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East India Company coming back in business

08 Feb 2010

Sanjiv Mehta, a UK-based buisnessman is in throes of bringing the 400-year old East India Company back in business. According to a report in Times Online, the company plans to open its flagship store in Central London in the mid of this year, with subsequent opening of stores in India and the Middle-East, with concessions in Japanese department stores and franchises in Russia. Conquering the United States will be left to last. The stores will be selling teas, coffee and spices but also chocolates, furniture, leather goods, fabrics, homewares, fruit pickles and sushi, to name but a few of the 500 planned lines. Each store will be contemporary but “tell of the connection to its past."

The East India Company has been something of a sleeping giant until 2004, that is when Sanjiv Mehta, Chairman & CEO of East India Company, saw the potential of restoring the company to its former glory.

After buying all the shares, which were mostly owned by British businessmen, Mehta, with the help of wealthy investors, has invested £10 million into the development of the company, and with research showing that the EIC name is still recognised by millions worldwide, he feels that he is starting with a winning formula. Mehta wants profits rolling in by the end of the first quarter of 2012 and expects to be running a £65 million business By the end of 2015.

--Imagesfood.com Bureau