KOCHI: When you are a big business house and more than 100 or 150 years old, it’s natural that your history reads like the history of the land and its people. Kerala, mostly a consumerist state, does not have many corporate houses to boast of and that too with anywhere near at least half of these many years. No wonder, A Time Capsule – 150 Years of Making History, a tome depicting the story of Aspinwall, a plantation and logistics major, is an enriching journey down the memory lane, of a pioneering corporate company in particular and the state of Kerala in general.
Aspinwall & Co Ltd is one of the earliest commercial enterprises on the Malabar coast of south India, established in 1867, by the legendary English trader and visionary, John H Aspinwall.In 1956, the erstwhile Travancore royal family acquired a small interest in the company when it became a public limited company. In the early 70’s, when English owners decided to disinvest, a major portion of the company’s shareholding was taken over by the family, and they continue to hold the controlling stake in the company.
Today, the company has business interests in logistics, specially coffee, natural fibre and rubber. And Aspinwall House, the majestic waterfront property established by the company in the 19th century still stands tall and has been recently in news by being the main venue of Kochi Biennale.
The coffee table book, conceptualised and designed by the Kochi-based branding house Organic BPS, thus does justice to the corporate house. The book also talks of the 1889 inferno that spread along the waterfront of Kochi destroying the premises and stocks of the company. Despite suffering heavy losses, the company rebounded to life like a phoenix and went on to trade in coffee and later moving onto new businesses like rubber plantations, all under subsequent owners.