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COVER STORY
June 10, 2012
Story

True brew
Shamni Pande | Print Edition: June 10, 2012

When Gujarat Tea Processors and Packers Ltd, best known as the company that sells Wagh
Bakri brand tea, enters a new market, it starts by testing the water - literally - and the milk.
Depending on the results, the tea is customised for the region. For instance, people in
southern Gujarat tend to use creamier milk. So the Wagh Bakri tea there has to blend with the
milk's richness and make its presence, and flavour, felt.

VIDEO:How tea company Wagh Bakri was born

"Most Indians have their tea with milk and sugar. So we test these first and then figure out a
way to offer a brew that eventually would work well with the local palate," says Paras Desai,
a fourth-generation member of the founding family who, as the company's Executive
Director, controls sourcing and operations.

 HE LOW-DOWN Desai's own palate would presumably be numb by the

 The business started as
Gujarat Tea Depot Company
in 1919
 The logo, featuring a tiger
and goat sharing a cup of tea,
stands for harmony and
equality
 It is the country's largest tea
brand outside of the HUL and
Tata fold
time he hits the bed at night, as he goes through the
day tasting up to 500 samples. "As a family we are
passionate about tea and obsessive about getting the
right brew and blend to reach the consumer," he says.
You would expect such dedication from a company
that was set up at the behest of a man whose name is a
synonym for dedication to a cause. Mahatma Gandhi
invited Narandas Desai in 1892 to come to South
Africa, where Gandhi practised law, to tap the tea
market. Desai did go there and acquire a tea estate,
but left for the same reason that drove Gandhi away:
racial discrimination.

MUST READ: How Indian brands are giving stiff challenge to MNCs

He came back with little more than a letter from Gandhi endorsing his credentials as a man
who knew his tea, and set up Gujarat Tea Depot Company in 1919. In 1925 he launched the
Wagh Bakri brand, which, taking off from Gandhi's belief in equality for all, showed a tiger
and a goat drinking tea - yes, tea - from the same cup - yes, cup. Now you get the idea behind
the name, don't you? Wagh is Gujarati for tiger, and bakri is goat.

"It symbolises harmony and shows how tea is a great leveller," says Parag Desai, Paras'
cousin and the executive director in charge of marketing and sales. But you cannot be a
Gujarati businessman and be content with your lot.

A time came when the Desais decided to enter markets outside Gujarat, and take on the big
guys like Hindustan Unilever and Tata, who, between them, control 80 per cent of the
country's tea market.

Wagh Bakri, though, is not to be trifled with. Its buyers swear by its "quality and price", as a
shopper in Ahmedabad puts it. No one can touch it in Gujarat, where over 50 per cent of the
tea consumed is Wagh Bakri. And it sells enough in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra
Pradesh, Mahrashtra, Goa, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka to be the largest
brand in the country outside of the HUL and Tata fold.