ex colleague from Diageo and the CFO of Pfizer then...called him and he asked us to come to his office immediately. We went to his office and told him about our business proposal and our current plight. He asked us whether we approached Vishal Jaiswal....Vishal Jaiswal was our first bottling partner in Diageo, when we sold off the Nira plant along with our Green Label whiskey to Deepak Roy...Vishal set up a new plant as per the standards set by Diageo in Aurangabad in no time....We told Sridhar we didnt and he called Vishal immediately and set up a meeting. That was a major break through for us.

I met Vishal in Bombay and presented to him our business plan and financials....he said YES immediately-the meeting was in Hyatt in Santacruz east and we used the Hyatt office to draft an MOU between us...self and Vishal signed it and next day he transferred the first crore of rupees to Geoscope.

I was still in the Chembur flat of Flemingo and we organised a meeting in our place with Vishal, Vaibhav (his brother) his team consisting of Vinod Puri, Nikhil (his finance guy) and Jeevan Patel. From our side it was me, Sudeep, Krithi and Darpan along with Pramod....we discussed the business plan and financials threadbare along with overheads, our salaries and head count. We decided we would set up an office in Chennai and also all of us would move to Chennai. I was asked to be the CMD of the company with Sudeep and Krithi the directors. The salary for all 3 of us fixed at the same level-though I was more experienced I felt all of us should draw the same....Darpan's payout was also firmed up...

Sudeep used to frequent Chennai often as Kyndal had their tie up with SNJ there and also doing well with their Bols Brandy. Sudeep was under the impression that Bols was 100% imported brandy with the concentrate coming from South Africa....but he realised after a thorough study and research that Kyndal was using a small portion of the South African brandy concentrate only for blending purpose and it was nothing but an ad-mix brandy.....meanwhile Morpheus was gaining traction in TN...On 'Morpheus'....Tamilians have to travel to neighbouring states to experience national and international brands as in TN only those 6 or 7 companies were catering to consumers needs with their own brands till 2010....DMK under Karunanidhi gave away 3 licenses and since none of them (except Kals who was in arrack business in UT of Pondy) they started welcoming tie ups with national players. Radico moved in fast and introduced Morpheus in TN...the presentation was something new to TN consumers and they grabbed it....The liquid is nothing but an ad mix brandy...they added a small portion of extracts of raisins to enhance the flavour of the product....and the consumers were ready to pay a premium for this brand.... 

We also wanted to pitch ourselves for Smirnoff Vodka for TN as Diageo didnt want to get in to that market directly. Sudeep used his charm with the concerned in Diageo India and we got a letter of consent from them authorising Geoscope to manage SMV for TN...this was a major break through for us....with that letter we approached few bottlers and through one of them showed huge interest, the project didnt take off as Roland got shunted out of India suddenly resulting in this one was put on to the back burner....

Our designer in Blr came out with some brilliant stuff but all in Brandy category as our strategy was to take a strong foot hold in TN and South and hence the entire focus was on brandy. 

Meanwhile our dialog with Bardinet, France progressed well and I met up with Patric in Cannes at the annual DF congregation (I was with Flemingo then and it came handy)....we had some misunderstanding with Patric and the meeting in Cannes got this issue sorted. Patric and his boss Etione were very supportive and we signed an agreement with Bardinet for 10 years. We chose the name Hobsons, as for many it meant, 'leaves you with no choice' but actually the meaning is different. 

The next question was whom would we partner with in TN to bottle our brands? What came to my mind immediately was MGM Maran whom I have a great friendship. MGM is the parent company and SAFL is their IMFL bottling unit. MGM Maran bought SAFL from Muthia of SPIC few years ago....During Muthia's time we pitched for SMV bottling with them but it didnt work out. SNJ would have been ideal but Sudeep was sceptical as it would jeopardise his Kyndal job....I also wanted to look at Shiva as they were the most professional those days next to Balaji and went to Coimbatore and met up with Mr. SVB...but he told me that they have stopped bottling for others after their bitter experience with USL....I shot out a mail to Maran about us and the start up and pitching for bottling tie up for 3 of our brands with a volume forecast of around 25k per month. He immediately responded with a YES and asked us to meet Theyagarajan who was the CEO of SAFL bottling unit and distillery. Everything happened in a jiffy. We were all still operating from Bombay and I was the face of the organisation as Sudeep and Krithi were still with Kyndal and David Lee...I told Viren and Atul my road map of starting our own in manufacturing. I requested them that my flat would be given back once I find something in Chennai for which they had agreed, graciously. As mentioned earlier I had approached Viren for investment but it didnt work out.

There was lots of work as we figured out (none of us had any clue on the time lines on TN/Tasmac registration process), SAFL sat on our papers and we came to know of it accidentally. There were lots of process involved. 1) The brand owner has to give a letter to the bottler their intent to bottle with them. 2) This letter, along with the letter from bottler addressed to TASMAC/excise to be submitted with the excise inspector based at the unit with his signature and stamp(find this illogical), 3) this would then go to the desk of 'tapal' at TASMAC 4) it can lye there for ages unless one follows up 5) Tasmac would make a note of it and call the bottler for a price negotiation and once the prices are agreed, Tasmac would send their recommendation to the board, and after the approval of the board, TASMAC would advice the bottler to submit the labels for registration and once the labels are registered and after the clearance from the chairman of TASMAC, the first order would be released....one has to be hands on here as the bottler wont move an inch as its not their own brand....we need to push this in every stage...I reached, on figuring out the letter has not reached TASMAC (we had a good soul in TASMAC-the then FM-Bala -who gave us right kind of advice on how the system works), SAFL office around 5 in the evening. Thyagarajan was there and he realised the letter was just lying with his secretary....it has to be signed by the excise inspector. Sudeep was waiting outside the office as he was still with Kyndal and should not be seen with me.....I made SAFL to prepare the letter, took it with me and drove down to their factory at Villupuram. Reached there around 8. There was a wonderful guy, Ramakrishnan, the factory manager-he was very supportive and cooperative-got the letter signed by the excise guy in the late hours-but the issue was that it has to be carried by the excise assistant to the excise office and not by an outsider....so the work was done only half.....next day the letter reached around 5.....one more day lost...finally after this letter things started moving ahead. We gave letter for 3 brands....Hobsons XR Pure French Grape Brandy, Clovis and Le Roi' all in brandy category with SAFL....Those days SAFL were bottling for USL (erstwhile SW brands) and Maran just started his own brands as being a bottler with a meagre bottling fees, they were not making any money....Also USL had bottling tie ups with Balaji and the new start up Kals....

The day we started talking about Geoscope and brands, one thing was clear in my mind that we should be the first one to launch 'bottled in India' brandy and thats how Hobsons was born. Clovis and Le Roi were to give volumes.

I have to keep travelling to Chennai from Bombay and since Sudeep was based at Chennai and had an office too, was able to track things, though surreptitiously, and keep us posted....

We got all our brands approved by TASMAC board and got the GO....major celebrations to see the name of Geoscope in TN....but we encountered an issue with the excise of TN.

We import the concentrate of matured French Grape spirit and it is bonded in the customs bonded warehouse Chennai. We imported 80 barrels and these have to be sent to SAFL. We could not import directly to SAFL as they never had an import export license. The process is that SAFL has to apply for a permit to take these to their bottling plant. There was a fee of Rs5 per lit to be paid to the excise department and along with that challan one has to apply to the commissioner seeking his permission to transport it to the plant. The file moves from AC to DC to JC and to Commissioner of Prohibition and excise..(irony, isnt it?)...unless you get the permit and transport, you cant bottle. We waited for 2 days but no news from excise and we were told by SAFL there was some objection from the JC....I used Vijaykumar of MBDL's influence to get an appointment with the JC. Met up with the lady and briefed her on our pedigree and the start up and also the bottled in India concept....she didnt want to understand and kept telling me that there is no provision in the book to allow such kind of product in TN....I quoted her the examples of Teacher's, Black & White, Vat 69 et al but she kept telling me that there was no precedence. Also their fear was the impending election results and hence wanted to play safe. This lady is a good officer but didnt want to chance. But without the signature of the JC the commissioner wont sign. And the file cant be sent to the DMK minister as the ministry was only care taker....complications....one of my partners came to me and said we can change the blend and go to the JC and tell her we would use this imported spirit only for ad mix and not completely....I said 'only on my dead body'....we went around in circles.....We were also running against time as we have to get the bulk spirit moved to SAFL before the elections results are announced....so I used a good soul to put in a word to the Commissioner of excise about me and he got an appointment. Its not that one will not get an appointment with the commissioner...anyone can go and meet him but if the appointment is thru a source, it lends some credibility....I explained to the commissioner step by step and like to a student....I spent almost an hour taking him thru this and also I carried a small portion of the Hobsons blend with me and made him to nose....he was maha impressed and felt that there would be no legal hassle and since it is an established practice in other parts of the country no one would object to it in TN. He picked up the phone and spoke to the JC who was in the other building and told her: "this person Rajah is a professor...he explained to me very well and made me to understand...I am sending him to you and pl listen to him and you would be convinced ( I didnt tell him my tryst with the JC, for obvious reasons)....I dont see any legal issues and I think we should approve this file as the government would get the revenue like other brands plus the Rs 5 per lit".....this was something fantastic. The commissioner also told me that he is waiting for the election results and once it is announced he would be removed from this position. So with his blessings, I rushed to the JC, repeated the same nth time and she asked me to come next day....so lived one more night with tension and next day she signed and forwarded the file to the commissioner. We got the permit and immediately transferred the stocks to SAFL after paying huge import duty-huge for us as it is blocking our precious cash-the next day election results were announced and AIADMK came to power and all the officers got transferred.....this is one major victory for us....had it been delayed, god knows how things would have turned around....

Simultaneously the brands presentations were taking final shape....we started the work in Sep 2010 and by, if my memory serves right, we got the approvals by Feb 2011....

The presentation of Hobsons and Clovis were stunning.....We decided to go with green bottle for Hobsons and with bar top closure with sleeve to cover the cap...very expensive packaging as the bar top is not made in India and the sleeves, though made in India, was expensive as there were only a couple of manufacturers of this particular sleeve...only for the 75cl pack. We also decided not to go for 37.5cl considering the investment required. So we created a fabulous design and a great product and the task was to get a supplier to produce what we want. The obvious choice was HnG and AGI in India....HnG didnt even bother to talk to us and AGI, though was ready to do for us, but they had this colour bottles run twice a year only and hence the MGQ was huge....I approached Rajashekar of USL who was my neighbor and a good friend and requested him to get me connected to some bottle supplier and he connected me to Glassex Choudry...We also got a lead and met up with Anil Mehta of Jay glass. He was the agent for many glass manufacturers and one of them is Piramal glass SL....Damitha was their export manager and Sanjay the CEO...excellent guys and very supportive and cooperative....but the problem was the cost and also the advance they demanded...100% advance.....but we requested Anil Bhai to come for our rescue and he did....we got some credit of around 30 days but the minimum guaranteed quantity (MGQ) was a big issue, as huge amount gets blocked with inventories, but we could not do much about this....I flew down to Colombo to see first hand the first bottle of Hobsons coming out of the furnace and it was a sight I still behold....Green color and very cute bottle.....what a feel it was....we also decided to go for transparent label and self adhesive....I spoke to Manohar packaging-Nishikant Shirodkar-using my HL contacts and there I met this great guy, Aditya, Nishi's son in law....Aditya is full of energy and fire in the belly guy.....he was so helpful and was sharing everything about packaging industry with me....He created a great looking label for us and was also very considerate with the credit and also the MGQ.....then to bar tops for quarts bottle and guala closure for nips. There was no producer of bar tops caps in India and through our ex colleague Ashwin (we miss you friend), we got hold of Sidharth, and signed off for the bar tops...but we had huge issues with this person and at one stage, I was about to cancel the order and decided to go for a regular cap...but better sense prevailed as at that point of time, we were nobody and hence played it down....we got the consignment from France through him and also the sleeves. Went and met Romail of Guala closures-they were the first one to introduce tamper proof closures in India and during our IDV time, we introduced this closure for Green Lable whiskey...and hence knew them well. But our requirements were not huge and hence the MGQ here too....

Finally the liquid....for Hobsons it is not a rocket science...the liquid is imported in around 64% strength and all we have to do is to reduce it to 42.4% v/v by adding the demineralised water....

Suresh Babu was our manufacturing guy, based at Villupuram to look after our bottling and quality at SAFL (MGM)....very good in his job....while we thought we were ready to go, he came out with a big investment requirement. SAFL in 2010-11 were not bottling any major premium brands and almost 90% of their production were cheap and regular brands....they were primarily bottling for USL (Shaw Wallace brands and major volumes were from John Ex Shaw brandy and Golconda brandy and almost 80% were nips-hence the bottling lines were made to produce only these kind of packs....where as for Hobsons we needed some extra care in a semi-auto machine. And these things were not off shelf....the self adhesive labels when put on bottles develops air bubbles inside as the bottles are wet (the bottles are washed pre bottling, the liquid is pumped inside, bottles with liquid arrives at the labelling area with wet outside.......as none of us were manufacturing guys all these were realised while doing trials....so we need to remove the wetness and hence have to install something called 'air knives'....also in the bottle washing area, the washers and the holders have to be changed to suit our bottles....labelling machines, guala feeders and bottle holders....all these to suit our bottles and we designed different ones for each brand....and guys none of these were even factored in our capex....and as mentioned these were not off shelf except the air knife....but we moved heaven and earth and got all these in record time but we had some issues with SAFL as they have never ever done any super ultra premium brands in their lives....and once all the above in place, we took a blend of 3300 cases (TASMACs first order is 3300 cases) and somehow managed to bottle these 3300 cases in around 10 days time with around 300 cases per day....this was not liked by SAFL as they do, in their lines, around 800 cases per day and its loss of production for them....so the issue of bottling fee....we learnt a lot by trial and errors only....Since the brand approval was there we thought we would bottle the entire quantity and go to TASMAC for the first order.....

Meanwhile, we also felt that we should launch Hobsons in other markets of south and hence approached my dear friend Jairaj of Gemini and Neil, whom I approached for investment earlier....they immediately agreed to bottle for us and we signed off....the problem with their unit at Goa that time was the IMFL bottling line was lying idle as they were focussing on Bacardi Breezer only.....so the lines were dusted off, the blending tanks and holding tanks were cleaned and kept ready for us....we also need a guy to manage our bottling and hence recruited Kotteeswar Rao.....young boy with lots of ideas....Suresh was overseeing Goa too.....We moved some concentrate to Goa and started at Gemini our bottling for supplies to UT of Pondy, AP and KTK. 

Meanwhile In TN, we started our recruitments....hired Rajeev as our marketing guy, Subrat as our finance head and Vishwanath as our ASM for TN....Office was set up on Chamiers road...a 3 bedroom apartment....one bedroom was kept for Sudeep and Krithi, one for me and one for our office.....we also had a cook to prepare our lunch and dinner as we wanted to minimise the expenses.....Darpan used to visit us from Bombay once a while and things have started moving. We recruited Sridhar to look after UT of Pondy (Sridhar is ex SW and Kyndal)....The total team was in place....

Thyagarajan resigned from SAFL and Samsudeen aka AKMAS came back to SAFL...(he was there earlier after his premature exit from USL but fell off with Maran on something and resigned)....initially I thought Samsudeen was a great guy as I knew him from his SW days in Bombay.....He also ensured we sign the agreement with SAFL and we got it done in Dec 2010....

We bottled the entire 3300 cases of Hobsons in June 2011 and made SAFL to give the letter to TASMAC. AIADMK came to power in May and if my memory serves right, Jayalalitha took charge on the 16th of May 2011. With in a week the entire set of officers got transferred and we got a new commissioner of excise and new MD in Mr Vivekanandan. We thought TASMAC would release the orders immediately after we informed them on our stocks level, but nothing moved...we were desperate to get the first order as each day it is delayed was adding to our cost and interest....I went and met the home secretary, I think it was Santha Sheela Nair, a very nice IAS officer and briefed her the Hobsons brand...she was very impressed with our company profile and the product and she immediately picked up the phone and spoke to the MD of TASMAC....still nothing happened. I went around like a mad man knocking at all possible doors....my ex colleague from HL-Datta introduced me to one Kulothungan and he said he would put in a word to the MD...he was the PR of Maidas another bottling unit in TN....very nice person and sincerely wanted to help us....and he did put in a word to the MD....when I met the MD he said he is at it and we would get our order soon....time was just flying....meanwhile we shipped the first consignment from Gemini to Pondy...We appointed Happy wines, Anand, for our Pondy distribution...he was the numero uno there with almost all the brands except USL...highly focussed and very hard working, approachable, nice and friendly...had a good team and we launched our Hobsons in July 2011 in Pondy...the first in the country....finally we could see our efforts sitting pretty at the retail shelf....and the trade welcomed the brand as they saw the potential of it....Also our strategy that we should hit the market with our most premium and establish Geoscope as the premium brands company, paid off....we ensured the trade was well briefed on Hobsons...1) 100% French grape brandy 2) Made and matured for 3 years in France 3) the first bottled in India (BII) brandy in India....the presentation stood out and the liquid was a kind of 'never before' and people started calling it Cognac...I need to tell you guys here that in TN and in many markets, the consumers were just drinking brands not knowing what it is and how it is made....we ensure the consumers are well educated by conducting 'Brandy appreciation sessions'...mainly for the consumers...my marketing guy Rajeev created the content and yours truly conducted the sessions...I ensured it was interactive and the consumers loved it....and we always ended the session with sampling...this I learnt from Diageo and W&M....and designed it based on what I have learnt from there....we followed Pondy with Karaikal and Mahe...then in AP and in KTK....every where Hobsons received rare reviews....we have also launched it in Goa....The MRP in UT was around 900 per bottle and Goa also similar. 

TN was very still elusive. We kept meeting people and were told it would get released. Meanwhile self, Sudeep and Krithi went on a trip to Pondy and decided we would visit Srirangam to take the blessings of the Lord....we left early hours and on our way we got a call from our Datta that TASMAC has released the new brand order on SAFL....we got so excited and called up our ASM to rush to Tasmac....it was some time first week of August 2011....Vishwanathan also confirmed that order was released....we called up the GM of TASMAC and asked him but were heartbroken when we heard that 'yes order was released but SAFL took it for their brand VSOP Gold'....this was a huge shock for us....we stopped the car midway as we didnt know how to react to this....I called up Bala of TASMAC and asked him why the order was not for Hobsons for which he said Samsudeen said they are ready with VSOP Gold and converted the order....he also said not to worry and in Sep we would get our order. We came to know that TASMAC would release one new brand only per month per unit. We didnt want to abort the trip and hence prayed and returned to Chennai the same night. I went to TASMAC straight next day and met the MD...he was helpless as he also didnt anticipate this googly from SAFL. The fact was SAFL created a brand called VSOP Gold some couple of years ago when Samsudeen was there but it went in to hybernation....when Samsudeen realised TASMAC is releasing new brand order he grabbed it without even a single case of finished goods in his warehouse....a sample of TN for you....So we have to wait for another 3 weeks....in TN there are many twists and turns....on 15th of August I was on an outing with my friends and I get a call around 7 in the evening informing me that the MD of TASMAC got transferred....our dear friend who was very supportive and also assured us 1st Sep.....another set back...I think the Home Secretary also got transferred....those days the HS was the Chairman of Tasmac too....my contact told me not to worry and we would get our orders....Mr Soundayya was appointed as MD of TASMAC....we have to start all over again....briefing him and getting him on the same page...which I did...he was giving us hopes but nothing happened in Sep, Oct and Nov....

Meanwhile, Krithi shifted his base to Chennai and resigned from his earlier job...Sudeep also resigned but kept one room in our office for himself.....our expenses were mounting....we started thinking outside the box....I met one Kausalya Devi the honorary CG of France based at Chennai and thru her got an appointment with the CG of France at Pondy....requested Patric of Bardinet to accompany me....we went and met him briefed him and requested him whether he could put in a word....

I personally sent mails to the CM of TN....knocked at every possible doors...kept meeting our contact....it used to be funny....he would meet me only after 2200 hrs but in some kind of remote places...mostly outside the park at GN Chetty Road....I would go early and wait for him....

Meanwhile, Darpan decided to drop out and told us that she is shifting to Goa to pursue something else....

Our brand developed from Blr also, after completing her job left....

We developed Clovis....the packaging came our very well but we were struggling with the blend...through our Suresh we approached Natarajan who was the blender with SAFL and he developed the current blend....our brief was that he should use our Hobsons spirit in the blend and it was a challenge for him....he is a good person but very quixotic....but after testing many blends we finally zeroed in on the current one....second product was ready....

Hobsons still remained elusive and we decided to pursue Clovis for UT....and from Goa dispatched the first consignment from Gemini Goa to Pondy on the 23rd of Dec 2011 to Happy wines....the consignment reached Pondy on 31st of Dec 2011.....

This day turned out to be a memorable day for us in Geoscope.....

 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.....