Know More About India’s Coffee King VG Siddhartha

Café Coffee Day founder V G Siddhartha, who has been missing since Monday night had reportedly written a suicide letter to CCD staff, in which he wrote about his financial struggles and his failed business model.

In the letter, which seems almost like a parting statement, Siddhartha declares about his financial troubles and writes: "I am very very sorry to let down all the people who had put their trust in me. I have failed as an entrepreneur. 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, a transaction I had completed six months ago by borrowing a large sum of money from a friend. Tremendous pressure from other lenders led to me succumbing to the situation”.

Here are a few things to know about the CCD Founder:

* Police officials have launched a wide-scale search operation for him. As per his car driver, Siddhartha was talking to someone on his cell phone when he got down from the car and then disappeared.
* Before this, he reportedly wrote a letter to the employees and board of directors of CCD.
* Siddhartha and his family have been growing coffee business for more than 130 years.
* CCD, the coffee retailing business is the market leader in India.
* The 58-year-old, first-generation coffee entrepreneur hailed from a coffee-growing household in Karnataka’s Chikmagalur.
* The coffee chain has expanded to 1,750 outlets across India and also has a presence in Austria, the Czech Republic and Malaysia.
* Siddhartha got stuck in trouble in 2017 after the Income Tax department conducted raids at around 20 locations associated with him.