| When you meet Mukul Mehra, owner of Global Tax-Free Traders, the last thing you'd think is that he is a wine - or liquor - merchant. He could pass as a soft-spoken, docile professor of statistics. But looks can be deceptive. He represents the fourth generation of a family that got into the alcohol business exactly a century ago. Liquor flows in his blood, but the irony is that he doesn't imbibe the hard stuff.
Bruised and hurt but not beaten by family splits, Mukul is today sitting on top of a fast rotating stock of wine and spirits and his marketing skills are responsible for Global being present in practically all states where the sale of imported wine is allowed.
Mukul added imported wine to his portfolio only 12 years back with a small list of table wines. With sheer grit and quiet determination, he has made sure that Global is neck and neck with Sonarys of Mumbai, competing for the second spot, with estimated sales of 18-20,000 cases of wine last year (like every other importer, he doesn't part with the actual figure) and a portfolio that is adding quality labels every month.
Grandson of the well-known liquor baron, the late Mohan Lal, Mukul had the long-term vision to foresee that the wine market would grow exponentially, which explains why he started focusing on that side of the business after separating from his brother. When his only son Adil came back after graduating from Warwick, Mukul handed him complete charge of wine sales, even though neither his son, nor he "don't touch" wine.
Mukul also learnt from experience that the storage of wine is extremely important. So he converted his bonded warehouse within his office complex at Sainik Farms, in Delhi's south-western suburbs, into a temperature-controlled property.
"Many importers have air-conditioned warehouses, but they keep the cooling switched off when no one's seeing," he laughs. "But we realised it does not pay in the long run. The portion that is earmarked for wine is always air-conditioned and the temperature never goes beyond 20-22 degrees, which I feel does not harm the wine. When the wine comes out of the bonded warehouse after the import duties are paid, the bottles are kept in an air-cooled room for the shortest possible time awaiting delivery."
Wine distribution in India, too, has an 'old world' and a 'new world' divide. Importers like Brindco and Mukul's Global fall in the former category, while I would place Naresh Uttamchandani's Sovereign Impex in the latter. The difference is marked by "the years of experience in the liquor business which is generally applicable to wine as well because of the labyrinth of import laws with the possibilities criminal prosecution hanging on your head like a sword," Mukul says.
"Don't you think the import channel is choked in India because a handful of importers with the experience in the liquor business and knowledge of the archaic laws seem to have all the major international brands in their pocket?" I asked him.
"It is more the experience in imports and the laws that gives them an upper edge," Mukul explained. He should know. Global was the first company to get a bonded warehouse licence in 1996 after a gap of 16 years.
How can wine sales be increased in India? "The trade barriers need to be addressed with a sense of urgency", says Mukul. "Every time the federal government reduces import duties, the states increase their excise fees. States like Maharashtra are putting unfair barriers up for imported wines. "Why can't we have a simplified single-window system where the federal and state governments share the revenue on a fixed percentage basis?" Mukul asks in despair. "People like you must lobby with the federal government to allow the free movement of imported alcoholic beverages after a one-time payment covering import duties and excise fees are made at the bonded warehouse. This will allow importers to store more wine and store it in proper conditions."
But how about the private vends who have spent money and used political connections to get sales licences? I asked. His argument that the importers will be willing to pay the relevant licence fees fails to convince me and I suspect it wouldn't be palatable to the managements of the private vends either.
There's a merit in his argument about storage. We've often selected the value-for-money Freixenet, imported by Global, as an aperitif for wine dinners. The Spanish sparkler from Sant Sadurni d'Anoia had lost its fizz twice and tasted awful when it was purchased from retail vends without the basic storage conditions that you'd expect from places where wine sales are made.
Mukul also makes a strong case for more aggressive marketing and giving imported wine greater access to more delivery points. "We must team up with caterers to organise wine dinners that are economically priced so that more people gain access to wine at more affordable prices," he says.
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Mukul Mehra with son Adil |
An aggressive marketer of French wines (over 40% of his portfolio is French), Mukul is bullish about Italian and Chilean wines as well. His portfolio includes wines from all the major regions, but he isn't enthusiastic about Spanish and German wines, which, he says, have a limited market at his moment. His conservatism is also reflected in his estimation of the current market of imported wines, which he pegs at 100,000 cases, out of a total consumption of 500,000 cases of premium wine (wine priced above Rs 200, or about US$4.50).
Mukul's wife Anu, whose father has invested in the business, is an active partner. She's also mentoring Adil, who epitomises a new business style. A teetotaler, Adil believes in the 'earn before you learn' dictum rather than other way around.
A soft-spoken, humble salesman, he has been "too busy setting up the wine business in the last three years." Now that the business has pretty much stabilised, Adil is planning to spend a few months during the harvest season at a principal's vineyard and attend wine courses.
Will the Mehra family take Global to the top? With Brindco comfortably ahead, it is not likely to happen soon, believes Mukul. But he is very satisfied with the progress they have made. So are we. It's thumbs up to Team Mehras!
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