What were your objectives when you founded Cobra Beer?
Our objective from the beginning was high growth, and it’s been 40% compounded since the beginning in 1990. A year ago, we decided to sell or merge the business because it is always difficult for high growth companies to raise finance, not least in the current climate. But we always knew that there was one party more ideally suited than any other and that was Molson Coors.

Why were they more suited?
They own the largest brewery in Britain; they own Carling, the largest beer brand in Britain; and they didn’t just want to buy us, but to form a joint venture. But they wanted a clean joint venture without our debt. So, with their help, we carried out a company voluntary arrangement [CVA]. However, the day before we submitted our CVA, one of our major suppliers put in a statute demand for the business. The only option we then had to deliver the joint venture was a pre-pack administration.

Will you pay off the remaining creditors?
The number of creditors who weren’t covered by insurance or paid is relatively small but it still guts me that not everyone was paid. I will pay as many as I can, somehow, in the future.

And what about Cobra staff, which you considered an extended family?
Well, some long-standing employees are moving across, but there are redundancies and I feel terrible about that. Some of these people have been with me for 12, 13 years. And I knew two years before the joint venture that losing the entrepreneurial family atmosphere would be a risk. Sure enough, it disappeared before my eyes. It’s the classic way professional management teams operate.

And how did you originally persuade India’s largest brewery to let you start importing their beer to the UK?
I’ve always loved beer and hated the kind I was drinking in the UK, those awful fizzy, bland, bloating lagers. I wanted an alternative that would also go with food — especially Indian food. But I had £20,000 of student debt and no capital to produce my own beer.

Tell me about your first meeting with the head of that independent Indian brewery and his entire management team, at the age of 27, with no money or experience.
They all laughed in my face! But I said I was going to succeed because I had faith and confidence and passion and belief in my idea, my product, myself. That’s what I call bridging the credibility gap. It gives people the faith to trust you and give you a chance. The owner of the brewery and the brewmaster were the only people I convinced, but they were also the only people I needed to convince.

And didn’t UK suppliers object to your original name, Panther?
Our second choice was Cobra, which they loved. It was costly to halt and change the project but it is the best decision I have ever made.

How did you start selling into the UK?
I couldn’t have done it without the newsagent next door who took pity on us and let us use his cellar for free. Or the military attaché posted back in India who sent handwritten letters to the Indian restaurants he used to go to regularly, introducing me to the owners and managers.

How do you find the right people?
It’s about will, not skill. Ideally both, but it’s really the attitude that counts.

Looking back on your experience, what advice would you give young people today?
You’ve got to take the failure with the success. Every successful business person will tell you that two or three times in their career, they nearly lost everything. Good judgement comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgement.

CURRICULUM VITAE
(Lord) Karan Bilimoria
1961 Born 27 November, Hyderabad, India
1982–7 Accountant, Ernst & Young
1989 Founded Cobra Beer Ltd
1999 Founder General Bilimoria Wines
2000 Founder Cobrabyte Technologies
1994-2003 Founder Tandoori Magazine
2004 Founding patron Oxford Entrepreneurs
2005 Chancellor, Thames Valley University
2006 Baron (Life Peer, UK), of Chelsea, London
2008 Awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman by the president of India — an award given by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, to honour an exceptional contribution in a chosen field