BUSINESS is a force for good, according to the president and chair of Cobra Beers, Lord Karan Bilimoria. In the past two years the peer used his influence as president of the Confederation of British Industries [CBI] to help two different countries. During the pandemic, Bilimoria persuaded businesses to get much-needed oxygen tanks to India.
“When the second Covid wave took place, I remember the Indian high commissioner approached me in my role as the president of the CBI for help,” he told the GG2 Power List. “You remember the tragic scenes of India running out of oxygen. She set up a war room in the Indian high commission in the Gandhi Room. My two chiefs of staff, one other member of my team and I went there. We said we would help. I had an emergency meeting of the president’s committee, and we had our members helping. British oxygen sent cylinders and generators. Rentokil, one of our members, sent £2.5 million worth of equipment.
“Pfizer hadn’t even had the vaccine approved in India at, that stage. It sent $70 million worth of pharmaceuticals to help to India. We advised India on setting up Nightingale hospitals. So, we really pulled out all the stops and helped a lot. After the crisis was over, the high commissioner said, of the whole of the world which helped, the Indian high commission in London was most supportive, and she said that it was thanks to the CBI. I’m so very proud of that.”
In 2022, he focused his efforts on Ukraine.
“When the Russia-Ukraine war started. Britain announced sanctions straightaway, and the CBI supported the sanctions. The next day, my chief of staff sent me a message saying, Karan, just to let you know one of our members, Vodafone, is giving free phone calls and data to anyone in Ukraine. I thought about it. The war started on 24th February, on a Thursday, and on the Saturday, I asked my chief of staff to contact the Ukraine ambassador. I’d met him twice, once virtually and once when he went to his first ever cricket match at the Oval in a match against India. I spent the whole day explaining cricket to him. So, I said ask him if he remembers me, and ask him if he needs any help.
The ambassador got on the phone, and I said, ‘My friend, the CBI is offering its help. Do you need any help?” He said, “Please come and see us on Monday morning.’ I went there on Monday morning, and if I could have taken a picture of how they looked at that time…they had not slept. They were in a state of complete shock. He said, ‘The Russians thought they would walk in and take over the country in the way the Taliban took over Afghanistan, and they have not taken over, and we will fight. We’ve conscripted everyone over 18. We’ve got lots of problems.’ He told us that Ukraine had this and that problem, for example, they didn’t have ration packs, and could we help?
“Within 24 hours, I convened an emergency meeting with my president’s committee chairs and trade associations. I went back to the embassy on the 1st of March, and I sat next to the ambassador in the embassy with a virtual screen with the 75 who’s who of British industry. ‘Now, tell them what you want,’ I said. From the next day onwards, we started sending ration packs, thanks to Vestey Foods, the biggest supplier of ration packs to the Ministry of Defence. We have now sent three million national packs to the frontline.”
Before he stepped down as CBI president – the organisation regarded as “the voice of British industry” – Bilimoria made sure he let the government know that the cost-of-living crisis was affecting business.
“We at the CBI have been saying, literally non-stop, that the government helped hugely during the pandemic,” he told Eastern Eye during an exclusive interview last year. “It helped save jobs, save businesses, save the economy. Where is the acid test of that? Our unemployment rate now is 3.7 per cent, which is lower than it was before the pandemic and one of the lowest levels in 50 years. All the help that was given has been the government grants. But the pandemic maybe over, but even before the sad war in Ukraine, we’ve seen labour shortages, we’ve seen inflation, energy price increases going across the sector, supply chain issues now exacerbated by the Ukraine crisis. We’ve said that consumers are being squeezed because not only have you got consumers paying more, whether it’s for energy or whether it’s for food, but businesses are suffering.”
The peer first came to the UK ‘for a couple of years’ when he was 11. His late father, Lieutenant-General Faridoon Noshir (“Billy”) Bilimoria – who rose to become the general officer commanding-in-chief in the Indian army – was a liaison officer to the British army. But it was aged 19 that he moved to Britain on a scholarship for his charted accountancy with Ernst Young. Bilimoria then read law at Sidney Sussex at Cambridge. In 1989, he co-founded Cobra Beer, which captured the Indian restaurant market in the UK. But in 2009, the company went into administration, and was saved by a deal with north American brewers, Molson Coors. The peer is adamant that he could have declared bankruptcy, but his integrity meant he had no choice but to try to repay his creditors.
“I think there are elements of the Churchillian spirit of never ever give up attitude. But also, I think it's my great grandfather [Squadron Leader Jamshed D Italia]. His motto was ‘aspire and achieve’. I expanded that to ‘aspire and achieve against all odds with integrity’, always setting goals wanting to get there regardless of being against the odds, regardless of having little or no means to make it happen. But always trying to do it with the right values and with integrity.
“During the financial crisis, when I nearly lost my business, it was a very, very difficult time. I was very fortunate to be able to rescue the business, save the brand, going through very painful restructuring. But what I was most proud of was able to look after my employees, look after my shareholders. And almost 14 years later, I've been settling my creditors doing things which legally I do not have to do. But I feel obliged and compelled to do the right thing, and I'm nearly there. So, the brand has shown itself to be more resilient than ever, going through the pandemic and getting through the crises over the past three years.”
Even though Bilimoria ended his tenure as CBI president, he will go down in history as the first person of colour at its helm. He is also clear that he will continue to influence the “change the race ratio” agenda. The peer launched his campaign to increase racial and ethnic participation in business in October 2020. By January 2022, he announced that 100 firms had signed up.
“It's a well-established initiative now, with many leading 100 and 250 FTSE companies, universities and organisations that are members. They are promoting and championing ethnic minority diversity in all businesses. Not only in directorships, but also the executive committee teams. We also have transparency with the ethnic minority pay gap which exists sadly, and should not exist, and most importantly, promoting inclusion because diversity without inclusion is useless. I continue to chair that to this day. So, we have regular workshops, initiatives, steering group ambassadors, events. So, it's a very active initiative, which I'm very proud of.”
