The founder of India’s largest coffee chain Cafe Coffee Day, VG Siddhartha has gone missing in the most mysterious circumstances. He also owns Asia’s single-largest coffee estate. He also left a note reportedly written by him to his family before he went missing. In this letter, he wrote, “failed to create the right profitable business model despite my best efforts”. He added, “I would like to say I gave it my all. I am very sorry to let down all the people that put their trust in me. I fought for a long time but today I gave up as I could not take any more pressure from one of the private equity partners forcing me to buy back shares….”
The reports suggested that Siddhartha left his car near a bridge across the Nethravathi River near Mangalore, about 375km from Bengaluru, but did not return even after an hour. His driver than sensed something wrong and went down looking for him but failed to find him anywhere. He then informed the family members who further informed the police.
Police then came into action and started search operation. Siddhartha’s driver also told the police that he was talking to someone on the phone when he asked him to stop the car and got off from it. This news went viral in no time across the state and hundreds of his relatives and friends have gathered at his father-in-law and former Karnataka CM SM Krishna’s house in Bengaluru.
The coffee tycoon Siddhartha founded Cafe Coffee Day in the mid-1990s on Brigade Road which has now become an international brand. Recently he sold his stakes in a software company Mindtree for about Rs 3,000 crore. He was recently in the news for being in talks with Coca-Cola to sell CCD. His chain of companies gives employment to around 30,000 people across India.
