HOW I DID IT

 ::..:: ARCHIVES ::..::

Dharti Desai’s journey from Alliance Francaise in small-town Ahmedabad, to a corner office in Mumbai, via New York, is as unusual as it is interesting. After relocating to the US post marriage, Desai continued teaching French till she chanced upon a translation project related to direct marketing. The subject piqued her interest so much that she decided to get a diploma in the subject. In 1997, she set up Regency Direct Marketing, along with her brother.

Once business stabilised, the siblings started their next venture: a mail order business. While Desai looked after the international operations of the two companies from New York, her brother ran the show on a day-to-day basis. Her business development role demanded that she entertained clients. The same role also introduced her to some of the finest wines of the world. Though not a connoisseur, Desai managed to know her wines pretty well.

All that changed when she relocated to Mumbai in 2005. She could no longer find the brands that she favoured and had become so accustomed to in the West. She also sensed that the landscape of wine consumption in India was changing. People were now talking more about wines and lifestyle experiences. Newspapers were writing more articles about them. That set her thinking.

She went into a huddle with her family – as was her habit – to ponder over what this could mean. They decided to make use of the resources available to them from their other businesses – namely, a large database of people from the direct marketing business. As a first step, a questionnaire was sent out to nearly 200,000 people in the country.

“I was quite blown away by the response. People had actually bothered to fill out this questionnaire,” says Desai, who says she knew nothing of either import laws, or excise requirements then. Her only hope was that she had run two businesses earlier – and that she knew her wines rather well. That was in early 2006.

Today, what was supposed to be a club for people interested in wines and other lifestyle-related products has become one of the top 10 importers of wine in India. In 2008, the Indian Wine Academy (IWA) published a list of top 10 importers in the country, in which Desai’s company ranked ninth. FineWinesnMore had sold 5,500 cases of wine in 2007-08, but more importantly, it happened to be the youngest company on that list. Sula, a domestic manufacturer as well as an importer of wines since 1997, had imported 10,000 cases in comparison.

FineWinesnMore today has a distribution network spread across 13 states, selling 150 brands of wines from eight different countries. The company has nearly 400 paid members in metro cities, 75% of whom have subscribed to the cheapest plan of Rs 7,500 per shipment of six bottles of wine every two months.

It has recently tied up exclusively with American Express to take its offerings to the bank’s Platinum charge-card-holders. “It was a coup for us. We took more than six months to sign on a deal with them, but we got a three-year contract,” says an ecstatic Desai. She and her team have created an exclusive program for the 3,300 cardholders to offer them wines that are not available in India, duty-free or otherwise.

Coming as it did after a disastrous year, the deal’s a welcome break for Desai and her team of 30. “Last year was a disaster for us,” admits Desai. Having imported 7,500 cases in anticipation of doubling their growth from the year before, Desai ended up with a 30% decline in sales. She was stuck with wines that started typically at Rs 600-700 per bottle and went up to Rs 22,000 per bottle.

Luckily for them, new markets opened up in states like Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. “Places in the north, like Chandigarh and Rajasthan opened up. HP and UP were really big saving factors there,” says she.

For someone who invested Rs 8 crore so far importing wines, Desai could have despaired at her inventory or at the fact that she expects to break even two years later than she had thought. Instead, she’s chosen to look at the glass half full. “We’re still looking at 15-20% growth, so that’s encouraging. We’ll hang in there. The critical mass will come. People will drink, good times or bad times,” says a hopeful Desai.

In the meanwhile, she’s tweaked her portfolio to introduce some value-for-money wines instead of only premium ones. “People in hotels have started looking at the right side of the menu. They want to have wine, but just don’t want to pay that much any more,” she explains, hoping that the changes will help in the long run.

Desai’s careful not to repeat the mistake she made at the beginning of her career as a wine importer. She bought a company that was going bankrupt, hoping to use their stock. That proved to be a mistake that put her back by six months. The wines hadn’t been stored well and she ended up paying a huge price for that. She would rather grow slowly, but steadily. Her team is now focusing on growing the brands that have been loyal to her company, and increase their presence in cities.

“We are not making money as yet. We know it will take a long time since we are talking about behaviour change among our end-users. But we want to be known among our consumers and trade for doing things differently – whether it is paying them on time, or on giving value for money.”

“In the last 13-14 months, five wine brands have come to me from other importers. We’re a young company, yet they’ve chosen to come and work with us. That alone is an endorsement of our positive achievements,” says the lady.

For a French teacher, Desai has surely become fluent in the language of business.