April 06: After setting up the office for the then newly formed company Berkmann Cellars India in November 2007 after leaving Sonarys and exactly 9 years after acquiring the prestigious Antinori portfolio, Farhad Bhabha the MD has quit with effect from April 1, with the newly appointed CEO Jasbir Sachdeva for the Maldives, India and Malaysia operations taking charge, writes Subhash Arora
While chatting with Farhad last month to invite him for the second edition of delWine Summit & Excellence Awards at Pullman Aerocity, he confided in confidence that he had resigned from his job as the MD and would perhaps be relinquished from his post from April 1 but requested me not to publish the news till then; delWine publishes such moves at senior levels to keep the national and international readers informed. He did not give any reasons for the decision and said it was personal but obviously he has not been too happy about it. Berkmann has been his baby after all, since November, 2007 when he left his job with Sonarys and nurtured the company with a consistent increase in sales and profit, reporting to Dinesh Changela in Singapore till December 2018 till there was a change in management in the parent company.
He has built the company to a very respectable company in Mumbai thought people who have dealt with him in Delhi praise him for his gentlemanliness and despite soft nature; he is an astute business person, taking the company to new heights. It had a sale of around 3000 cases 10 years ago while he has just closed the year with a sale of around 42,000 cases. In terms of value, the increase in sales has been over times- from 1.9 crores to 22 crores for 2018-19.
The decision has apparently something to do with the management change in the parent company in Singapore. Farhad is hesitant to disclose his career goals but for now he is taking a small break.
Antinori divorces Sonarys, marries Berkmann
He pushed the sales of Yellow Tail from around 1200 cases to over 22,000 cases selling them as far as North East. Though the sales in Delhi have been rather insignificant he has been a major player in Mumbai, Goa and North-East.
We wish him the best for his next assignment in the wine industry. It is unlikely that he will start his own import business though.
Subhash Arora
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