Sashi Chimala, CEO, Qwiky's, Jimmy Mistry, MD, Della Tecnica, Vishambhar Saran, Chairman, VISA Group

The new new thing isn't infotech, biotech, or nanotech. In fact, the new new thing isn't actually new; it's just a different name for old-fashioned individual enterprise. It's about the epiphanic process by which some of us hit upon ideas that work. It involves a healthy dose of opportunism, luck, and industry mixed into one compelling brew. And it has everything to do with monotheism, with the ruling deity being Mammon.

The great Indian infotech story of the 1990s turned everyone's focus onto that business. Entrepreneurship became synonymous with efforts in the area of software services. The consequent dotcom boom (and bust), and the ensuing search for the next big thing (biotech, software products, healthcare, bioinfomatics) blinded most people to entrepreneurial initiatives in other sectors. Yet, all through the go-go 1990s and the go-slow 2000s, individual enterprise flourished in sectors as diverse as metals, organised retail, pharmaceuticals, and tobacco.

This is the story of some of these entrepreneurs. A few are traders who jumped onto the manufacturing bandwagon in the 1990s. Several are former salarymen now doing their own thing. And several others are young people who saw an opportunity and clutched at it with both hands. Venture capital funds some; defection capital, others; and family wealth, almost none. The enterprises found by our selection have all made it big in the past five years, and the oldest has its origin in 1993. Most boast a turnover around Rs 50 crore although the list has some biggies that do several times that, and one or two that do significantly less. Enterprise, as the pages that follow will prove beyond a doubt, is alive and well. Welcome to the new new thing.

Kamdhenu's Aggarwal: In the thick of it

Kamdhenu Ispat FOUNDED: 1996 BUSINESS: Steel 2002-03 TURNOVER: Rs 200 crore

PRADEEP AGGARWAL
Steel Satrap

Pradeep Aggarwal is taking his time sipping a banana shake at Pavilion, the coffee shop at Delhi's Maurya Sheraton hotel. That, he admits, is because it has cost him two mid-sized Mahatmas; part of a trading family that has seen its businesses razed to the ground, the 42-year-old insists on getting the biggest bang for his buck.

After his family business of manufacturing agriculture equipment, in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffar Nagar, went bust in the early 1990s, Aggarwal started trading in branded construction steel. Having understood the intricacies of distribution, Aggarwal felt that he could make it really big if he got into manufacturing construction steel. In 1996, with money borrowed from friends and relatives, and all his savings he set up Kamdhenu Ispat with a rolling mill in Bhiwadi in Rajasthan. "I got lucky when demand for galvanised steel bars shot up with a massive relocation of industrial units out of Delhi due to a court order," explains the stocky Aggarwal.

A fair sprinkling of fairy dust came in the form the construction boom in Gurgaon and Noida in the late 1990s. Ever since, Aggarwal has been gobbling up sick steel mills in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh for a song. Today Kamdhenu Ispat's capacity is up to 1.5 lakh tonnes a year. "Mine is a mix of baniyaa and professional business practices," explains Aggarwal in chaste Hindi. "In matters of pricing and expenditure I'm a baniyaa, whereas I leave marketing and production to professionals." We'd like to call that the banana shake theory.

-T.R. Vivek

Base's Arore: Dropout to battery king (well, almost)

Base Systems FOUNDED: 1997 BUSINESS: Batteries 2002-03 TURNOVER: Rs 62 crore

GIRISH ARORA
Modern Day Alchemist

Don't look for a cause-effect relationship in it, but the son of a teacher couple, Girish Arora, has a healthy disdain of academics. The Delhi School of Economics dropout has what it takes to scoff at formal education; after dabbling in the scrap paper, empty cement bags, and electronics components businesses, Arora has finally made it big in the batteries business (lead-acid to gold, ergo alchemist; see?). Base Systems boasts a network of 216 'Base Terminals' across the country that sell automotive batteries-an eponymous brand at the entry level and co-branded Panasonic, Varta, Best & Best, and Yuasa batteries at other price points-and ups systems. Arora's decision to shun the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) market ("lower margins," he shrugs) and some geographies like Maharashtra and West Bengal do pose some constraints on growth, but Base still expects to do over Rs 100 crore in sales this year. That's cause, claims Arora, to consider a manufacturing facility, focus on reach, and aggressively take on market leader Exide. "I have always dreamt big," laughs Arora. "You think small, you achieve small."

-Venkatesha Babu

Qwiky's Chimala: Just a typo separates coffer and coffee

Qwiky's FOUNDED: 2000 BUSINESS: Coffee chain-plus 2002-03 TURNOVER: Rs 6 crore

SASHI CHIMALA
Mr Bean

In hindsight, everything was wrong with Sashi Chimala's decision to launch Qwiky's, a chain of coffee bars. First off, he was 45, not exactly the right age to start all over again. Then, there was the minor fact of the timing: the year was 2000, and Chimala was the co-promoter of a successful tech company, Indigo Technologies (earlier, he had helped friend Raj Vattikutti build a company called Complete Business Solutions, today's Covansys). Finally, there was the choice of market, Chennai, the bastion of coffee drinkers. And so, Chimala's Chimayo Chains, started vending coffee for Rs 30 and Rs 60 in a market where it was otherwise available for Rs 5 (And that's on the higher side, saar!). "If I was aware of South Indian nuances, I probably wouldn't have started the venture," admits Chimala. But he did, and it clicked. Today, there are 22 Qwiky's outlets across five cities (eight in Chennai alone), the chain has an arrangement with retail major Lifestyle for in-shop bars, it has spread its wings to Sri Lanka and is looking to do so in Dubai, and Chimala is eyeing revenues of Rs 100 crore by 2007. The mechanical engineer who was reasonably well-known as a cartoonist in his college days has also parlayed the learnings from his Qwiky's experience into a revenue stream; a new company, Chimayo Chains BPO Limited offers consulting services to other companies that wish to enter the food retailing business in India. That's truly opportunistic.

-Nitya Varadarajan

Medicom's Govind: Another Wiproite turned successful businessman

Medicom FOUNDED: 1993 BUSINESS: Software Products 2002-03 TURNOVER: Rs 30 crore

S. GOVIND
Aseptic Success

The world's largest public sector hospital, the 3,500-bed Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Johannesburg runs on an it backbone developed by a relatively unknown Indian software product firm, Bangalore-based Medicom. Founded in 1993 by S. Govind, a Wipro employee-notch another one up for the company that seems to produce an unending list of entrepreneurs-who left to work in West Asia and two others, the company's eponymous software suite for hospitals has met with significant success in West Asia and Africa (which by itself makes the company unique in the IT space). "We are aware that we are in a niche," says the 44-year-old IIT Kharagpur alum. "But we want to compete with the world's best and take them on."

Next target: the much tougher European and American markets. "We will try and grow organically, but if a suitable acquisition presents itself, we will be ready to acquire it at the right price," says Govind.

-Venkatesha Babu

Pataka's Hoosain: Actually, there are 502 reasons why he's here

Pataka Group FOUNDED: 1996 BUSINESS: Beedis, Spun Silk, Tea 2002-03 TURNOVER: Rs 450 crore

MUSTAK HOOSAIN
On a Roll

In one of life's delicious ironies, the man who owns India's largest-selling beedi brand, 502 Pataka, smokes only India Kings cigarettes. That apart, everything about 48-year-old Mustak Hoosain's looks spells ordinary: He is of medium-height and prefers safari suits in light colours. Born into a wealthy family in the Murshidabad district of West Bengal, Hoosain entered the beedi business as a middleman, helping some of the 1.5 million families in the region engaged in rolling beedis find a market. But he had visions of organising the trade and in 1996 founded the Pataka group. Today, the group employs over 1,50,000 and Hoosain has leveraged elements of his original business model to enter other businesses. Murshidabad is a sericulture centre and the Pataka Group has set up a spun silk manufacturing unit. And the 1.3 million strong distribution network for the beedis also pushes 502 Pataka Chai. Next step: fruit and vegetable exports. Hoosain travels 20 days a month, building the brand. Why, even the phone numbers of all group offices end with 502.

-Debojyoti Chatterjee

Kaleesuwari's Swamy: There's no money like oil money

Kaleesuwari Refinery FOUNDED: 1996 BUSINESS: Edible Oil 2002-03 TURNOVER: Rs 340 crore

G. MUNUSWAMY
TN's own Texan Oil Millionaire

Chances are, you haven't heard of G. Munuswamy, or G.M. Swamy, as the man prefers he be called. Know him then, constant reader, as the man behind the Gold Winner brand of edible oil.

With no education to boast of, Swamy, now 56, came to Chennai as a 14-year-old to work at a grocer's. Seven years later, he branched off on his own and in 1972, diversified into the edible oil trade. In 1991, he acquired a sick oil refinery and moved the machinery to Chennai. Keen to seed the market he bought sunflower oil in bulk, and along with the refinery's produce, started marketing the Gold Winner brand. By 1996, Swamy was convinced he had the model down to a T. Kaleesuwari refineries (named for his wife) was truly born the same year. Today, the refinery produces 9,000 tonnes of sunflower oil and 15,000 tonnes of palm oil a month. Swamy has never been in the public eye before, but he shows no signs of discomfiture during our meeting in his Vengaivasal (a suburb of Chennai) office. He wipes a spot of dust on the window and speaks fondly of his old oil trading outlet-"It shines like a jeweller's shop"-and the 40 acres of agricultural land surrounding the refinery where he grows paddy. Now testing the Mumbai market, Swamy has a simple objective for his brand. ''It must win every time."

-Nitya Varadarajan

Luminus' Malhotra: Black good, Blackout, better

Luminus Inverters FOUNDED: 1996 BUSINESS: Inverters 2002-03 TURNOVER: Rs 100 crore

RAKESH MALHOTRA
Backup Baron

In power-starved Delhi, anyone who says he'd love the city to get blacked out oftener has a good chance of being lynched. Rakesh Malhotra isn't saying that, but nonetheless he will turn up at his bank with a broader smile every time the city goes powerless. That's because he manufactures power inverters.

Luminus Inverters, which he started in 1996, with just Rs 40,000 of his personal savings and a bank loan, today boasts a turnover of nearly Rs 100 crore. Malhotra, now 40 and the son of a conservative Delhi bureaucrat, shocked his family when he quit a rather cozy job in the power electronics division of Siemens as a project engineer. "Back in 1996, making inverters was a cottage business and I saw a great opportunity to sell it as a branded product," he says.

In 2002-03, he sold 1.2 lakh inverters (he also makes voltage stabilisers and ups systems). Luminus has managed to garner a 10 per cent marketshare, making it the market leader in this highly fragmented market. And Malhotra is planning a big push into the western and southern regions of the country. "In the next five years, Luminus has the potential to touch the Rs 500-crore mark," says Malhotra. We hope the country's power sector is listening to him.

-T.R. Vivek

Della's Mistry: Kahn-do attitude

Della Tecnica FOUNDED: 1995 BUSINESS: Interior Design & Projects 2002-03 TURNOVER: Rs 52 crore

JIMMY MISTRY
Designer Success

If one were to look for a leitmotif in 31-year-old Jimmy Mistry's life, it would have to be bikes. After completing a course in mechanical engineering, Mistry sold his "first love", a Yamaha, for all of Rs 18,000 to fund his first venture. By the mid 1990s, he had started importing and selling Italian furniture, but believed that he would be better off adding value. "We wanted to corporatise our business," recollects Mistry, explaining Della Tecnica's transformation into an interior solutions provider in 2000. The move helped: turnover has zoomed from Rs 2 lakh in 1995 to Rs 52 crore today; the number of employees, from six to 500; and clients include Star TV, A.C. Nielsen and Bajaj Allianz. And so, Mistry can afford an office at a 100-year-old colonial style building, a 32,000 sq ft production centre at Daman, and a clutch of fast bikes. But he still misses the Yamaha.

-Dipayan Baishya

TDV's Roy: Now, his cup trully runneth over

Triumph Distillers and Vintners FOUNDED: 2002 BUSINESS: Liquor 2002-03 TURNOVER: Rs 125 crore

DEEPAK ROY
The Professional Entrepreneur

Fifty-two year old Deepak Roy became an entrepreneur in style, buying out the domestic brands of the company he once worked for, Guiness UDV India. He picked up a 15 per cent stake in the business, a consortium of investment banks did the remaining 85 per cent that they eventually placed with a subsidiary of UB that had itself bid unsuccessfully for the brands. Roy, whose stake was funded by his sweat equity in Guiness UDV India, finds himself heading a (Vijay) Mallya Group company that he part owns. The name too, is of his own choosing, Triumph Distillers & Vintners. "I decided to do what no professional manager had ever done in India," says Roy. Today, the Rs 125-crore company (net profit: Rs 12 crore), sells Gilbey's Green Label Whiskey, Gilbey's Old Gold Whiskey, Gilbey's Gold Club Whiskey and Gilbey's White Label Whiskey, has a deal with Polychem to manufacture and market Alcazar Vodka, Men's Club Whiskey, Men's Club Brandy, and Louis XI Delux Brandy, and is considering launching ready-to-drink liquor mixes. "I am restructuring to cash in on synergies with the UB Group," says Roy. The man who had set himself the goal of becoming a CEO by 40-he was one by 39, of Herbertson's-starts all over again as a manager-owner at 52.

-Swati Prasad

Sula's Samant: 1998 was good year

Sula Wines FOUNDED: 1998 BUSINESS: Wine 2002-03 TURNOVER: Rs 6 crore

RAJEEV SAMANT
Going To California

The apex of civilised life is to live between a city flat and a country retreat," smiles 35-year-old Rajeev Samant. That explains the man's decision to chuck up a job with Oracle in the Valley and build a winery in sleepy Nashik. Five years ago, with an initial investment of Rs 5 crore, he launched Sula Vineyards. Cold calls and word of mouth helped, as did a weekly do Samant funded for doctcommers. The boom went bust, but there has been no stopping Sula. From 30 acres then, the company has grapes growing on 100 acres today, a number that should treble by 2005. And Sula's Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, and Zinfandel have put it on the global wine map. As for California, this year Sula will export 7,000 cases of its choicest blend to the state. That's a full circle.

-Abir Pal

JG's Seksaria: Under cover no more

J.G. Hosiery FOUNDED: 1997 BUSINESS: Under-garments 2002-03 TURNOVER: Rs 105 crore

SANDEEP SEKSARIA
The Inside Story

If 28-year-old Sandeep Seksaria had a little less ambition, he would have ended up joining the family business of trading in cotton yarn at Kolkata's Burrabazar, one of the country's largest wholesale trading markets. Instead, the Kenny G and Richard Clayderman fan decided to enter the hosiery business. Today, the Amul brand of undergarments is fairly well-established, and Seksaria has ridden a bad couple of years on the strength of his business model-complete outsourcing and an emphasis on branding. Early in Amul's existence, Seksaria roped in ad guru Alyque Padamsee to help design a communication strategy for the brand. Today, with Amul enjoying salience in non-metro cities and the lower and middle income groups in metros, Seksaria is eyeing the upper income groups. And no, he doesn't plan to brand the high-end offerings Perrier.

-Debojyoti Chatterjee

Indus League's Srinivasan: Definitely Upper crest, sorry, crust

Indus League FOUNDED: 1999 BUSINESS: Apparel 2002-03 TURNOVER: Rs 85-100 crore

SRIRAM SRINIVASAN
The League Of Sleeves

The fact that he launched Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, and Allen Solly during his stint as President of Madura Garments makes Sriram Srinivasan, a 48-year-old IIT Chennai, IIM Calcutta alum unique. But Srinivasan wanted to create a new kind of company. So, in 1999, along with a clutch of former colleagues, he founded Indus League Clothing. "The long-term potential for this business is very healthy," says Srinivasan. "We are confident of becoming a major player." Given his track record, that's a claim few would doubt.

-Venkatesha Babu

VISA's Saran (with wife Saroj): The iron man with a golden touch

VISA Group FOUNDED: 1998 BUSINESS: Metals Trading 2002-03 TURNOVER: Rs 670 crore

VISHAMBHAR SARAN
There's Gold In Iron

In 1994, when Vishambhar Saran opted to retire from TISCO (now Tata Steel), he took most of his colleagues by surprise. After all, the then Director (Raw Materials) looked set for bigger things in the company. But the 56-year-old had other ideas. He wanted to set new standards in international trade. After tinkering around for a few years making the odd deal, he finally formed the visa Group on April 1, 1998. "I did not want to be an indenting agent,'' says Saran. "I wanted to build a true trading house and deal in ferro alloys, and minerals.'' In just five years, the mining engineer from Benares Hindu University has done just that. With offices in London, Zug in Switzerland and Beijing, Saran trades in ferro alloys, alumina, low-ash metallurgical coke and chrome ore and serves customers across Australia, China, Indonesia, and South Africa. Now, the avid golfer and art collector has turned his attention to manufacturing and is building a 50,000 tonne-a-year chrome ore benefication plant and a couple of washeries in Orissa. In TISCO, recollects Saran, he was part of a triumvirate that included B. Muthuraman, then Director (Steel Marketing) and Bhushan Raina, Director (Exports). Today, Muthuraman heads Tata Steel, Raina, Tinplate, and Saran, his own Rs 670-crore enterprise. Some triumvirate that.

-Debojyoti Chatterjee

Subhiksha's Subramanian: Nope, he doesn't drive a pick-up

Subhiksha FOUNDED: 1997 BUSINESS: Discount Store 2002-03 TURNOVER: Rs 365 crore

R. SUBRAMANIAN
Playing It Like Sam

Even in the go-go organised retail business in India, discount chain Subhiksha is an outperformer. It has 136 outlets across Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, proposes to expand to Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, and Maharashtra by the middle of 2005, and is eyeing a turnover of Rs 1,500 crore by then. And lest we forget, the business model followed by the chain allows its stores to achieve a cash breakeven in the first month. Equally striking is the profile of Subhiksha's founder R. Subramanian, a 37-year-old with an IIT, IIM background and the requisite stint at Citibank. He also started a finance company that is still around. By 1996, Subramanian was ready to jump onto the emerging retail bandwagon. Armed with a seed capital of Rs 50 lakh-capital was to swell to Rs 25 crore in two years-he opened the first Subhiksha outlet in Chennai in 1997. The response was staggering. "The public thought the MRP on a pack was sacrosanct," he recollects. "They couldn't believe that a retailer would sell at anything less." Retail is hard work. Subramanian works from half past seven in the morning till 11 at night. But he hasn't tired of it yet.

-Nitya Varadarajan

Shodhana's Thota: Dr Giridhar, Medicine Man!

Shodhana Labs FOUNDED: 2000 BUSINESS: Pharma Products 2002-03 TURNOVER: Rs 8 crore

GIRIDHAR THOTA
Life After The Lab

A technocrat and long-term confidante of Dr Anji Reddy, Dr Giridhar Thota left Dr Reddy's Labs when he realised that his career growth options were limited. The company set him up with a soft loan and Shodhana, a bulk actives and ingredients maker, was on. Initially, all the revenue came from one customer, Dr Reddy's. Today, this is down to 20 per cent and Thota is in the process of filing a European Drug Master File for one of the company's product. Bravo!

-E. Kumar Sharma

SPS' Vohra: Branding helped

SPS Group FOUNDED: 1999 BUSINESS: Steel 2002-03 TURNOVER: Rs 300 crore

BIPIN VOHRA
Success Or Bust

In 1999, Bipin Vohra, now 40, and then Executive Director, at the SPS Group was told he could either find another job or take over and see whether he could turn things around. And so, Vohra inherited a small scarp re-rolling mill that had plenty of debt and some Rs 7 crore in losses (he raised the money from banks). Four years on SPS has profits of Rs 5 crore, four mills in West Bengal, three in Orissa, and the Elegant brand of construction steel. The absence of branded construction steel in the East helped. As did, Vohra admits, "the government's focus on the construction sector." Still, there's no denying that there was a job to do. Vohra did it.

-Debojyoti Chatterjee