Brigadier Kapil Mohan, chairman of Mohan Meakin, the maker of Old Monk rum passed away on Saturday following a cardiac arrest. Mohan, whose Old Monk was one of the most sought-after rums in India and abroad, was a teetotaller. At 88, Mohan was still at the helm of the company though he passed executive control to his nephew. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2010.
Old Monk was the largest selling dark rum in the world even though Mohan had famously dismissed advertisements saying,“The best way of my advertising is the product: When it comes to you and you taste it, you look at the difference and ask what is it. That is the best advertisement.”
Old Monk has fascinated men, women, old and young alike so much so that some even proposed Old Monk be made the nation's national drink. The first and one of the largest distilleries in Asia, Mohan Meakin bought over the assets of the erstwhile Dyer Breweries incorporated in 1855 in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh. Mohan's grandfather, Narendra Nath Mohan, who acquired the breweries after independence in 1947, had first distilled Old Monk in 1954.
Until 2002, Old Monk retained its leadership as a single brand leader among all branded spirits in the country. But later according to Euromonitor International, Old Monk was selling hardly 3 million cases against its nearest competitor McDowell’s Celebration Rum which sold 11 million cases.
Mohan was the president of the municipal committee in Himachal Pradesh’s Solan, where the company had its distillery and brewery. According to reports, one of the secrets of the success of Old Monk and other brands was the fact that the water was sourced from the same natural spring in Solan as it was 150 years ago when the facilities were first set up.
Things changed in the traditionally run company in the mid-2000s when the family saw a separation with Rakesh ‘Rocky’ Mohan (son of V.R. Mohan), Kapil’s nephew breaking away. He eventually sold the company’s Lucknow facility to the Wave group of Ponty Chadha. In a short span of time, Chadha, who was seen close to the then Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati, brought under his control the liquor business in UP and other northern states.
