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Founder Story |
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Born in 1931, in
a small town in Gujarat, Mr. M. K Shah, had cultivated from a
very young age an aggressive personality. At the age of 20,
Mr. Shah migrated to Kolkata, and found a job in a small
private Tea broking firm.
As he started to understand the nitty-gritty of tea broking,
he became immensely popular amongst his firm’s clients. Soon,
he decided to establish himself as a private broker, and
become self employed. His dedication towards his work and his
honesty in doing business did not go unnoticed, and soon his
firm had some of the biggest agency houses under its belt.
Mr. Shah, even during those times understood the importance
and profitability of retail business, i.e. reaching the
ultimate consumer. Thus, when he had accumulated sufficient
capital, he opened up a retail outlet at Bagri Market in
Kolkata, and started selling blended teas. All this while, his
private broking business continued to thrive alongside.
Mr. Shah got one of the biggest breaks of his life when he
landed up with a fantastic order with one of the then biggest
FMCG companies in Poland. Those were troubled times for the
polish economy and the polish government was in desperate need
of funds. Taking advantage of this, a few international cash
rich companies, set shop in Poland and started supplying
consumer commodities to the polish populace. The polish
government in turn would pay them in kind, i.e. other
domestically produced commodities.
Mr. Shah saw the potential in this type of a set up and
quickly understood his company’s role in it. He launched the
first ever brand under the banner of “MK”, the “MK” Supreme,
and started supplying his teas on a credit basis to the
companies based in Poland.
It turned out that a major part of the commodity imports
especially tea was being diverted to Russia from Poland.
Russia, being a much bigger market than Poland, with a larger
population, soon became the preferred choice of the Indian Tea
exporter. Mr. M. K Shah was amongst the first Indian Tea
exporters to enter the Russian market.
He set up office at Moscow, and started importing packed tea
from his establishment at Kolkata. In a very short time, his
CTC brands of MK Supreme and Classique and the orthodox
variant of MK Rajah, became to be known as household brands.
As the export business began to thrive, Mr. Shah now
concentrated his efforts on backward integration, by becoming
a tea producer himself. In 1990, he acquired the Nangdala tea
estate in the Dooars region, and started making good quality
CTC teas, which he would use in his own brands at Russia.
Again in 1999, Shah acquired the prestigious gardens of
Koilamari Tea Estate from the esteemed Jokai group. However he
did not stop there. In 2001, he struck another deal, this time
with M/s Williamson Magors and he took over the world renowned
gardens of Gingia, Seajuli and Majhulighur.
In may ‘2005 Mr. Shah acquired “Rossell Industries” from M/s
Hindustan Levers, along with which came the seven prestigious
tea estates of Panitola, Bokel, Nalani, Hattialli, Muttuck,
Daisajan and Singlijan, all belonging to the erstwhile Jokai
group.
Under the leadership of Mr. Mukundray K. Shah, the company has
now become the proud owner of twelve premium quality tea
gardens, producing on an average of over 11 million kgs of
quality tea with its full fledged export operations in the
markets of Dubai, Iran and the EU.
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News &
Happenings |
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Launch of the "MK" Metal Caddy
line.
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Capacity Expansion of St.
Petersberg Plant, Russia.
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Launch of New Brands.
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Modernization Programe.
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Acquisition of the Jokai
Group.
read more |
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