VG Siddhartha: From Coffee King to death in debt – the tragic end of CCD founder

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Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) founder-chairman VG Siddhartha is no more, as his body was found in Karnataka’s Netravathi river. V G Siddhartha, who went missing, was found on Wednesday in the Netravati river in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka after 36 hours of intense search.

Siddhartha, the founder of India’s largest coffee chain, went missing mysteriously on Monday night en route to the coastal city of Mangaluru. Teams of National Disaster Response Force, Coast Guard, Home Guard, fire services and coastal police scoured the waters under a bridge across the swollen Nethravathi river, where the 60-year old was reportedly last seen, to trace the coffee tycoon.

Siddhartha, also the son-in-law of former Karnataka chief minister and BJP leader S M Krishna, was last seen near the bridge in Kotepura area on Monday night, police said. Siddhartha had left Bengaluru for Sakleshpur in Hassan district in a car on Monday afternoon, but on the way had asked his driver to go towards Mangaluru. On reaching the bridge, he got off the car and told his driver he was going for a walk. A fisherman had on Tuesday claimed that he saw someone jumping off the bridge.

So who was VG Siddhartha?

VG Siddhartha was the owner and founder of popular coffee chain Cafe Coffee Day (CCD). Born to a family of coffee planters in Karnataka’s Chikmagalur, Siddhartha set up India’s first coffee chain CCD in Bengaluru in the year 1996. He was married to former Karnataka Chief Minister SM Krishna’s first daughter Malavika. The couple have two sons.

Born in Malenadu region of Karnataka’s Chikkamagaluru district, Siddhartha got his master’s degree in Economics from Mangalore University. He started investing in the stock market and went on to join JM Financial Limited in 1983-84 in Mumbai as a management trainee. He was 24 years old at that time. After working for two years with JM Financial Ltd, he returned to Bangalore where his father gave him money to start a business of his choice. Siddhartha bought a stock market card for an amount of Rs 30,000 and a company called Sivan Securities. The company’s name was changed to Way2wealth Securities Ltd in the year 2000.

Siddhartha became a full-time investor in the stock market and also owned 10,000 acres of coffee farms by 1985. His wealth doubled with the liberalisation of coffee trading in the 1990s. He then floated Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company Ltd (ABCTCL) in the year 1993. This company focused on coffee exports and became the second-largest exporter from India. ABCTCL is now known as Coffee Day Global. Siddhartha opened the first CCD store in 1996 at Bangalore’s busy Brigade Road. A cup of coffee and an hour of internet surfing used to cost Rs 100 at that time.

What we know so far about the suicide?

Cafe Coffee Day founder VG Siddhartha got off his car on a bridge over Netravati river near Mangaluru on Monday night and asked his driver to wait at the other end of the bridge. Basavaraj Patil, the businessman’s driver for three years did exactly so. Siddhartha never returned to his driver, even after an hour. “At 8 pm I called him but his phone was switched off. Then I called up his son, who also tried calling him. I later filed a complaint after we couldn’t trace him”, the driver said.

A search operation launched by police is underway and dog squad and inflatable boats have been deployed in the search.

“We used the dog squad and it stopped at the middle of the bridge. We are taking help of the local fisherman to search in the river. Everyone that he had spoken last is being contacted for relevant information”, the police commissioner said.

Hinting at huge stress Siddhartha in his last letter told his staff: “I failed to create the right profitable business model despite my best efforts. Faced financial pressure from lenders, borrowed money. I never intended to cheat anyone.”

Taking responsibility for all the transactions of the company, Siddhartha stated that the company’s assets outweigh its liabilities and can help repay everybody. Trying to shield everyone associated with the company, he wrote that the law should only hold him responsible as he had withheld the state of company’s finances from everybody including his family.

On Tuesday, July 30, a fisherman had claimed to have seen a man jumping into the Netravathi river from the same bridge, almost 24 hours after his driver raised an alarm about the missing businessman. Two days prior to his disappearance, the coffee baron had left behind a note to his employees that revealed he was in deep debt. The mountain of debt was impairing his business as working capital requirements could not be met. It led him to sale his stakes in IT firm Mindtree that gave him some room to manoeuvre.

On Wednesday, July 31, Siddhartha’s body was found in Karnataka’s Netravathi river. “Two fishermen found Siddhartha’s body early this morning about 500 metres away from the road bridge from where he alleged to have jumped into the river on Monday night, a Mangaluru Police Commissioner Sandeep Patil told reporters here. The port city of Mangaluru is about 360km west of Bengaluru. The body was found by the fishermen near Hoige Bazar in trousers but without shirt. The 36-hour long massive search in the river had continued over the last two night which led to the spot where the body surfaced and seen by the two fishermen.