Author: Swati Mathur
Publication: The Times of India
Date: August 24, 2011
Introduction: They sell knapsacks to Spielberg,
channa to East Africa, and saddles to Europe. TOI meets some unusual millionaires
who may never make it to rich lists but are a crucial part of India's growth
story
At an indeterminate moment near the turn of
the century, Dean Corso, a rare book dealer, undertakes the task of verifying
the authenticity of a book that contains demon text. Only two copies remain
in the world. To find them, Johnny Depp, the protagonist of Roman Polanski's
1999 supernatural thriller The Ninth Life, travels to Paris and Madrid. No,
this isn't a film review or an ode to Depp, handsome as he is. It's the bag
Depp carries that is the hero of this story, especially because it was hand-crafted
and designed by Sanjay Gupta, a little-known costume designer in Kanpur.
The volumes he dabbles in, or the label he produces, may not compare with
bigger fashion houses in the country, but Gupta's work has received international
recognition, pushing him into the league of Kanpur's indigenous, though relatively
unknown, crorepatis. He's certainly not alone. According to rough estimates,
the industrial city, the original Manchester of the East, is home to over
6,500 medium and small-scale businesses, with total investments exceeding
Rs 20,000 crore.
Businesses like the ones run by Gupta have not remained restricted to textiles
and their ancillary units alone. From largescale engineering products to state-of-the-art
force multiplier defence equipment, Kanpur has also become a solid base for
industries relating to the agriculture, defense ancillary, organic produce,
textile, leather, education, packaging and pharmaceutical sectors. And with
the rise of these businesses, the number of homegrown millionaires too have
multiplied. "You get an indication of Kanpur's consolidated riches in
the number of luxury cars you see on its roads. It is, without doubt, a leading
consumer of luxury cars. From Audi A6 to Porsche Cayenne and top-end models
of BMW and Mercedes, the best speed monsters can be seen on Kanpur roads.
It's another thing that they run on pot-holed roads that have never been repaired,"
says KhalidAkbar, a leather industrialist who travels to Lucknow to get his
car serviced.
With its bigger, brighter twin city just 80 km away, Kanpur has always complained
of neglect at the hands of the Uttar Pradesh government. Despite its industrial
potential, the city has never got the kind of infrastructure it deserved.
A lot of businesses are suffering because of this but many have survived and
continue to flourish.
"Even before Independence, Kanpur was an extremely important business
centre. Over the years, textile mills closed down but the leather industry
ballooned many times over. Scores of businessmen who have flourished and become
millionaires still remain; but their names and trades are in the dark,'' says
IM Rohatgi, member, Merchants Chambers of Uttar Pradesh.
There are many, of course, who are happy to stay out of the limelight. They
would rather keep their work, families and their identities under wraps though
they have businesses spanning the length and breadth of the globe. "Typically,
if you declare your worth and talk about it too much, the tax authorities
land up at your door. And they will do that that even when your balance sheet
is in order," says a Kanpur manufacturer of herbal products.
Despite its shabby infrastructure, few Kanpur loyals have abandoned the city.
Mohammed Saud, a bulk supplier of leather boots and army uniforms, returned
home after acquiring an MBA degree from Pune and a short work stint in Dubai.
Now in the family business, he has learnt to focus on Kanpur's qualities.
"This has been home to my family for three generations. It can do with
better infrastructure but moving out is out of the question. You don'tleave
home because it's dirty. You stay put and clean up," he says.
Narendra Sharma | 42
Business: Agarbattis
Turnover: Over Rs 30 crore
Narendra Sharma's father manufactured playing
cards. But by the early '90s, the game was up. So, the young man decided to
manufacture incense sticks. But there was an obstacle - the raw material was
not available in Kanpur.
That, however, didn't deter Sharma. Creating a sourcing chain from across
the country, he procured enough material to make 100 kilos of incense, prepared
and rolled the fragrant masala on his own. The first lot of sticks he sold
fetched him Rs 9,171. And from then on, in his own words, Sharma has been
unstoppable. He set up Tiranga, believed to be India's single largest selling
brand of incense, in 1995 and chose the first day of Navratra to sell a pack
at Rs 51.
"I have built all this with a little bit of luck and a lot of sweat,"
he says. "To develop the business, we created units along the lines of
a cottage industry across the neighbouring districts of Kanpur. The idea was
to engage rural unskilled women in this work and create employment.With more
hands on the job, output also increased,'' says Sharma.
Currently the Tiranga brand generates employment for over 5,000 rural women
from Hardoi, Unnao, Ghatampur, Kannauj, Fatehpur and Kanpur Dehat districts
of Uttar Pradesh. And in doing so, Sharma created a business that was never
believed to be Kanpur's own. "Kannauj is famous for its itr, while much
of the incense business is based in Bangalore," he says.
Ajay Jain | 42
Business: Pulse Trade
Turnover: Rs 90-100 cr
Pulses are a run-of-the-mill business in Kanpur's
Pokharpur area. Literally. However, only one family, among the dozen-odd located
here, has created a niche by supplying them to the rest of the world. Not
from India, where export of pulses is currently banned, but from their joint-venture
mills in Mozambique, Ethiopia and Kenya. From his unassuming one-room office
within the mill premises, Ajay Jain, the business's 42-year-old proprietor,
says it is simply a matter of demand and supply.
"Despite the government ban on pulse export since 2006, the demand for
pulses did not dip. Instead of pulses, we began to sell technical expertise;
supplied agricultural machinery and even told dealers how pulses should be
processed. We chose Africa because it had an unorganised foodgrain market,
but was rich in quality raw material,"' Jain said.
In 2003, Jain started exporting lentils with a six-container consignment to
Colombo. Today, he ships 1,000 containers of chickpeas to East Africa, Canada,
the UK, Germany, Belgium, the Middle East and Indonesia. But he is not satisfied
and is keeping his fingers crossed that the ban on pulse exports is lifted.
This, though, is only what Jain processes at his Indian units. His East-African
units produce an additional 5,000 tonnes of processed pulses at the state-of-the-art
HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Panel)-approved plants.
"In India, processing units still follow 40-year-old systems. Abroad,
millers have switched to fully automated systems. But with our overseas investments,
we were able to boost our domestic standards as well," he says. With
anannual turnover touching Rs 100 crore, Vardhman Dal Mill is the only Kanpur-based
business house to directly export pulses. This, however, has not changed his
lifestyle. "We have everything we need, but we don't believe in the high
life," he says.
Khalid Akbar | 55
Business: Leather Saddlery
Turnover: Rs 14 crore
W hen Akbar started making equestrian equipment
- leather harnesses, saddles and bridles - the country lost out on a professional
standup comedian with over 10 years of stage experience. "It was something
that I did till about 2008, after which work became too hectic," Akbar
recalls.
In 1991, Akbar began making canvas shoes for children, and then started designing
leather fashion bags, all out of a one-room workshop. He also started a new
line - specialised products for carriage driving. "Over time, we discovered
we were dependent on several suppliers for metal hardware and other allied
products. So, we started a hardware manufacturing unit to meet requirements,"
he says.
Today, with his equestrian market extending to Europe, the US and Netherlands,
Akbar has set up three factories for manufacturing hardware products alone.
"Even now, we are only able to cover 60 per cent of the hardware that
we need."
The focus now is on additional ancillary units. "We floated a company
manufacturing pet collars and leashes three years ago. Next year, we will
diversify into dog food," says Abuzar Shamim, Akbar's 25-yearold nephew,
in charge of the ancillary business.
Both uncle and nephew, however, are not resting easy just yet. There's a huge
demand for the leather industry in the export market, especially in the saddlery
and harness segment. According to statistics supplied by the Directorate General
of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics, India exported harnesses and saddlery
worth Rs 3,925.11 crore between April and March 2010-11. "Currently,
our contribution to this is negligible. But that is what we want to increase,"
says Akbar.
Sanjay Gupta | 45
Business: Costumes for Hollywood period/war films
Turnover: In crores, exact figure not disclosed
There are few who have seen success and failure
as closely as Sanjay Gupta. In 1990, as an enterprising youngster, he set
up a steel drum manufacturing plant near Kanpur. Eight years later, the project
flopped, taking with it a lifetime of Gupta's savings. It might have meant
the end of the road for many, but Gupta wasn't giving up.
In desperate need of a means of sustenance for himself and his family, Gupta
accepted a $50 order to replicate canvas haversacks and knapsacks and canteen
covers used by the US Army in World War II. Back then, it didn't matter that
Tom Hanks or his fellow soldiers in Steven Spielberg's 1998 blockbuster, Saving
Private Ryan, carried the bags and handled the very canteens covers onto which
Gupta had, painstakingly, sown metal clasps. "At that time, the volume
didn't matter. The fact that I got the order and was able to meet the required
standards was enough for me. It was the hope that I could survive that kept
me going,'' Gupta said.
From war uniforms to head gear, bullet pouches, boots, small gun holsters
and gas masks, Gupta sends his costumes to the US, UK, Germany and France.
"Sometimes, the real challenge is to find the right material and create
the exact replica of what your client needs,'' he adds. But coarse wool jackets
for the French and German Army are not all that occupy Gupta's creative mind.
He's happy to have provided a wide range of supplies to the Glimmerglass Festival
in the USA, the Henry Ford Museum, Faculty of Art and Theatre at the Yale
University and the US military museum, but there's more that heseeks to do.
Gupta's ultimate dream is to open a specialty restaurant once his children
are settled. "I love to cook,'' he says. For the moment, though, Gupta's
giving all his time to recreating costumes for Abraham Lincoln. That's for
his new avatar as a Vampire buster in Timur Bekmambetov's Abraham Lincoln:
Vampire Hunter, to be released in 2012.
- (For more stories, log onto www.timescrest.com)
