New Delhi: Call it an irony of fate or a tale of coincidence, this Indian entrepreneur’s journey to London and founding the East India Company is nothing short of an extraordinary tale.
Who is Sanjeev Mehta who bought East India Company?
Sanjeev Mehta was born in October 1961 in a Gujarati family. He had an association with the West since birth. Mehta’s grandfather Gafurchand Mehta had established a diamond trading business in Belgium in the 1920s. However, eventually the family had to return to India. Sanjeev Mehta completed his school and college education in India. He studied at Sydenham College, Mumbai and is an alumnus of the prestigious IIM Ahmedabad. Mehta also holds a degree from the Gemological Institute of America in Los Angeles.
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In the 1980s, Mehta moved to London and started his own export business. He found huge success with his venture Huggy Hot Water Bottle, which he later sold for £80,000 – a capital amount he later used to fund his other businesses. By 1989, Mehta had ventured into Warsaw, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Azerbaijan and Yugoslavia, expanding his business. He attracted large companies such as Unilever and Nestlé to provide supplies.
Buying the East India Company, A Tale of Good Luck
In 2003, an attempt was made to revive the East India Company as a company selling tea and coffee by a group of shareholders owned by it. For many years the East India Company lay dormant, stuck in memory and history books. Mehta became the sole owner of the East India Company in 2005 after an 18-month-long buyout.
East India Company, a trading company with 400 years of history, whose main attraction was to rule India as a ‘jewel in the crown’.
The Company was founded in 1600 by Elizabeth I, but was dissolved on 1 January 1874, after its powers were transferred to the Crown by the Government of India Act. East India Company (EIC) is one of the most recognized brands in the world. It once employed a third of the British workforce and was responsible for 50 percent of global trade.
With the takeover of the East India Company, history had come full circle.
East India Company and Anand Mahindra Connection
In 2011, the Mahindra Group acquired a minority stake in East India Company, a global luxury brand owned by Indian-origin entrepreneur Sanjiv Mehta, who relaunched the company in London in August 2010.