Bengaluru: Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) founder V.G. Siddhartha has not only given urban India its favorite hangout place but has also changed the coffee consumption experience in the country. And, truly inspired from the CCD’s slogan i.e. 'a lot more can happen over coffee', Siddhartha went to prove that 'lot of business can be built around coffee’.
From being the son of a coffee plantation owner to marrying the daughter of a State Chief Minister to building India’s largest coffee cafes’ chain, V.G. Siddhartha has taken part in building big companies.
It should be noted that he is married to the daughter of S. M. Krishna, the former Chief Minister of Karnataka. Krishna also worked as the country’s Minister for External Affairs and Governor of Maharashtra.
As V.G. Siddhartha goes missing and the search operations are underway at the Netravati River site near Mangaluru, let us have a look at his story.
- Siddhartha is an Indian businessman from Karnataka. His Family has been in the coffee growing business for more than 130 years. Before starting CCD with one outlet in Bengaluru in the year 1996, Siddhartha tested his mettle in stock trading
- He started his career as a management intern trading in Indian Stock Market at JM Financial Ltd. in Mumbai in 1983
- Siddhartha returned to Bengaluru after two years and bought a stock market card for Rs. 30,000, along with a company called Sivan Securities which was renamed in 2000 as Way2wealth Securities Ltd
Coffee business
- Inspired by a chat with the owners of Tchibo, a German coffee chain, Siddhartha decided to open his own chain of cafes in India
- He set up his first Cafe Coffee Day outlet on July 11, 1994, in Bengaluru with the tagline "a lot can happen over a cup of coffee"
Other businesses
- He started his coffee trading company Amalgamate Bean Company (ABC) in 1993, which is India's largest exporter of green coffee. Siddhartha also founded Global Technology Ventures Ltd. in 2000
- He also holds board seats in GTV, Mindtree, Liqwid Krystal, Way2Wealth and Ittiam
Awards won
- Siddhartha was awarded the 'Entrepreneur of the year’ for the 2002-03 by Economic Times, for crafting a successful pan-Indian brand from a commodity business
- In 2011, He was awarded the NextGen Entrepreneur by Forbes India
Controversy
Siddhartha found himself in trouble in the year 2017, when the Income Tax Department conducted raids at over 20 locations linked to him.
Siddhartha went missing at Ullal near Mangaluru on Monday night. Siddhartha allegedly wrote a parting letter to the CCD Board of Directors and the employees stating he has failed as an entrepreneur.
In the letter, he also mentioned that the harassment by a senior I-T official to block Mindtree deal and pressure from one of the private equity partners to buy back CCD’s shares made the company go through serious liquidity crunch.
