Vittal Mallya was an Indian entrepreneur, best known as the former chair of the India-based United Breweries Group. Mallya is the father of an Indian businessman Vijay Mallya.
Vittal Mallya was born in 1924. He was the youngest of the three children of Lt. Col. Bantwal Ganapathi Mallya by his wife Devi Mallya. The family belongs to the Gaud Saraswat Brahmin community of Madhva tradition based in Mangalore and hails from the town of Bantwal.
The young Vittal Mallya gained exposure to the many cultures of India as he grew up in many cantonment towns across India. When he was around 12 years of age, his father’s wealth and position as an army officer made it possible for young Vittal to be enrolled into The Doon School. After finishing school, he was accepted into Presidency College, Kolkata.
In 1946–47 he started acquiring the shares of United Breweries Limited. In 1947, Mallya was elected as United Breweries’ first Indian director. After a year, he replaced R. G. N. Price as the chairman of the company. In 1951, he acquired McDowell & Company Limited.
Moving to Bangalore in 1952, Mallya started a steady acquisition of small breweries and distilleries.
Mallya got the Jammu & Kashmir Government to give him two acres on lease to start a nursery, and then distributed hops seedlings to Kashmir farmers and bought up all their produce—giving him effective control of the beer industry’s most vital ingredient.
He also became chairman of British Paints with the help of Hoechst AG, which had earlier acquired British Paints’ parent company abroad, the Berger group. Then through Cadbury Schweppes, international associates of Kissan Products, he moved on to the board of Cadbury India, to become its chairman a few years later. Taking advantage of disinvestments by multinationals, he became chairman of the Indian Sewing Machine Company and Malayalam Plantations (large tea and rubber company) and also a director of Bush Boake Allen.
Two other important acquisitions include Hindustan Polymers (taken from the Shriram Group) and Mysore Electro-Chemical Works (makers of MEC batteries).
In 1981, Mallya controlled 10 breweries and 14 distilleries, seven processed food companies, six investment companies, two small packaging units, three drug firms, soft drinks bottling plants, a battery unit, and one of the company’s two styrene companies, while heading a handful of other companies even though he did not have controlling interest.
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