June 05: The split off from the well-established Berkmann Cellars India being run earlier by the Singapore based CEO Dinesh Changela and his MD Farhad Bhabha has resulted in a new import company Vinopolis Wines in Mumbai with the company having plans to get into Retail business as well, writes Subhash Arora who feels it will be good for imports and help increase sales and consumption of foreign wines
A new company was formed on May 20 and registered with Registrar of Companies by Dineshrai Kantilal Changela and Sandra Farhad Bhabha (Wife of Farhad Bhabha) as partners. According to reliable sources, it was possibly due to some non-compete clause for Farhad Bhabha when he put up his papers and left at a short notice of almost one month on April 1.
Farhad neither confirmed nor denied the report. But he also hoped that Antinori would shift their exports through Vinopolis as would producers like Yellow Tail. Our sources indicate that some legal proceedings between Berkmann and Vinopolis are imminent and it will take some time for the dust to settle down.
It might eventually augur well for the wine import business as there are now two importers hungry for business and will hopefully be able to increase their portfolios and the sales increase will result in more wine consumption.
Farhad had earlier indicated to delWine it was unlikely that he would start his own import business when he had resigned. 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 when there was a change in management in the parent company.
Interestingly, Vinopolis was the well-known ‘premier wine tasting experience and visitor attraction’ in London which was inaugurated with much fanfare and as a wine tourism attraction in 1999 but was shut down and liquidated in 2015 due to heavy losses. It would be fair to presume that Dinesh Changela, who used to earlier work with Berkmann Cellars in London and lived there till he moved to Singapore, would have checked for any legal issues relating to the fresh use of the name.
With the newly appointed CEO Jasbir Sachdeva taking charge of the Maldives, India and Sri Lanka operations, day to day working of Berkmann Cellars India will be looked after by Dilip Elayath with 25 years of experience of wine business with Sonarys, Brindco, Ixora and Chenab. While Sachdeva is out of India at the moment, Elayath was not forthcoming with the latest between the two parties and requested us to wait and watch.
For an earlier related Article, please visit:
Wine India Moves: Berkmann Cellars India MD Farhad Bhabha Quits
Subhash Arora
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