For more than a century, the Luxmi Tea Group has been an integral thread in India's historical fabric, evolving alongside the nation from the freedom movement era to today's dynamic economic landscape. Currently steering this legacy enterprise is Managing Director Rudra Chatterjee, who recently shared his insights on Mint's Let's Mint Money series in collaboration with Waterfield Advisors.
A Legacy Born from Defiance
The origins of Luxmi Tea Group read like a chapter from India's freedom struggle. Chatterjee's grandfather, alongside young Bengali and Assamese students involved in the independence movement, deliberately escaped British dominance by establishing the business in Tripura. Starting a tea plantation during British rule was an act of defiance, given the complete British monopoly over infrastructure and markets.
Chatterjee, who grew up in Kolkata hearing these founding stories from his grandfather, explained the challenges: "The infrastructure was British... if you weren't part of the British system then your teas weren't auctioned." The company ingeniously circumvented this by growing green tea and selling it in Amritsar, bypassing the British-controlled Kolkata auctions entirely. They even relied on a parallel banking ecosystem of revolutionary banks that eventually became United Bank.
This innovative spirit defined their early strategy. Chatterjee summarized: "While the British had a system, they didn't ban production of tea, but they had a system that only worked for them and companies like ours had to evolve a new system that worked for us."
Transforming India's Tea Culture
Chatterjee brings a unique perspective to the business, shaped by his diverse academic background including business studies at Columbia and design history at Oxford. This historical lens helped him appreciate India's authentic relationship with tea, even though the plant originated outside the country.
"The way Indians engage with tea is far more authentic and Indians have made tea their own," he emphasized. The Indian chai preparation ritual represents a genuinely local tradition that forms a crucial part of daily life. Despite the booming coffee culture, Chatterjee believes tea holds deeper cultural significance: "I would rather be in tea than in coffee because it is something which Indians really feel as their own."
He sees tremendous potential for tea to compete with café culture, particularly given the thousands of tea varieties that are complex to prepare at home. The social aspect of tea consumption in India dates back centuries. "Many people in India have been going to tea stalls for hundreds of years... that has been the social network before Facebook... we should not cut ourselves off from our history," he noted. The group's acquisition of UK-based Brew Tea, a premium subscription tea company, demonstrates their commitment to modernizing tea while preserving cultural connections.
Diversifying into Home Furnishings with OBT
Beyond tea, the Luxmi Group has expanded into home furnishings through Oaklay, Bowen and Taylor (OBT), a century-old brand that transitioned from carpet manufacturing to comprehensive home furnishings. OBT collaborates with top Indian designers to create unique pieces like chikankari rugs and Jamawar shawl-inspired carpets, celebrating India's rich textile heritage.
Chatterjee explained their philosophy: "Our view is that your home... for an Indian person especially is a place that you have your own individuality." As home architecture becomes increasingly standardized, personal expression emerges through textiles, furniture, and carpets that transform houses into homes.
Unlike corporate furniture manufacturers pursuing global uniformity, OBT celebrates diversity. "I think India is a country with multi-layered cultures and you know there is not one size, one design, one colour that fits all of us and that we celebrate as OBT," Chatterjee stated. The brand aims to fill the market gap for a large-scale, high-quality indigenous home company.
Navigating Global Volatility with Indian Resilience
In an era defined by wars, energy crises, and climate change, Chatterjee emphasizes resilience as crucial for business survival. He believes Indian businesses, particularly family-run enterprises, possess inherent adaptability from navigating internal policy and environmental volatility.
This long-term, adaptive approach contrasts sharply with Western models prioritizing quarterly results and just-in-time inventory systems, which prove fragile during global disruptions. Chatterjee describes Indian business people as 'extremely adaptive' when confronting challenges like tariffs. "Tariff I think is a very blunt instrument. It hopefully is a temporary measure. What is going to be the source of volatility is unknown. But our businesses have to be resilient and in some ways build off those volatilities," he explained.
Wealth Creation with Purpose
Chatterjee's investment philosophy, both within and outside his core businesses, centers on decades-long commitment and quality management. For personal investments, he engages experts since he lacks time and interest in direct management. "Finding the best investment manager and then have the same decades long mindset of seeing those investments being preserved and grown," forms his approach.
His startup investments focus not only on financial returns but also learning and ecosystem development. "There's nothing more exciting than meeting founders of companies who are trying something new," he shared. He particularly favors D2C companies in textiles or tea, gaining fresh insights while acknowledging startup investing as high-risk. He treats it as a "long-term play" with money he's "comfortable never seeing again."
Building Legacy Beyond Profits
For Chatterjee, legacy represents the ultimate success metric. Money serves not for consumption but for impact creation and building environments where future generations can pursue ambition. He highlighted the significant non-financial returns from their tea and home furnishings businesses, which employ thousands.
Even a small fraction of company profits can be life-changing for workers and tea pluckers. "The impact that money can have on them is certainly a very high ROI. It may not be exactly financial but it's life changing with a relatively small amount of your profits on teas and pluckers is significant in terms of legacy," he emphasized.
Following his grandfather's example of leadership through action rather than money, Chatterjee aims to provide a secure foundation enabling future generations to launch ambitious new ventures rather than replicating past successes. True legacy involves creating platforms for new ambitions, learning from parental examples while forging unique paths.
Note to Readers: Let's Mint Money is a Mint editorial IP, in association with Waterfield Advisors. The series explores personal finance perspectives of India's accomplished corporate professionals, entrepreneurs, and family business owners. Stay tuned for future episodes! To know more about Waterfield, visit www.waterfieldadvisors.com
