When I crawled over the line at IIT, I had 4 job offers – Siemens, Larsen & Toubro, GKW and Telco. I joined and quit Siemens and Larsen & Toubro. They would not guarantee me a posting in the Maintenance Department. GKW did. Two years of shop floor training, wearing a boiler suit, doing all 3 shifts was hard graft. A year later I accepted an offer from J&J. It was a bit embarrassing in the 70s to tell someone you make Sanitary Napkins and Tampons for a living. I rose through the ranks very quickly and was the Chief Engineer when I hit 30. That was the dead end for any hardcore engineer. I handed in my resignation. I had an itch to start my own business!
I had no idea what it takes to set up and run a business. In the first venture, I ran out of cash within 6 months and went bust. The second was a 100% export unit to manufacture solid surface material. It started well and then I moved to Europe to sell the product. The partners running the factory had no concept of international quality standards, delivery schedules, customer service… I got plenty of mouthing from European customers. One day I had enough. I told my Indian partners, you keep everything, I will start my own in Europe. I had a point to prove to myself. I was not a failure.
I met my Irish customer, Pierce Hughes in England, and the following day in Dublin. We shook hand on starting a factory in Ireland to manufacture Solid Surfacing Material. That was that. Just a handshake! It’s now 35 years since we met. Never looked back. I learned a lot from Pierce. A very trustworthy and worldly person. He has no formal education, having left school at 14 to work as a carpenter on construction sites. We still do not have any written agreement between us. In business, like in marriage, what matters is trust between partners. Once that is gone, no legal piece of paper can save it. The arrangement was simple. I do my bit, you do yours. Even then, I hardly signed any cheques as I was travelling most of the time and he did not sign any unless it was cleared by me. For sales, technology, or numbers he always trusted me. For production and HR and compliance, I always trusted his judgement. I was the frontend, and he was the backend of the business.
We set up offices in Colchester, England and West Lake Village, CA, USA. A Joint Venture with Al Romaizan Group in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. We decided not to go public. Did not want to be answerable to anyone other than ourselves. Went on boys holidays every year with a few Irish friends from the town. Drank together, laughed together, had a good time together. Whatever profits we made, we split it into four. One for the Taxman, one for retained profits, one for him and one for me! Put that in our back pockets and start afresh for the new year. We took the steps to keep the business unscathed during the 1997 Far East currency crash, 2008 Financial meltdown and then Covid 19. Moved the manufacturing unit from Ireland to an OEM in China in 2008 as the manufacturing costs went sky high in booming Ireland. We called it a day during Covid 19 to enjoy the rest of our life. Remote working was not for me or him. I will, forever, be indebted to Pierce Hughes and Saleh Al Romaizan for the trust they showed in joining hands with me and trusting me. I never made a million in any year, but always had a bob or two to spare for what I wanted to do, when I wanted to do, where I wanted to do. You get the gist.
Life in Ireland in the 80s was very different to today’s. Unemployment was at 20%+. Starting wages were less than £100/ week. The Government was offering subsidies to employ people. There were hardly any foreigners, not even Europeans. Coloured people were seen only in movies, not on the streets. Maybe an Indian Doctor in the hospital was the odd case. Once I was at a checkout in the local shop. The man behind me was looking at me and finally asked “Never seen you in the Hospital”. “I was never sick”. “You are not a doctor?” “No”. The look on his face was priceless. He must be thinking “He says he is not a doctor, then what is he doing in this part of the world?”. I had to tell him that Pierce and I had opened a new factory in Castleblayney. Which of course he had heard about. In the local community eventually everyone knew me, what I did and where I lived. An overseas letter was once sent to me with the address “Suhas Sawant, Ballinode, Ireland”. The postman delivered it! Houses did not have numbers; streets did not have names and there were no postcodes! Still things worked. The local pub was the “Google” search. The weekly routine of the Irish was simple. Monday to Friday try to stay sober and work hard. Friday collect the pay cheque and head to the pub with workmates. The cheques were cashed by the bartender! Stagger home after closing time. Saturday back to the pub with the missus. On Sunday mornings, attend mass with the whole family and stop at the pub for lunch and a few drinks. Their family values were as good as Indian, and I was welcomed as a family member. I was living on my own in a small village called Ballinode, on the border of North and South Ireland with a population less than 100. The next-door neighbour was half a mile away. Just one pub “Maggie Charlies” and one grocery shop in the village. No public transport of any kind. My family was in Mumbai. They would spend the holidays in Ireland. Other times I would stopover in Mumbai on my frequent round the world journeys for work. On average, I was on a long-haul flight every ten days.
For the weekly shop, it was a bit cheaper to go across the border in the North. There were fortified checkpoints on the border crossing by the British Army as the IRA was very active in the area. We had to cross the border with the automatic guns pointing at us. I remember once I was shopping in Belfast and there was a bomb alert on Tannoy (the P. A. system). We were so used to it, we calmly filed out of the shopping centre on the pavement. The army’s bomb disposal squad came and defused the bomb. We were back shopping as if nothing had happened! The IRA would usually ring up a radio station or a newspaper and tell them the location where a bomb has been placed and how long before it detonates. This was to prevent innocent deaths.
I am married to Reshma with two children and four grandchildren. The eldest graduating from LSE in 2024. My passion is travelling. I have been to 77 countries so far and will continue to explore new exotic destinations. On family holidays with the missus or for a craic with Irishmen or solo backpacking! Any regrets in life? None, other than not spending enough time with my children when they were growing up and too much away from home growing my business. I had the wrong priorities.
IIT Bombay 1974 Reunion 