The 'Nut King' of Kollam (Kerala),now in Rotterdam-Rajamohan Pillai
Rajmohan Pillai revamps family business -- Chooses Rotterdam as base
Badal Sanyal
CALCUTTA, Nov. 14 (bl)
FOLLOWING the footsteps of his elder brother, the late Rajan Pillai, Mr. J. Rajmohan Pillai has quietly reorganised his family business. The 36 year-old Mr. Rajmohan is now making strategic moves to reach a height in business his elder brother had achieved at an early age.
While Rajan began the process of building his business empire from Singapore, Mr. Rajmohan has selected Rotterdam as his base. He has already obtained NRI status and established Beta Brands BV, Rotterdam as his flagship company which will globally market his own products as also a large basket of cross-national products.
The Rotterdam-based outfit is a part of the BETA Group which was founded by his elder brother. The group includes, among other companies, Beta Foods, Beta Cashews & Allied Products, Beta Corporate Services and Beta Pace CFS (in India), Beta Lanka (in Colombo). This apart, Beta Brands BV has opened trading, marketing and distribution outfits in France and Spain.
It is learnt from Beta Group sources that Thai Agri Food Ltd, about 61 per cent of whose equity was acquired by an investor group led by Rajan, was handed over to Rajan's wife, Gopika, a couple of months ago. Thai Agri Food, the largest listed food company on the Bangkok stock exchange, posted a profit of Baht 198.66 millions in 1998 as against the loss of Baht 49.6 millions in 1996. Available information suggests that Ms. Pillai has decided to sell her equity stake in Thai Agri.
When contacted, Mr. Rajmohan, chairman of the Beta Group, told Business Line from his Kollam office that all businesses so far owned and controlled by his father, Mr. K. Janardhanan Pillai, would henceforth be looked after by the Beta Group, which he claimed has strong fundamentals and employs more than 5,000 workers. In reply to a question, he said that the group's business priorities would remain food products such as cashew, almond, pistachio, biscuit and edible nut/liquor.
Beta Foods manufactures and processes at its modern factories in South India value-added nuts, snacks and soft drinks under the brand names _ `Nut King' and `Ole'. The Nut King product range includes salted and roasted cashew nuts, mecacadamia, almonds, pistachios and ready-to-serve snacks for all occasions.
Beta Cashews, along with the processing job, exports cashew kernels to world markets through a wide network of business associates and through its open distribution system.
The Kochi-based Beta Space, with experience in handling a wide range of commodities and industrial products, offers 24 hour services for receiving, packing and unpacking of containers. On a three acre plot, the company has developed facilities to handle oversize, over weight packages and unitised cargo.
Beta Lanka trades in various branded commodities. It does advertising and promotion services through a subsidiary, Axis Lanka. Citadel Dynamics, also a subsidiary of Beta Lanka, provides turnkey support to infrastructure and major development projects. The Sri Lankan company is also engaged in film location services, cargo/passenger charter services and cable TV business.
Beta Brands BV markets cashew kernels and value-added consumer packs of cashew, pistachios and almonds in France, Spain and The Netherlands, under the brand `Nut King'. |
