Cafe Coffee Day founder VG Siddhartha's father passes away

Coffee baron VG Siddhartha. Pic/AFP

On Sunday, Cafe Coffee Day founder, late VG Siddhartha's father Gangaiah Hegde passed away at Shanthaveri Gopala Gowda hospital due to prolonged illness. According to the relatives of the deceased, the cremation will take place in Chikmagalur on Monday, reports news agency ANI. Hegde passed away nearly a month after his son coffee baron VG Siddhartha's demise.

Chairman and managing director of the Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) group, VG Siddhartha was found dead on the morning of July 31, 2019. His body was recovered from the Netravati river after 36 hours of an intense search operation. He was cremated on the same day.

Also Read: Cafe Coffee Day founder V G Siddhartha's body found in Netravati river

VG Siddhartha had gone missing since the night of July 29, 2019, and was suspected to have committed suicide by jumping off the bridge into the Netravathi river near Karnataka's Mangaluru coast. Staying true to the family's coffee-related heritage of over 130 years, reports say that Gangaiah Hegde started out as a coffee planter at an estate in the Chikmagalur district of Karnataka, reports news agency ANI.

Coffee baron VG Siddhartha was the son-in-law of senior BJP leader, S.M. Krishna, who previously served as the Chief Minister of Karnataka and was Minister of External Affairs in the UPA-2 government. His last rites were performed by his eldest son Amartya, who lit the pyre to the body. Siddhartha's body was cremated at a designated spot in the coffee estate in his native village. The last rites took place according to the Vokkaliga community traditions.

In 1993, VG Siddhartha launched Cafe Coffee Day and created a global brand even before Starbucks forayed into India. He expanding his business into a retail chain that increased the consumption of coffee in a variety of flavours and brews through around 1,752 outlets, 31,000 vending machines, and 12,000 corporate accounts.

The late, VG Siddhartha had a post-graduate (MCA) in computers from the Mangalore University and a graduate in arts from Mysore University. VG Siddhartha is survived by his wife Malavika and his 2 children, his mother and his in-laws.

Also Read: Body of Cafe Coffee Day founder V G Siddhartha found: Entrepreneurs express condolences on Twitter

With inputs from ANI

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