On Wednesday morning, the Coffee Day Enterprises founder was found dead by the fishermen in Hoige Bazaar in Mangalore. Four days before the news, he had left a heart-wrenching letter for his CCD family on Saturday.
Few excerpts from his letter: "I would like to say I gave it my all. I am verry sorry to let down all the people that put their trust in me. I fought a long time, but now I give up as I couldnt take any more pressure... I am solely responsibile for all mistakes. Every financial transaction is my responsibility. My team, auditors and senior management are totally unaware of all my transactions. The law should hold me and only me accountable, as I have withheld this information from everybody including my family. My intentions was never to cheat or mislead anybody. I have failed as an entrepreneur. This is my sincere submittion, I hope someday you will understand, forgive and pardon me."
The 60-year-old businessman always stayed outside the business circles, and was mostly inaccessible. For the longest time, people didn't know how the low-profile and camera-shy first generation looked.
Here's a timeline of Siddhartha's life on how the events unfurled.
1960
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VG Siddhartha’s association with coffee began right since his birth, around 1960. He was born to a coffee plantation owner in Chikkamagalur, a Karnataka town popular for its sprawling hills covered by coffee estates.
A young VG Siddhartha with his mother Vaasanthi G Hegde. 1980s The economics student had made his ambition known to his family — that he will be super rich someday.
1983 He finishes his Masters degree, and soon gets his first job at JM Financial Ltd, a Mumbai-based investment banking firm, where he held the position of a management trainee.
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1984 A year later, Siddhartha returns to Bengaluru and bought an investment banking and brokering firm, Sivan Securities. Later, names the firm - Way2wealth Securities Ltd - in 2000.
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Early 1990s Siddhartha marries Malavika Krishna, the elder daughter of Congress politician SM Krishna, who later would go on to become the Union Minister of External Affairs and Chief Minister of Karnataka.
1992 Still in his early 30s, Siddhartha starts the company which would go on to become the largest coffee empire in India. Café Coffee Day began as Amalgamated Bean Company Trading.
1996 The first Café Coffee Day outlet launches at Brigade Road in Bengaluru, followed by many across India. Outlets were also opened abroad.
1999 Siddhartha buys 6.6% stake in IT startup Mindree for Rs 44 crore.
2003 CCD outlet at Lavelle Road becomes India’s first Wi-Fi hotspot.
Residence of VG Siddhartha at Sadashiv Nagar in Bengaluru. 2007 Enters real estate sector and started Tanglin Retail Realty Developments.
2010 Enters the logistics space with Tanglin buying a 10% stake in Sical Logistics.
2011 Siddhartha brings about 1.85 million hectares of Amazon forestland in South America on lease to source timber to start a furniture business.
2014 Makes it to 2014 Forbes India's Richest list, but drops off the list in the following year.
2015 Secures 1605th position on the Forbes Billionaires list. Drops off the list in 2016 as well.
2017 I-T department carries out raids at around 20 properties linked to Siddhartha at Bengaluru, Chikkamagaluru, Mumbai and Chennai. According to sources, these raids shattered Siddhartha. Then, he was tending to his 94-year-old father who was in frail health.
In 1996, VG Siddhartha opened his first Café Coffee Day outlet at Brigade Road in Bengaluru. 2019 (27 July) Siddhartha writes to his employees and board of directors, apologising for failing as an entrepreneur. His letter spoke about the financial pressure he's been going through.
2019 (29 July) Siddhartha went missing on Monday morning, and kept changing his destination from Chikkamangaluru to Hassan to Sakleshpur and finally Mangalore. On reaching a bridge over the Netravati river in the Kotepura area in Dakshina Kannada district, he got down from the car and told his driver that he was going for a walk.
2019 (30 July) More than 200 policemen and divers on about 25 boats were carrying out searches for him in a place where Siddhartha was reported missing, a two to three kilometre-stretch from the sea.
2019 (31 July) Siddhartha was found dead by a fisherman in Hoige Bazaar (Mangalore), by the sea shore, at around 6.30 am.
(Inputs by ET Bureau's Tushar Kaushik & Bhanutej N)
Remembering VG Siddhartha, The Man Who Introduced Coffee Culture In India
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The disappearance and demise of Café Coffee Day owner VG Siddhartha left the country in shock. On Saturday, the coffee tycoon wrote a letter addressed to his 'Coffee Day' family where he apologised to them for failing as an entrepreneur and opened up about the pressure he had been dealing with. On Monday he went missing from Mangaluru, and 36 hours later his body was recovered by the fishermen in the city's Hoige Bazaar.
The tragic episode saw tributes pour in for the billionaire businessman, whose 'A lot can happen over a coffee' idea brought enthusiasts closer and sparked the trend of coffee dates in India.
Despite running a mega empire, the camera-shy 60-year-old tycoon preferred to stay away from the limelight and mostly maintained a low-profile.
The disappearance and demise of Café Coffee Day owner VG Siddhartha left the country in shock. On Saturday, the coffee tycoon wrote a letter addressed to his 'Coffee Day' family where he apologised t..
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Siddhartha was born in 1960 to coffee plantation owner Gangaiah Hegde in Chikkamagalur, Karnataka (his family has been in the coffee business for almost 130 years). Growing up in the district known for its coffee estates, the coffee baron completed his master's degree from Mangalore University.
During the early '90s, as a budding entrepreneur, he tied the knot with Malavika Hegde, the daughter of former Chief Minister of Karnataka, Indian Minister for External Affairs and Governor of Maharashtra, S.M. Krishna. They had two sons, Ishan and Amarthya.
Siddhartha was born in 1960 to coffee plantation owner Gangaiah Hegde in Chikkamagalur, Karnataka (his family has been in the coffee business for almost 130 years). Growing up in the district known f..
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He began his career at the age of 24 as a management trainee with JM Financial Limited in Mumbai, where he worked from 1983 to '84. In the mid '80s, he invested his earnings in the stock market on Chikkamagaluru's coffee plantations, and in 1984, bought an investment banking and brokering firm, Sivan Securities - that was later renamed to Way2Wealth Securities Ltd.
A few years later, using the money given to him by his father as capital, he bought a coffee unit in Hassan, and founded Amalgamated Bean Company Trading in 1993. Two years later, it became India’s largest green coffee exporter. Siddhartha grew coffee, sold and exported tonnes of it, earning millions from the business. The owner of 12,000 acres of coffee plantation, he also had 200 exclusive retail outlets selling his Coffee Day powder all over South India.
In 1996, he set up his first coffee outlet, naming it Café Coffee Day. The first CCD opened its doors at Brigade Road in Bengaluru.
Twenty-three years later, the brand now runs over 1700 outlets, making CCD the country's largest retail coffee chain. It also operates cafes in Austria, Malaysia, and Egypt.
With a burgeoning business to bank on, Siddhartha earned a spot on the 2014 Forbes India's Rich list. However, a year later, he dropped off.
He began his career at the age of 24 as a management trainee with JM Financial Limited in Mumbai, where he worked from 1983 to '84. In the mid '80s, he invested his earnings in the stock market on Ch..
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2017 proved to be the start of a professionally difficult time for Siddhartha, who was then also attending to his 94-year-old father at the time. The coffee tycoon found himself caught in the middle of a tax evasion case. 20 properties owned by him, in Bengaluru, Chennai, Chikkamagaluru and Mumbai, were subjected to a raid by the income tax department.
2017 proved to be the start of a professionally difficult time for Siddhartha, who was then also attending to his 94-year-old father at the time. The coffee tycoon found himself caught in the middle ..
