BANGALORE: Beginning with silk in 1906, Khodays has now diversified. It is a name borne by a wide range of products from liquor, engineering, travels and biotech to construction, power and IT. L Srihari Khoday, managing director of Khoday Group of Industries speaks with Vyas Sivanand from City Express about the company and his plans for the future.
Apart from your flagship business of liquor, you have diversified into many other businesses. What is the state of the call center and the power projects that you had ventured?
We were running a call center before but for some reason it did not take off. So we converted it into a commerce centre. We are now working with A&L Associati Consulting which is a well-established professional consulting service based in Italy. A&ELLE Associati is the official representative and partner of Khodays Commerce Centre in Italy.
As for the foray into power, we have a hydel project of about nine MW, out of which two are working and three others will start within four to five months. We have got some hydel project offers in Kyrgyzstan and we are toying with the idea.
How is your liquor business faring?
We were facing some setbacks in the liquor business, but I am sure that in this quarter we will make profits. We are planning to launch a premium whiskey -- Peter Scot Premium — in another two months. It will be one of the expensive whiskeys in the Indian market and will cost about `1,000 a bottle.
You had handed over marketing, distribution and manufacturing rights of your brands to a strategic ally. What is the state of the association?
It was a bad patch of our life. The association did not gel and we parted ways. We are on our own now and it (work) is definitely better.
Which other business are you looking to diversify?
We have plans to enter the business of constructing commercial complexes.
Few years ago, you had kept `1,000 crore aside for acquisitions and expansion. What is the current status?
Acquisitions take a long time. So many ideas are coming in. But in India, we have be very careful in business. We will move cautiously.