Even as the Cobra Beer takeover leaves creditors crying over losses, founder Lord Bilimoria says in his just published book that it is...
"The company at the time was valued at u00c2u00a31.5 million (Rs 11.71 crore)." Today Cobra, in equity could be valued at approaching 100 times this.
But the company that Bilimoria founded 20 years ago never recorded a profit and lost u00c2u00a315.9 million (Rs 124.14 crore) in 2008 because of its strategy of putting brand growth before profits even though cash flow was a problem.
Apart from causing shareholders to be wiped out and leaving creditors with millions of pounds in unpaid debts, Cobra, funded in its early days by Government start-up loans, even left millions of pounds owing in tax.
According to an unsecured creditor, "Feelings are running very high. Its business model was to own nothing except the brand it didn't even brew its own beer.
Bilimoria's new book is said to be a rehash of an earlier title Bottled for Business, published in 2007.
The new effort includes a new, final chapter on selling the business. Bilimoria concludes, "Of course, it will not be the end of the journey for Cobra Beer, or for me, but merely the beginning of a new adventure."
(With inputs from Mail on Sunday)
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