Taking it one peg at a time

This liquor baron applies lessons of patience and persistence he learnt from swimming to his business

Neelakanta Rao Jagdale (62) Managing Director, Amrut Distilleries
When cricketer Rahul Dravid announced his retirement in 2012, he made a point to invite Neelakanta Rao Jagdale, the Managing Director of Amrut Distilleries. Jagdale was instrumental in providing Dravid with a special sports drink that helped replenish the body fluids he lost with profuse sweating. The drink — Carbo Plus — still used by the Indian cricket team and scores of Indian athletes, is manufactured by Search Foundation, a collaboration of Amrut Distilleries.

With a career of over four decades, Jagdale is among the city’s most reputed businessmen. In 2010, acclaimed whisky writer Jim Murray rated Amrut Fusion, the single malt made by Amrut Distilleries, as the third finest whisky in the world. It continues to figure among the world’s top 10 whiskeys.
But success didn’t come easy. In 1976, four years after he joined the business, the untimely death of his father Radhakrishna N Jagdale meant he had to take over the reins at just 24. “There was tremendous responsibility on me. I had to get on with it,” he says. Thankfully, swimming, which he got associated with 10 years later, gave him the discipline and focus he needed to take the brand to the next level.
It began as a way to help his son Rakshit and his compatriots get better training facilities in 1987. He went on to become president of the state swimming association, which has gained a reputation as the best in the country. Jagdale credits his success to the lessons the sport taught him. “Be persistent, be patient and wait for your turn to reach the top.”
The turning point for Amrut Distilleries came in 2004, when Rakshit, who was pursuing his Masters in Business Management at the University of Newcastle was asked to submit a dissertation. Jagdale suggested he research the scope of Indian-made single malt in the UK market, specifically in Scotland and Edinburgh.
“The biggest challenge for us SMEs was post globalisation (1990s), when the markets opened up for foreign liquor. I saw the project report Rakshit submitted, and saw an opportunity. That’s when we thought of taking the brand overseas,” he explains.
That meant extensive travel and tapping the right market. But Jagdale had to swallow a bitter pill — the 10,000-odd Indian restaurants spread across UK were not open to an Indian make. Ironic, considering Amrut Fusion was being accepted as a fine product among the English population and made a place for itself against the likes of The Macllan and Highland Park.
Jagdale is a huge believer in having systems in place. For almost 18 years, he has religiously been carrying a detailed time-schedule in his pocket every day. “We have named it the time control tool (TCT) and it’s got everything I need to do from 5.30 am onwards.” It’s been 66 years since Amrut Distilleries was launched “and it’s taken us this long to earn top ranking in the world,” he says. So when someone asks him when his team at the Basavanagudi Aquatics Centre will produce an Olympic medalist in swimming, he believes he has the right process/team in place for the quest.