Legend of the Industry
S S Gandhi is the grand old man of the Indian liquor industry, under whom almost all the big names of the industry had trained.
Born in a tobacco merchant family in Quetta (Pakistan), young Gandhi moved with his mother and brother to Agra after the Partition. As a youth, he started doing odd jobs for livelihood. The first stable job came his way when he joined the British pharmaceutical company, Allen & Hanburys. After training in London, he got an opportunity to work with Herbertson as Covenanted Assistant.
In 1979, Vithal Mallya took control of Herbertsons and thereafter began the rise of Herbertsons and Gandhi. He was brought to the company’s Bombay office in the import division. Within a year, following the retirement of the Sales Manager, Gandhi was promoted to the post, superseding several seniors. Now, the entire Herbertsons including import, chemical, pharma and consumer products came under him.
Gandhi was instrumental in bringing the company’s liquor business in focus. Consequently, new products like Bagpiper, Romonov vodka, High Society, Raj Driver rum and Caesar brandy were introduced. When Vijay Mallya joined his father’s business, he was kept Gandhi’s understudy for two years.
At the age of 56, Gandhi retired and went over to Khodays and helped the company grow and expand for 3-4 years. This started hurting Mallya. One morning, Gandhi got a call from
Vijay Mallya who had taken over Herbertsons, to meet and rejoin the UB group. On February 1, 1989 he rejoined the UB group as CEO of McDowell’s and President of the Spirits Division.
Immediately, Gandhi set about revitalizing the company. To enthuse frontline employees who represented the company in the field, he set up a platform, Hamare Haath, Tumhare Saath. Four staff conferences were planned in Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai, and Delhi. However, just before the first conference, Gandhi was hit by a debilitating bout of jaundice. Then Vijay came forward and conducted the first three conferences himself.
Within 12 months, that is, by March 1990, the company was on par with Shaw Wallace. And, by 1991, it was 20 per cent ahead. By the time Gandhi retired in 1996 and gave reins to Vijay Rekhi, the company was ahead of Shaw Wallace by more than 50 per cent.
Gandhi can be called the guru of surrogate advertising in India. He promoted liquor brands through mineral water, soda and music CDs using surrogate advertising. He also initiated marketing of liquor in PET bottles. He sold half a million cases of Diplomat, packaging the bottles inside PET jars and created the lookalike mini PET versions of full bottles. Under his leadership, as a first, sports events were sponsored by liquor brands.
Gandhi now resides in Panchkula with his wife and leads a quiet life in peaceful environs.
