Jewels of India: Ramesh Chauhan

Thums Up to Ramesh Chauhan

Creator of a number of high profile brands like Thums up, Gold Spot, Limca, Citra and now Bislery, the 72-year Ramesh Chauhan’s success journey has had a spectacular-though not always smooth-success ride. After all, it takes some doing to ensure that happy days are here again and again. Passionate about whatever he did, Ramesh Chauhan went on to create ripples in the world of beverages by creating one successful brand after another one.

By Ketan Mistry

At Sindhia Boarding School, it is a tense night before the next day exams. Given to learning by rot, a 10-12 year boy is burning the midnight oil to commit to memory all information regarding the 1857 mutiny. After mugging overnight, he is shocked to see the question paper next day. The question asked therein was on bubonic Plague.

Looking back at the past, Ramesh Chauhan reminisces,

‘Since that day I vowed never ever to do mugging. It was important to absorb the concept, that is all. And later when I was required to make a blueprint for a soft drink factory at the age of 22-23, this lesson came handy: absorb the concept

Chairman and managing director of the 1800-crore Bisleri International Private Limited, Ramesh Jayantilal Chauhan or RJC is known as the brand guru of India, He is the same Ramesh Chauhan who monopolized the market for three decades with brands like Gold Spot, Thums up, Maaza, Citra. He is the same Ramesh Chauhan who created a flutter in the corporate world by selling off these iconic brands in the early 90s.

He has also been inspirational and instrumental in bringing to India some affordable but effective treatment like Ozone.

Recently at an Event organized in celebration of completion of his 50-year association with Parle, Chitralekha asked him a string of questions: how was the foundation of Parle laid? What led to creation of all these brands?

At the Party and subsequently at his massive Bisleri Plant office, Ramesh Chauhan’s success saga unfolds..

Born on 17 June 1940 in the Purndare Nursing Home in Chowpaty in Mumbai, Ramesh Chauhan was the fourth child of mother Jaya and father Jayantilal Chauhan: Kokila, Madhukar, Minakshi and Ramesh, who were followed by Uma Kishori and Prakash Chuahan. Prakash Chauhan runs Parle Agro that boasts of some well-known brands like Mango Fruiti, Appi, Hippo Snacks etc.

During the early 20 century, Rameshbhai’s grandfather Mohanlal Chauhan had migrated to Mumbai at the age of 12 from Pardi, a small village near Valsad in South Gujarat. His dream was to learn sewing. He worked hard to learn it and set up his shop in Gamdevi. When he made some money, Mohanlal bought a plot of land in Vile Parle in 1920. After a while, on part of the plot was set up a confectionary factory, which expanded in 1928 and this is how the Parle Products Manufacturing was born. In 1939, a biscuit factory was founded, followed by Parle Bottling in 1949.

RJC and his siblings spent their childhood in Shanti Kunj, huge bungalow in Vile Parle. Even today Rameshbhai has been living at this bungalow with his wife Zainab and daughter Jayanti.

Talking about his parents, Rameshbhai reveals that they were far ahead of their contemporaries, going out regularly for dancing, drinking and eating out. They would also organize parties at home. He then adds that it was his elder brother Madhukarbhai who would fire his imagination by talking about various subjects like benefits of coal engines as against electric engine. In 1964, they lost Madhukarbhai and a cousin in an air mishap.

When he was 9, RJC was shifted from a Gujarati medium school in Vile Parle to St. Peter’s Boarding School in Panchgini and later, when in class VI, he was put in Sindhia School in Gwalior. After his matriculation, RJC went to Boston when he was barely 15. He obtained higher education in prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

RJC feels the MIT phase was the happiest period of his life. Here, each student was required to take 4 sports and if you do not swim for 100 yards, you are not given degree. In 1962, he obtained two degrees in business management and engineering. For engineering thesis, he had prepared a blueprint of a 60-roti a minute machine.

Before coming to India with his degrees the young RJC visited corrugated box, soft drinks and biscuit plants in Europe and Middle East. He points out that these visits drove home the difference between the bookish knowledge and hard reality. There is a huge difference between theoretical knowledge of how to start business and doing it practically.

In 1961, Parle went for split as a result of which the soft drink business was allotted to Rameshbhai’s father Jayantibhai and the biscuit factory to his uncle. Immediately, a plot of land was purchased and the elder brother Madhukarbhai was appointed Vice President and the US-returned 22-year old RJC was entrusted with the assignment of planning and building the factory.

Those days Parle had one brand: gluecola. In the year 1960, coco cola had four plants in India. Rameshbhai says, those were the days of returnable glass bottles. You buy the bottle after paying a deposit which is returned to you only after you give back the empty bottle. ‘Those days we had a factory in Mumbai. We thought having a factory in Mumbai would not do or else we would be branded as regional, so we set up a factory in Delhi. Later we had 49 bottlers in various parts of the country.

In 1964, following the unfortunate death of Madhukarbhai and cousin Jitu in a plane crash, the company reigns were given to Rameshbhai. At the time the company was passing through a bad phase with its sales dipping. Rameshbhai introduced various modern management techniques but he got the result by using his father’s desi method.

In the company’s reception hall, he hung a black board where salesmen’s names were written. Performance of each salesman was written against his name and this trick worked. How can you accept a peon or a cleaner commenting on your poor results? In no time, the sales jumped.

In 1977, the Janata government came to power and for some reasons the coca cola brand had to close shop in India, following which RJC started introducing soft drinks like Gold Spot, Limca, Thums Up, Citra, Maza in the market. While Limca in fact evolved from two Hindi words Limbu ka, ‘B’ was knocked off from the words Thumbs up, as the latter would look a dictionary word. Maza means fun in Hindi and adding ‘a’ means coinage of a new word.

For each brand, Rameshbhai had extensive brain-storming sessions with marketing gurus to think up various slogans and ideas for launching and marketing

For example, in 1970 a whole new generation grew up collecting Gold Spot lids at the back of which the Jungle Book characters were printed. The craze for Thums up caps was for cricketers’ pictures. Rameshbhai used to get involved in all sessions to conceive fresh catch lines-slogans.

Like Thirsty times…Limca Times is still fresh in our memory. Zing Thing and Ji Bhar ke Jio Gold Spot and Happy Days Are Here Again were catchy lines for Gold Spot and Thums up. It was followed by Taste the Thunder..Toofani Thanda, which is still in vogue. Till today the highest selling cold drink brand is Thums Up. Remember Bottle me aam, Maaza hai nam?

These happy days soon hit a road block when the decision to sell off everything to Coca Cola was taken. This is how it happened.

By 1991, Pepsi had made a backdoor entry into India. They closed ranks with Punjab Agro and started manufacturing Potato chips and Tomato Puree because of which RJC had had to lose four bottlers.

Later, following the liberalization policy introduced by Manmohan Singh, Coco Cola returned to India. These people too started renegotiating with RJC’s bottlers. During those days, having an 80% market share, RJC had created a network of 58 bottlers. They were now beginning to get poached by the coca cola, though the loyal ones stuck with RJC. This led Rameshbhai to think that those who are devoted to him are being penalized for no fault of their own. So after much deliberation and introspection, he decided to exit the market by selling off everything to coca cola. He had received in exchange a sum of US $ 50 crore.

Rameshbhai says, ‘when I inked the agreement with then Chaiman-CEO Neville Isabelle in America, I broke down. I had tears in my eyes, as if my happy days were going to be over. Yet, he was happy that he did not sell his Bisleri brand. After handing over everything to coca cola, he had the option of working as their bottler, as he had not disposed off the plot of Mumbai plant. But he opted to create his own Bisleri Empire instead.

The company was originally founded by Felis Bisleri of Italy. In 1969, Rameshbhai had bought his mineral water company at Rs 4 lacs. After selling all brands to Coca cola, he started focusing on Bisleri since 1995. Today, the brand has reached such a level that it has become a generic name. People ask shopkeepers to give Bisleri instead of mineral water. Apart from Bisleri, the company has another brand called Vedica. This is made from the melting ice of the Himalayan mountain range of the Uttarakhand. Those who are health conscious prefer Vedika.

RJC’s daughter Jayanti has now taken over the control of business. Brought up in Delhi, Jayanti, who is on Bisleri Board of Directors, had started going to office for the past four years, but for some reasons had stopped attending office. Now of course, she has re- entered with renewed vigour. Currently, she is planning to launch a new health drink.

Talking about how it is working with her father, Jayanti says, ‘It is fun working with Papa, for he has a modern thinking. I keep learning something new every day. When you share with him any new idea which he does not like, he would say no in such a way that does not discourage you.’

The 72-year RJC reaches his Bisleri plant on time, where he keeps shooting instructions. By early evening, he reaches CCI (Cricket Club of India) to play Tennis.

RJC has more faith in destiny than god, ‘For any successful man, people say that he is blessed by god, true, but you too got to make efforts. On a Cricket field when you face a delivery and you do not raise your bat, you end up losing an opportunity. Your destiny gives opportunities which you must grab. For everything, you cannot depend on god.’

Regarding completion-rivalry, he shares his interesting take.

‘What do you do when your business is on a downswing and your share values are plummeting? Would you go to your rivals and request him to go slow only because you are passing through a bad phase. No, you would not do it. You have to take up the cudgels and motivate your staff. I keep telling my staff that, look it is not me paying you salaries. You are paid by our consumers.’

RJC does not advocate the idea of collaboration, for he believes that if you have to be dependent on your collaborators for everything from manufacturing, formula etc, what is your contribution? You earn money alright, but where is the entrepreneurship?

As for success mantras, Rameshbhai has so many of them that they would make a book. Now connoisseurs are eagerly waiting to know what new brand the daughter of such legendary and phenomenal entrepreneur Jayanti (By the way, Rameshbhai has named her after his grandfather) is coming up with.

Father-Daughter Duo Unplugged

• Rameshbhai is not only passionate about tennis; you may say it has become part of his life. • He loves Indian-Western classical music. In vocal music, he is fond of listening to the likes of Pandit Jasraj, Bhimsen Joshi, Uday Bhavadkar and in instrument music, he likes listening to Pandit Ravishankar and Bismillah Khan. • Jayanti loves whiling away time with her pet. She has as many as seven dogs. • Besides, she is fond of watching films. She is ready to watch a Nassiruddin starrer anytime. She also loves watching Irrfan Khan films.

• She loves travel and photography. She may be ranked as among the best in this field.