All you need to know about Cafe Coffee Day founder VG Siddhartha

The early years

Siddhartha was born in the Chikkamagaluru district of Karnataka. He completed his post-graduation in economics from St. Aloysius College, Mangalore and worked as a management trainee/intern with JM Financial limited in Portfolio Management and Securities Trading. He was just 24 years then.

Bitten by the coffee bug

Siddhartha's family has been in the coffee plantation business for about 140 years. After his internship in Mumbai, Siddhartha returned to Bangalore and bought Sivan Securities, along with a stock market card for Rs 30,000. The money was given to him by his father to open a business of his choice. By 1985, he was the owner of more than 10,000 acres of coffee farms. The money invested in plantations was doubled after the liberalization of coffee trading. He set up the Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company Ltd (ABCTCL) in 1993, a company focused on coffee exports.

Birth of Caf Coffee Day

The first CCD store was opened on Bengaluru's Brigade street in 1996. Cafe Coffee Day was a runaway success as the coffee culture was just picking up. The cafe chain now owns around 1700 cafes, 48000 vending machines, 532 kiosks and 403 ground coffee selling outlets across the country.

The hospitality chain

VG Siddhartha has founded a hospitality chain which runs a seven-star resort Serai and Cicada, in Chikmagalur, Bandipur and Kabini.

The Mindtree deal

Siddhartha sold his 20 per cent equity stake in Mindtree to engineering and construction company Larsen & Toubro Ltd for Rs 3,300 crore in March this year. The Mindtree promoters and chief executive expressed their reservations about the sale. Siddhartha had first invested $8 mn when Mindtree was founded in 1999.

The tax evasion controversy

In September 2017, the coffee owner found himself in the midst of a tax evasion case. A series of raids was conducted by the senior officers of Income Tax department of Goa and Karnataka regions across 20 locations including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Chikmagalur. The search concluded with a detection of undisclosed income of more than Rs 650 crore.