As long as you have complete belief and be persistent, those who work hard will definitely reap rewards. This timeless piece of wisdom still holds true till date for those who have experienced it. Director of a well-known Thakarshi Tea brand, Vijay Mundia, is one of them. His journey to become an expert in tea business is very inspirational.
Early years and Education
Vijay Mundia was born in Surendranagar Gujarat and brought up in Gondal, Rajkot, Gujarat. He graduated in commerce stream in Rajkot and then completed the two years course of International Business Course at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia. Vijay is the son of Mansukhbhai and youngest among all cousins. Mansukhbhai’s elder brother Thakarshibhai had started the Thakarshi Tea Company in 1967 at Gondal town.
In 2009, he came back to India and in September he officially joined his family Business with Thakarshibhai and brothers and started to learn about the tea business under the guidance of Thakarshibhai.
Vijay learnt a lot from Thakarshibhai and applied the business principles and ethics in his personal and professional life. He learnt to never compromise quality and be grateful to people who supported in hard times. He maintains good relations with all his staff, small tea vendors or distributors.
The beginning of his journey
Vijay had to learn all the process of tea testing and tea manufacturing on a local level. Initially, he started his training under Thakarshibhai, learnt the whole process and started working in testing and quality control department .Then he started to use international standards in testing level and checking the multiple parameters in testing laboratory so he can reach the root of tea. He learnt this process for five years including ground level study, manufacturing process and about operating auctions which happened in different key tea markets of India like Kullu, Manali, Kochi, Kolkata, Coimbatore, Siliguri and Guwahati.
Moving on the Journey
Vijay firmly believes in doing preparation and having a good understanding before entering into any industry. So he learnt and had all the knowledge which was required for this business from ground level process to manufacturing process. Eventually he became an expert in the tea business and made his own identity in the tea industry of Gujarat. He handled most of the departments and kept an eye on each and every deal and changing demands of customers and evolved himself and Thakarshi tea with the time. He personally talked with direct buyers, garden brokers and his distributors and took their feedback about the current market scenario and needs of the customers. He involved himself in the Quality control process and testing process and then gave approval to the final product before selling in the market.
This family branded the company as Thakarshi Tea Processors And Packers Private Limited on 31st January 2002 having head office in ’Hari Om Estate’, Gondal, Rajkot. He also wanted to expand his tea business in Saurashtra, Kutch and Gujarat markets. So he planned marketing campaigns, developed his network in states like Maharashtra and Rajasthan and also existing markets.
After 2017, he started his aggressive Market campaign to promote his brand in other regions and did advertising, promotion and media management including paper media, online and offline social media. He started developing his sales and distribution team and gave distributorship to more and more people in different cities and states. Currently more than eighty employees are working at Thakarshi tea. After Vijay’s involvement in Thakarshi tea this brand touched the new height of success and got a couple of reputed business awards for his vision and growth. Ethically Vijay was not interested in paid awards. He started attending Exhibitions organized in different cities including Ahmedabad, Delhi and Mumbai as he got many awards including ‘Best marketing infrastructure builder’ award.
In the last 10 years, Vijay worked on a lot of expansion and growth with 0% quality complaints and positive feedback. Now Thakarshi tea has become a big brand name in the tea industry and after 1990 Thakarshi Tea had started its multiple brands like Chandan, Citizen Etc. The ultimate vision of company is to make Tea Time the best hour of your day.
Struggles and hindrances
When Thakarshi bhai started in 1967, he had to work hard and sold his tea door to door, village to village on his cycle without any staff. Vijay had also seen hard times in 2011-12 when Thakarshi tea was not doing well as per its brand value and faced some financial loss. However he revived back and got the same position in the market and became the profitable brand again.
He feels capturing the market, keeping your hold on the market in times of constant changing taste of customers and competition with other brands are the most challenging parts of this business. Vijay suggests to do aggressive monitoring and be conscious about quality to sustain the market.
What’s in the future?
Vijay plans to come up with new tea products like ice tea, herbal tea, green tea, organic tea etc. He also plans to maximize growth and product availability up to 15 states.
