He might have been born in a small place, but that didn?t stop him from dreaming big. Today Gurnam Arora sits in a plush office in Delhi?s upmarket Greater Kailash, stays in the best of hotels in London and is unabashedly brand conscious. Dreaming big does help. That?s what the joint managing director of the Rs-635 crore Kohinoor Foods Group believes in.
?I knew I wanted to do something different and something big. How I would do it was something I thought I?d figure out,? he says matter-of factly. The third son of a foodgrains commission agent in Amritsar went to an ordinary school, just like his brothers Satnam and Jugal Kishore. He graduated in commerce from DAV College in Amritsar and remembers seeing his dad working in the grain mandi. He might not have known what he wanted to do but he was sure that he didn?t want to work in the mandi like his dad. ?I aspired for something bigger. I thought of five-star environs, big offices, and coveted jobs.?
What helped was that his brothers thought the same. The trade with Pakistan had just reopened in mid-seventies and the brothers managed it for two years hoping for something bigger to come their way. That is when the trio thought of rice. ?We started thinking what was special about Amritsar that we could export. Basmati was excellent. It was one product that was related to our business, but we had not paid much attention to it. There were few people supplying rice to other cities like Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore, but there was hardly any export. We thought of giving exports a try.?
What made things simpler was that their dad wasn?t interested in rice business. ?Rice was a small business then and my father was into bigger deals in the mandi, so he let us do what we wanted to,? explains Gurnam. In 1977, the rice business was launched. ?We leased a mill and worked from there.? A year later when rice exports were opened, it was just the opportunity that the brothers could have asked for.
In 1979, the three brothers decided to register their brand of basmati rice as Kohinoor and also started their own mill. While there were a few people who were into rice business, but Gurnam?s streak of wanting to be different showed up yet again. While most people used gunny bags of 35 kgs that were stenciled with ink bearing the company?s name, Gurnam decided to work on the packaging. He got canvas bags, which were screen printed. ?You need to do things differently if you want to stand out,? he says.
Quality was another thing that Gurnam was always very conscious about, a trait that probably sets him apart from a lot of players in the market. Soon the exports started increasing. But the biggest moment, Gurnam still remembers, was when they received an order of 500 tonnes from Saudi Arabia in 1983. ?It put us in a different league,? he admits.
And having tasted success, Gurnam wasn?t willing to let anything come in between, not even the scare of terrorism sweeping Punjab in the early 80s. So he decided to move to Delhi to start an office. In 1984, Gurnam moved to Delhi. ?Those were difficult days. Though I?d travelled a lot, living in Delhi was not easy. Right from finding myself a place o setting up business all on my own, it was all a big challenge.?
But Gurnam was very determined. So, he decided to take up the challenge of establishing Kohinoor Basmati as a brand in India and abroad. Things started looking up slowly. After four initial years in the congested Naya Bazaar area of Delhi, they could afford an office in central Connaught Place. Soon, they set up a bigger office in Greater Kailash, which has a jazzy mall owned by Kohinoor Foods Ltd, next to it.
Gurnam sits comfortably in his air-conditioned environment, just like he had dreamt as a young boy. Ask him what helped Kohinoor Foods establish itself as a brand despite stiff competition and he says that quality is what sets them apart. They imported machines from Japan to ensure they had the best quality of rice picked and packed. They started networking with distributors and printing prices. ?We brought precision into the business. What is important is not to worry about competition. We worry about the quality of our products and their consistency. I will never compromise on quality for quantity. If I bring my quality down, how am I different from others? Our loyalty and honesty have got us where we are today,? he explains.
And the smart businessman that Gurnam is, he didn?t want to lose on the middle class as well. A reason why he introduced smaller packages of basmati rice besides introducing brands like Trophy and Chaar Minar, not compromising on their USP of quality.
It?s little surprise that Kohinoor Basmati is available in 60 countries with its presence in stores like Walmart in the US and TESCO in the UK. And it?s probably this popularity that made them launch the Kohinoor brand of foods. ?We were already a recognised brand abroad and we wanted to expand our line of business. What better way of doing it than riding piggyback on our brand??
So, they launched Kohinoor ready-to-eat foods about five years back and it is today present in 23 countries. ?We even supply to a market like Japan. They are very health conscious. So, though we have to cook in special oil for them, we do it. Your customers are the most important. If you?ve established a rapport with them, you?ve done your job as a brand. Today we are a name to reckon with internationally and it?s a great feeling,? he admits.
They?ve also launched their brand of spices. Though the ready-to-eat products, spices and frozen food are available in very select places in India, Gurnam expects to increase the supplies once he sees a bigger market for it. ?We are yet to really get into the ready- to-eat and frozen food culture. But yes, I see it happening soon. Today women are as busy as men. Who has the time to cook? Lifestyles today are completely different. It?s a market waiting to explode,? he predicts.
His ultimate goal, says Gurnam, is to make Kohinoor the best integrated food company in the country.? I?m giving it my best is all I know.? And what helps, says the 58-year-old, is the fact that he has a good team of people working for him. ?We have some people who have worked for us for 20-25 years. People are what make an organisation and if you care for your people, they?ll care for your work and brand.?
Having said that, Gurnam is still a believer in power. It?s little surprise that one of the brothers is always in the main office. ?See, at the end, it?s our business. Nobody will be as passionate about it as we are. In the end, family is family. Professionals have a shelf life. They can move on to other organisations and better offers, but family usually sticks by,? he says.
Working together is fun for the three brothers. It?s probably the reason why they enjoy their life as much as their work. Though the eldest brother is more of a workaholic, Satnam and Guram more than make up for him. Both of them love playing golf and make sure they find time for it. ?Golf, I think, is the only game you can get addicted to it. I used to be a tennis player but then the very feel of a golf course kind of beckoned me. So, I started playing golf. Today it?s an integral part of my life,? he admits. In fact, Gurnam plays golf five days a week from about 6 am to 8.30 am
While his two sons Nishant and Ankush are busy with the family business, his wife Madhu, he smiles, is a busy housewife. What is interesting about Gurnam is the fact that he has worked hard to get where he is and he has no qualms admitting that he enjoys the luxuries of life. So, be it a branded shirt or redoing his office interiors every year so that his work place looks interesting, Gurnam believes in living life king size. For he?s smelt success and is not willing to live it any other way.