From Culcutta to Turin: The saga of RPG Group.

 

What does a cable manufacturing company in Turin, Italy has to do with tea plantations in Munnar? Well, CEAT's history does not start on 1924, when the company was established, but a century ago, in 1820, at the city of Culcutta.

Ramdutt Goenka, a Rajasthani Marwari started to do business with the British East India Company in Culcutta, and became the most influential family till the independence, after the Birlas. 24 years later, in 1844, the Harrison brothers, Daniel and Smith, and Joseph Crosfield started a partnership, called the Harrisons & Crosfield. They traded tea and coffee from China and South America, till 1900, where they came to India and purchased extensive land in South India and Ceylon. This was their start to dominate the tea market for nearly a century. In 1907, Harrison formed the East India Tea and Produce Company, the Malayalam Rubber and Produce Company, and Meppadi Wynaad Tea Company Ltd. In 1922, a British equipment manufacturing company, started its manufacturing unit in Pune.
In 1924, Virginio Tedeschi founded a cable and tire manufacturing company and called it CEAT. It became the 2nd largest tire manufacturer for decades. While all this was happening, Ramjibhai Kamani was innovating his ideas in the Indian industrial sector. In 1945, he founded the Kamani Engineering Corporation(KEC), which was the first electric power transmission company in the whole of Asia, and played an important role in the electrification of Indian railway.
The Gramophone Company Limited founded in 1898 at UK, opened it's first overseas branch at Culcutta, in 1901. The next year, Gauhar Jaan became the first Indian artist ever to be recorded on a gramophone. It then became The Gramophone Company of India Limited.
Things started to take a twist in the 70s. The '73 oil crisis and '79 energy crisis put KEC under huge debt. CEAT had already established CEAT Tyres of India Ltd in collaboration with Tata group in 1958. By 1979, they had to give up. Turin tire factory was closed and CEAT was acquired by Pirelli, their rival. Rama Prasad Goenka, the grandson of the grandson of Ramdutt Goenka, inherited a number of wealthy assets, which he consolidated into RPG Group.
2 years later, he acquired his first company, CEAT Tyres of India Ltd and changed it to CEAT Limited later. KEC was bought by RPG. Harrisons & Crosfields merged their plantations to form Harrisons Malayalam and then sold it RPG, in 1988. In 1985, The Gramaphone Company of India Ltd was financially suffering, and RPG took over and changed its name to Saregama India Ltd. The British manufacturing unit at Pune, then went on to make computers for the International Computers Ltd(ICL) and renamed as ICIM(International Computers Indian Manufacture), in 1963. In 2000, the company renamed to Zensar Technologies, with major shareholder,RPG. RPG Group , now controlled by his children, still holds major shares in both Indian and International companies. A legacy started in the 1820, still continues.