Shruti Shibulal, daughter of Infosys co-founder S D Shibulal, checks into hotel business

BANGALORE: Shruti Shibulal, one of India's gen-next entrepreneurs and daughter of Infosys co-founder and CEO S D Shibulal, has launched a 30-room boutique resort property in Coorg.

Named The Tamara Coorg — Tamara means lotus in Malayalam and Tamil — the resort is within a 170-acre coffee plantation in the Western Ghats. The property has a built-up area of 90,000 sq ft and is in the process of being expanded to house 26 additional rooms.

Shruti had acquired the coffee plantation in Madikeri taluk in 2006, and later set up a company called Tamara Real Estate Holdings, the parent company for the boutique resort brand The Tamara.


Shruti has been focused on the hospitality space. In 2008, Shruti, along with well-known chef Abhijit Saha, founded Avant Garde Hospitality (AGH), a company that has interests in restaurants, catering, and food and beverage consulting. AGH operates two premium fine dining properties in Bangalore — Caperberry and Fava.

"One of my current projects, The Tamara Coorg, was soft launched earlier this year. The Tamara is a company I support to promote hospitality projects," said Shruti in an e-mail interaction with TOI, but didn't divulge any investment details or share future expansion plans.

As of March 2012, Shruti held a 0.64% stake in Infosys. At the current market price, her stake in the company is worth about Rs 920 crore. In the just-concluded financial year, she took home Rs 17.25 crore as tax free dividend income from Infosys.

"I recently completed my MBA at Columbia Business School and will be returning to India in a few months. I look forward to taking an active role in The Tamara at that time," she said. Shruti has been in the US for the last two years.

The room tariffs, as per the resort's website, range from Rs 16,000 to Rs 18,000 per night, which is inclusive of all meals. The 'home stay' concept has primarily driven the tourism traffic in Coorg, but now many boutique hotels are setting up shop, including established hospitality players such as the Taj.

"The hospitality sector's biggest draw is that it has a lot of scope for improvement and at the same time it offers gross margins of 30% to 40% if your get the product right," says Rashmi Upadhya, associate director for strategy in consulting firm PwC India.

Upadhya said the entry barriers into the hospitality and food and beverage sector is not as high compared to other service-oriented businesses. "And even before entering the sector, the entrepreneur as a consumer would have understood what works and what doesn't," she said.