What a sad end to the one who’s CCD is actually an outlet which provided many lovely memories to a generation of people, I guess young and old alike. Indeed it is a 'black letter day for startups & entrepreneurship in India'. There have been so many such news going around, but wonder, why this bothered me – could it be the time? Could it be the reminder of Vijayaman?
Café coffee Day - VG Siddartha – RIP - Siddhartha found CCD in 1996 and is married to former Karnataka chief minister SM Krishna's first daughter Malavika in early 1990’s. The couple has two children, Amartya and Ishaan. Krishna has two daughters namely, Malavika and Shambhavi. While Malavika is married to VG Siddhartha, Shambhavi is the wife of fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya's stepbrother.
Born and brought up among the lush hills and valleys of Chikkamagaluru in Karnataka, Siddhartha, the only son of a well-to-do coffee planter Gangaiah Hegde, chose not to continue his family’s century-old coffee-growing tradition; but his association with coffee had started since his birth in 1960. Siddhartha completed his post-graduation from Mangalore University and went on to work in several key portfolios with various financial firms before launching a business of his own choice.The student of economics started off with JM Financial, an investment banking firm in Mumbai in the early 1980s. He had made his ambition known to his family — that he will be super rich someday. Siddhartha returned to Bangalore and his father gave him money to do the business of his choice. He bought a stoke market card for RS 30,000 along with a company called Sivan Securities. Later It was renamed in Way2wealth Securities Ltd. Moreover, Its venture capital division became known as 'Global Technology Ventures' in 1984. The Global Technology Venture became a highly successful investment banking and stockbroking company.
While in Mumbai, the young man saw the vast difference in the price of coffee in the international market and his home town. Predicting the deregulation of coffee, then a controlled commodity, Siddhartha invested his earnings in the stock market on coffee plantations in Chikkamagaluru in the mid and late 80s. With some capital from his father, he bought a small coffee unit in Hassan. By 1993, he founded Amalgamated Bean Company Trading. Two years from its inception, ABC became India’s largest exporter of coffee. In 1996 first CCD outlet was opened in Bengaluru. A former Director-General of Police had even claimed that the founding-owner of CCD was a ransom money carrier to notorious sandalwood smuggler Veerappan. On the spian actor Rajkumar’s kidnap by forest brigand Veerappan – Siddhartha took charge of planning ways and means to negotiate with the brigand. Most of the connections he made then — among political leaders and top bureaucracy — continued even after Krishna’s tenure ended. His closeness to Congress leader DK Shivakumar resulted in raids, soon after DK Shivakumar was investigated by the I-T department in late 2017. In 2011 he bought about 1.85 million hectares of Amazon forestland in South America on lease to source timber to start a furniture business. He also served on the board of directors of Mindtree, GTV, Liqwid Krystal, Way2wealth Brokers, Coffee Day Natural Resources, and Way2wealth Securities. He was named the "Entrepreneur of the Year" for 2002–03 by The Economic Times and the "NextGen Entrepreneur" by Forbes India in 2011.
Throughout the years, Siddhartha has been in the news owing to his father-in-law and his own close relationship with political stakeholders in the state of Karnataka. SM Krishna is a tall figure in India public service and has held pivotal portfolios such as the Minister of External Affairs from 2009 to 2012. Krishna has also served as the 16th Chief Minister of Karnataka from 1999 to 2004 and the 19th Governor of Maharashtra with his tenure from 2004 to 2008. After spending almost four decades in the Indian political arena with the Congress, SM Krishna turned heads when he decided to switch to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2018. Even wonder if the present political turmoil in Karnataka has got anything to do with his death?
After going missing on the evening of 29 July 2019, his body was found at the Hoige Bazaar beach on 31 July 2019. "What failed him eventually? Economic policy? Market forces? Or Consumer behaviour? Or recession has arrived? – As Sanjay Nirupam, Congress leader says.
A letter purportedly written by him to the Board of Directors and Cafe Coffee Day Family has emerged. It is yet to be verified. There have been discrepancies about the signature. He mentioned: Every financial transaction is my responsibility. The law should hold me and only me accountable. 'I am very very sorry to let down all the people who had put their trust in me. I have failed as an entrepreneur. I fought for a long time, but today I gave up...'
Vijay Mallaya mentioned him as an excellent human and brilliant entrepreneur. I am devasted by the content of his letter. The Govt. agencies and Banks can drive anyone into despair. Vicious and unrelenting.
The guy who made people drink coffee got scared of loans and committed suicide. The guy who made people drink alcohol ran away to another country. Who is responsible? What are the lessons for emerging entrepreneurs? May be with time, this too would become history with no traces and solutions?
Words of MPV sir echo my ears - Only greed can bring down a man. Be Ethical.
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P.S. Read this in Being Women on 10th Jan 2022
When the CEO of Cafe Coffee Day passed away with a surmounting debt on the company, many would have thought...
It’s the end of the road...for this coffee giant ☕️☕️
But hear this speech from Malaivika Hegde, the gritty leader and also wife of late VG Siddhartha, ex-CEO of CCD.
“We have brought down the debt to Rs 3,100 crore as on March 31, 2020, from Rs 7,200 crore in March 2019, without a single rupee of haircut from lenders.”
And today that debt is a mere 1731 crore!!
She has been a non-executive board member of the company since the very beginning and has always observed the business very closely.
She knows the nuts and bolts of the coffee business probably better than anyone and has brought all her experience in turning around a company which was on the verge to death.
When I read the story today morning, I couldn’t stop being a cheer leader for this amazing leader !!!
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