Whether it was weekend getaways with friends, a first date, or giving your family your first paycheck, Café Coffee Day was the mecca where a few hours turned into unforgettable memories. But when news surfaced of VG Siddhartha, founder of Cafe Coffee Day, India’s largest coffee shop chain, who committed suicide in July 2019, it shocked everyone in the country. He died after diving into the Netravati River near Mangalore. His body was found by the river after a 36-hour search. When Siddhartha arrived at Sakleshpur in his car, he told his driver to stop the car at the bridge and told him to wait for him at the end of the bridge until he arrived. After an hour without showing up, the driver called him but his phone was switched off then he called his eldest son and informed him of his father’s disappearance and then began the search.

After seeing After seeing the culture of coffee in the world, Siddhartha, who greeted the Karnataka, had to open a cafeteria and open the first coffee in 1996 at Brigade Road in Bangalore.

Not creating the right profitable business model

Since his last letter, it was suspected that he had committed suicide due to a debt crisis and loss of business. A typed note was issued by ANI. In the note, Siddhartha appeared to apologize for “failing to create the right profitable business model.” He said the pressure from private equity partners and other lenders and harassment from the income tax department had become unbearable. Yet Siddhartha wrote in his note, “It was never my intention to deceive or mislead anyone, I failed as an entrepreneur.

Malavika Hegde took over as CEO of CDEL

Many believed that the Coffee Day society would not survive after Siddhartha’s death and questions abounded as to who would continue to run the society after him. People believed that the company could not recover due to accumulated debt. But Malavika Hegde, wife of VG Siddhartha, shattered all suspicion and took a big step in saving CCD from vanishing when she was a single woman and mother of two.

In December 2020, Malavika took over the management of Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd (CDEL). Since that day, he has worked tirelessly for the growth of the company. In 2019, Coffee Day was over Rs 7,000 crore in debt. It was a huge burden for Malavika who was grieving after losing her husband. But she never gave up.

About Malavika Hegde

Malavika, daughter of former Prime Minister of Karnataka SM Krishna, was born in 1969 in Bangalore, where she completed her education and engineering at Bangalore University. She married VG Siddhartha in 1991 and has two children, Eshaan and Amartya. Prior to becoming CEO of Cafe Coffee Day (CCD), Malavika had previously been a non-CDEL member for many years.

Malavika’s letter to employee’s

According to the Times of India: In a letter to the company’s 25,000 employees in 2020 before becoming the company’s CEO, Hegde wrote that she was committed to the company’s future and assured that the Coffee Day story “was true”. His letter came hours after an investigation revealed that a private entity owned by late founder Siddhartha owed Rs 2,693 crore to the listed entity, Coffee Day Enterprises Limited (CDEL). debt to a manageable level by selling even more investments as I am committed to the future of the business,” he wrote.

Fantastic recovery of the CCD under the management of Malavika Hegde

After Siddhartha’s suicidal death, Malavika Hegde managed to reduce her debt even during the COVID blockade. He previously said the challenges have increased, but “somewhere over the past 12 months my mission has been to preserve Siddhartha’s proud heritage. He left me with a job to do, to adjust each lender to the best of my ability, to grow the business, and to excite and promote our employees. CDEL was in debt of Rs 7,000 crore as of March 31, 2019. But according to CDEL’s statement in August last year, management was working hard to get the company back on track after “” debt reductions. He had mentioned in his annual report that his net debt was Rs 1,731 crore as of March 31, 2021. The report said: “Total loan funds stood at Rs 1,779 crore which includes long term loans of Rs 1,263 crore and short term loans of Rs 516 crore. ”The group reduced the debt to Rs 3,100 crore as of March 31, 2020, against Rs 7,200 crore in March 2019, without a single denomination of rupees from the lenders. As a result of the Malavika initiative, Coffee Day’s debt burden has been reduced to Rs 1,731 crore by 2021.It is a great success. Malavika’s goal is to grow CCD into a multi-billion dollar business without the burden of debt. Following in the footsteps of her late husband, Malavika’s dream became to move cafes to every corner of the country.

CCD managed to grow even during Covid-19

Since COVID19 hit the world, many businesses have been shut down. But Cafe Coffee Day has also managed to grow during the pandemic. This was all possible thanks to the new CEO, Malavika of CCD, who maintains the brand value and builds relationships with many new investors to inject capital into their business and is able to convince investors that it was worthwhile to preserve the CCD brand. Various measures have been implemented taking into account COVID safety protocols across the entire coffee chain. This helped bring customers, who have always found a place for CCD in their hearts, back to cafes. When many business tycoons fled abroad, she decided to run the business and made sure to rebuild it. A tribute to his courage and determination.

Serving coffee across the country

Currently, Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) has 572 coffee shops across the country, as well as 333 CCD Value Express kiosks. It’s a huge business with over 36,000 vending machines serving coffee to CCD customers. Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) contributed 47% of consolidated net sales. The logistics activity accounted for 45% of turnover, while the remaining 8% came from logistics.