Even as the Cobra Beer takeover leaves creditors crying over losses, founder Lord Bilimoria says in his just published book that it is...
Even as the Cobra Beer takeover leaves creditors crying over losses, founder Lord Bilimoria says in his just published book that it is...
Lord Bilimoria, whose UK-based Cobra Beer went into administration UK last month leaving creditors crying worth losses of u00c2u00a375 million (Rs 585.59 crore) have just published a book Against The Grain, offering tips on how to be a successful entrepreneur.
"For many fast-growing companies, maintaining adequate cash flow is a perennial issue," Bilimoria wrote a few months before his company ran into major problems before being taken over by US brewer Molson Coors.
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A man and his beer: Lord Bilimoria had founded the company 20 years ago |
In his book, Bilimoria says people invested their children's school fees in his fledgling company.
"The individuals who bought ordinary shares back in the early 90s have done very well out of their investment," he writes.
"The company at the time was valued at u00c2u00a31.5 million (Rs 11.71 crore)." Today Cobra, in equity could be valued at approaching 100 times this.
But the company that Bilimoria founded 20 years ago never recorded a profit and lost u00c2u00a315.9 million (Rs 124.14 crore) in 2008 because of its strategy of putting brand growth before profits even though cash flow was a problem.
Apart from causing shareholders to be wiped out and leaving creditors with millions of pounds in unpaid debts, Cobra, funded in its early days by Government start-up loans, even left millions of pounds owing in tax.
According to an unsecured creditor, "Feelings are running very high. Its business model was to own nothing except the brand it didn't even brew its own beer.
Bilimoria's new book is said to be a rehash of an earlier title Bottled for Business, published in 2007.
The new effort includes a new, final chapter on selling the business. Bilimoria concludes, "Of course, it will not be the end of the journey for Cobra Beer, or for me, but merely the beginning of a new adventure."
(With inputs from Mail on Sunday)
