Set up in 1973 by three brothers, Mannalal, Purushottam and Madhusudan Agrawal—had been incurring huge losses for many years.
In June 2000, @AjantaPharmaLtd was trading at just Rs 24 per share with negligible interest from investors.
In 2001-2002, it reported a consolidated loss of Rs 1 crore and by the following year, it was reeling under a debt burden of Rs 130 crore.
Ajanta Pharma needed a shot of its own medicine, an energizer like 30-Plus.
It found its antidote in the new generation of Agrawals: Mannalal’s sons, Yogesh and Rajesh.
Together, Rajesh and his older brother Yogesh, 43, changed Ajanta’s trajectory by focusing on the ‘specialty’ generic drug market and putting an end to the company’s legacy businesses.
This was a risky move, but it has paid off well.
@AjantaPharmaLtd is a very small player in a market full of giants such as Sun Pharma.
Yogesh and Rajesh knew they lacked the financial muscle to compete with the ‘big boys’ in the $31 billion Indian pharmaceutical market.
Some of these giants have single generic drug brands that are worth more than @AjantaPharmaLtd's entire operating profit!
Instead, they focused on launching first-of-its-kind generic drugs.
By 2014-15, @AjantaPharmaLtd reported one of the highest EBITDA margins in the pharmaceutical sector at 34 percent.
The company has managed to achieve all this with a small presence in the US market, which is the golden goose.
A third of @AjantaPharmaLtd's sales comes from India, and the rest from emerging countries in Asia and Africa.
Its products are sold in 35 countries, including Iraq, Nigeria, Cameroon and the Philippines.
The Agrawals brought about this turnaround by changing their strategy and focusing only on specialty generic drugs, identifying the right segments, products and markets, and taking a risk to borrow further so that they could invest in research and development.
Rajesh after his joining, chalked out a new business model: @AjantaPharmaLtd would make generic drugs that were unique in their formulation and dosages, and create specialty brands in four areas.
These areas were ophthalmology, dermatology, cardiovascular and pain management.
It was Yogesh who convinced the company’s lenders in 2003 to open their wallets.
@AjantaPharmaLtd needed funds to invest in new R&D and manufacturing facilities.
About 45 minutes later, they said they believed in Yogesh & were willing to extend the loan facility.
With a strategy & funds in place, @AjantaPharmaLtd has built a Rs 418 crore-business in India & is ranked 36 out of the top 300 companies in the Indian pharmaceutical market.
Today, it stands net debt-free, with a cash reserve of around Rs 100 crore.
Around 70% of @AjantaPharmaLtd's portfolio comprises products that it has made available for the first time in India, either in the way they were formulated or in terms of their delivery mechanism.
Examples of first-to-market products by @AjantaPharmaLtd include Gatifloxacin, eye solution available only as an oral dosage. @AjantaPharmaLtd launched its eye drops.
Met XL, cardio drug available in dosages of three capsules a day till a one time dose per day was launched.
Since 2004, it has gradually been expanding to more emerging markets in Africa and Asia which Yogesh oversees.
@AjantaPharmaLtd is the first Indian generic drug-maker to secure pre-qualification from the @WHO for its anti-malarial drug.
This means that international agencies like @UNICEF can procure such drugs from @AjantaPharmaLtd as part of their global health care initiatives.
In the international markets, it has registered 1,445 brands, and is in the process of registering another 1,609.
All this wouldn’t have been possible without investing in R&D & manufacturing capacity.
After convincing the lenders about the strategy, the next step was to build a team that was aligned to the new vision.
@AjantaPharmaLtd built the new team from their existing employee base.
Its workforce has evolved to keep up with the times.
Before it changed its business model, @AjantaPharmaLtd had some 600 medical representatives in its domestic pharmaceutical business team.
Today, it has around 3,000 medical representatives in India, each doing an average business of Rs 15-20 lakh per year.
It is little wonder, then, that @AjantaPharmaLtd finds itself in that phase of its life cycle where it is a ripe target for a takeover.
Gautam Adani, Founder, & Chairman of the Adani Group, didn’t inherit his power & position.
His parents, Shantaben and Shantilal Adani, had migrated to the city of Ahmedabad from a small town called Tharad in Norther Gujarat in hopes of better opportunities for their 8 children.
@gautam_adani completed his schooling from Seth CN Vidyalaya in Ahmedabad and then enrolled himself for a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce at Gujarat University.
It was when he was pondering over accounts and statistics, he realized academics was not for him.
Here is how the company went from "Fill it, Shut it, forget it" to "dhak-dhak go" to "Hum mein hai Hero" to owning a market share of about 46% in India in the two-wheeler category.
Ludhiana, Punjab is where everything came alive!
In 1956 a still renowned brand “Hero Cycles” came into power.
Soon after the Munjal brothers founded the cycle company in 1975 it became the largest manufacturer of bicycles in the entire nation.
Nobody could stop the attention of international automakers “Hero Cycles” grabbed!
A story of how one doctor’s unwavering dedication towards treating his patients gave rise to a brand that was set to rule the roost and create benchmarks in the Indian market for years to come.
Founded in 1884 by Dr. S.K.Burman in the pre-independence British capital of India – Calcutta, Dabur started as a small clinic in a by-lane of the city.
The name Dabur was coined by taking ‘Da’ from Daktaar (Bengali pronunciation for Doctor) and ‘Bur’ from his last name Burman.
Given the effectiveness of ayurvedic formulations to treat the then life-threatening diseases like malaria & cholera, Dr. Burman decided to start a mass production facility of his medicines.
In 1884, he set up @DaburIndia from a small house in Calcutta.
If there’s a brand that has been adding flavor to a million lives in India, it is MDH.
A household name in the country, the founder of MDH, Mahashay Dharampal Gulati has a rags-to-riches story of a refugee-turned-entrepreneur.
An acronym for Mahashian Di Hatti, which translates to ‘respected man’s shop’, MDH visualized and made the concept of ready-to-use spices a reality for consumers across the world.
Born & raised in Sialkot, Pakistan, Gulati left school in 1933 while he was in the fifth standard.