The fizz is back in Cobra beer after a period of difficulty. And founder Karan Bilimoria, who proudly wears the badge to be the first MNC to invest in Bihar, tells Sukalp Sharma & Rajat Guha that the future is what excites him now

Profile

Date of birth

* November 26, 1961

Marital Status

* Married, with four children

EDUCATION

* Bachelor of Commerce, Osmania University (Indian Institute of Management and Commerce, Hyderabad), 1981

* Law from Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge, 1988

Awards & positions

* CBE in 2004 for services to business

* Served as founding chairman of the UK India Business Council, of which he is now president

* Member of the Chancellor?s Asia Task Force and the UK-India Round Table

* Visiting entrepreneur at the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning, Cambridge University? one of the first two ever to be appointed

* Appointed The Lord Bilimoria of Chelsea in June 2006

A regal air, a baritone voice, a refined accent?Karan Bilimoria, founder of Cobra beer, does not lack in any sign of success. But behind this appearance lies the story of a man who has negotiated ups and downs, defied conventions, engineered ideas, tasted success and at times its bitter nemesis, but always carried on. Today, this Hyderabad born British-Indian entrepreneur, a member of the House of Lords in the UK, rubs shoulders with the biggest political and business names in what he calls the ?most global city on the globe??London.

But what was a Cambridge law graduate, son of an army general, Lt General FN Bilimoria, and a trained chartered accountant with what is now Ernst & Young, doing making beer and trying to sell it almost everywhere he could? Well, that?s a question that his family asked when he decided to go ahead with his idea of what is now Cobra beer. ?Like any family, they wanted the child to take a more secure route. And getting a job was the more secure route. With my qualifications, I should have gone into banking or something like that. But I really believed in my idea,? he says. And so he stuck to it, through thick and thin.

The idea of brewing beer first struck Bilimoria when he was a student of law at Cambridge. ?I thought of producing a beer that has the smoothness of ale and the refreshment of a lager combined,? he says. And being Indian did play a big role in the idea. Like most curry-holics, Bilimoria had trouble pairing alcoholic beverages with Indian food, and thus began his quest for a ?less gassy beer?, but there wasn?t any. So he went ahead and created one. ?Fizzy lagers were gassy, which used to make me feel really uncomfortable while having them with Indian food. And ales were too bitter and heavy to match Indian food,? he quips. It was 1989 and after dabbling with a few other import-export ideas, which set him back by over ?20,000 in debt, a 27-year-old Bilimoria, along with partner Arjun Reddy, and without any experience in brewing whatsoever, embarked on a journey and a business that would change his life. He thus began brewing Cobra in Bangalore to ship it out to the UK, which he continued for the next seven years.

And Cobra?s rise was stellar, making Bilimoria one of the leading poster boys for entrepreneurship in UK. In a little over a decade, he was selling more than ?50 million worth of beer a year. And through the early years of this venture, Bilimoria did almost everything that a business requires, from marketing, to even packaging and delivering. So how did Bilimoria land up with a name like Cobra? ?Initially we had chosen Panther. But research among consumers indicated no one liked the name. The second choice was Cobra, which people seemed to instantly like. So we changed the name at the last moment. My brother had an advertising agency in Hyderabad, so we flew across to Hyderabad before the beer was bottled and changed the name to Cobra. That was the best move I made,? he recalls.

Bilimoria confesses that the name worked wonders for the brand. ?It?s short, sharp, punchy, memorable, and it still takes you back to India in not a very obvious way. Another thing about the name Cobra is that it?s got a feeling as if it has existed around for over a 100 years, and yet it is one of the newest world beers that exist,? he says.

Although Cobra?s success and his involvement with a number of community initiatives in the UK, not to forget his poster boy status, earned Bilimoria many accolades, including him being chosen as a cross-bench life peer in the House of Lords in 2006, rough weather did hit and hurt Cobra. In 2009, the company went into administration, owing creditors an estimated ?70 million. ?But that?s something that we have put behind ourselves now. The future is what excites me now,? says Bilimoria, clearly not willing to go over a hurtful chapter in his otherwise showcase of a career.

But Cobra is well on its way to recovery now, backed by Molson Coors? infrastructure and market penetration. One of the world?s largest brewers, Molson Coors, has taken 50.1% share in a new joint venture with Cobra, called the Cobra Beer Partnership, with Bilimoria and his shareholders having the other 49.9% stake, in a pre-pack administration deal. Bilimoria is the chairman of the JV.

In fact, modelled on their global JV, Bilimoria signed another India-specific JV with Molson Coors last year, with similar terms, except that Bilimoria has a 49% stake in it against the 49.9% in the global JV. The company has invested $35 million in its India operations already. And Bihar has been chosen as the investment destination. ?We acquired the brewery in Bihar a few years ago. We are in Bihar for the long haul, so we?ll be taking calls on future investments as things play out in the future. At the moment, our priority is to get the upgrade and expansion of this brewery done and we are ahead of schedule. In fact, we started production this January. The beer is already available in Bihar and is being dispatched to West Bengal, Delhi and Jharkhand as well,? Bilimoria says. For now Bilimoria has unshakable faith in Bihar, where he attended the recently held Global Bihar Summit. ?We are the first multinational company to invest in Bihar and we are now up and running. We have upgraded the brewery and doubled its capacity. We are the only brewery in Bihar and the only MNC in the state today. So the fact that a Fortune 500 company listed on the NYSE (Molson Coors) has invested in Bihar shows the faith that we have in the state and its potential,? he says.

But considering the growing presence of global beer brands in India, won?t the road ahead be tough for Cobra? Bilimoria banks on the unique positioning of his beer. ?We are a beer of Indian origin and an international beer as well. No other beer has that kind of unique positioning in the market,? he responds. And Bilimoria is quick to add a connect here to his own personality. ?I feel Cobra is a little like me. I feel equally good in India as I do in Britain. I?m British, but I?m also Indian,? he quips.

And that brings us to his India connect yet again. For, Bilimoria is one businessman who is still very much in touch with his roots, and apart from being a part of the larger policy structure in Britain, his involvement in the policy circles in India is also quite substantial, particularly with regard to the welfare of overseas Indians and their connect with their homeland. ?I am a member of the Prime Minister?s Global Advisory Council,? he says. Bilimoria also heads the UK-India Business Council. He takes pride in being an active participant and one of the leading voices at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) as well.

In fact, as he narrates his story, he tells us that he never really had any plans to settle down abroad. It was only his business that kept him away from India. ?As a student, I would come home to visit my family and be back in India no matter whatever happened. When I was with Ernst & Young, I would work overtime, so that I could get extra leaves in lieu of it and visit India. Other people used to take money in lieu of their overtime; I used to save it up so I could spend more time in India,? he reminisces. And today he prides himself at being a global Indian, at ease with both aspects of life and nationality. Every year, Bilimoria, wife Heather and their four children visit India and South Africa (his wife hails from South Africa), so that the children ?know their roots and remain close to them?.

As we prepare to wind up our conversation with the beer baron, he leaves us with a few anecdotes from his earlier days. Now, a member of the House of Lords, Bilimoria had almost taken a shot at being an MP in the House of Commons in the ?90s as a conservative. But he had to choose between his business and a political career. He then went with the former, a choice he says he?s glad to have made. ?I think it was the right decision and now the House of Lords gives me the opportunity to participate in business and contribute to the parliament as well. As a student I was a conservative, although I never stood for anything then. But when I joined the House of Lords, I gave up my party membership and became an independent. This gives me absolute freedom to voice my opinions without any influence,? he says.