Our worst days are behind us, says, Malavika Hegde wife of late VG Siddhartha, new CEO of Coffee Day

Coffee Day Enterprises’ new chief executive officer Malavika Hegde, who has taken a hands on-role at the company since the demise of her husband and former chairman VG Siddhartha, said her team has weathered the storm and significantly trimmed the debt. She kept her word and took on the responsibility of leading the company through the pain. The period turned grim. Contrary to everyone's expectations, the company's debt has been halved (from Rs 7,200 crore to Rs 3,100 crore). Instilled confidence in employees. Assured to investors. Cafe Coffee Day is engaged in the task of rebuilding the brand from scratch.

In her interview to Economic Times, Malavika expressed her gratitude to the employees to stood behind her during the hour of crisis. Malavika is now determined to take the business to the next level and is eager to bring back the lost glory of the company. Malavika Hegde, the wife of V G Siddhartha, took over as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CDEL in December 2020. This was quite a courageous move on the part of Hegde. CDEL had a debt of Rs 7,000 crore as of March 31, 2019. There was clearly a mountain of debt for Hegde to take care of. But Hegde, a heartbroken woman, decided to stand up to her problems instead of running away and fleeing abroad. Hegde told ET’s KR Balasubramanyam, that her focus is on striking strategic alliances to widen product portfolio and drive revenue growth. Continuing  further she said,  their firm hope to be an example of Atmanirbhar Bharat that the prime minister has been campaigning for. 

Speaking about  impact of the pandemic on business, Malavika said, the surge in COVID-19 cases came as a blow to her but it they turned it into a productive time. CDEL’s net revenue dropped by over a quarter last financial year compared with 2018-19, but Malavika assured that the drop in revenue last year was mainly due to liquidity issues in coffee and logistics businesses. We believe 2020-21 will be a much more positive year. Malavika was optimistic on the future plans of the business with focus on vending and cafe with the aim to get new customers. They are also launching a range of products such as coffee powders, coffee equipment, coffee merchandise etc. Moreover, the goal is to reach 1.5 lakh machines in the next few years. Concluding her interview , Malavika was quite optimistic on the future of her business and is confident that her coffee business has left behind the worst days and is now marching ahead with a positive glimpse into the future.