At the October 2022 People’s Choice Quality Awards, held in Kampala. Torrero Liqueur won its second consecutive award for the best locally blended liqueur. This is an unprecedented feat, considering Yuti Breweries Limited, the maker of Torrero only opened shop late 2019.
A liqueur is an alcoholic drink composed of spirits and additional flavourings such as sugar, fruits, herbs, and spices.
Torrero comes in two varieties- Torrero Original the more potent version that has 42.8% of alcohol content and Torrero Wild, a smoother variant that contains 37.5% alcohol.
Yuti is an integrated alcoholic beverages company that also produces beer under the Yura Brand. Yura Gold, is a premium lager and sugar-free medium beer, aimed at the social drinker. Yura Strong on the other hand, is a stronger beer.
Punit Shah (31) the founder of Yuti Breweries believes that despite a tight market dominated by the Anheuser-Busch InBev-owned Nile Breweries and the Diageo subsidiary, Uganda Breweries, he can create more room for his brands, in the throats of Ugandans and as such a share of their wallet too.
How exactly does he hope to achieve this feat, against deeper-pocketed competitors?
“Differentiation and innovation,” he says.
“The current products in the market are pretty much along the same lines as what has been produced in Uganda for the last 30 years. Our products are more along the lines of flavoured liqueurs which are an innovative addition on the Ugandan market. When it comes to quality, branding and packaging – we wish to provide the Ugandan and East African markets with an international quality product which is homegrown,” he told CEO East Africa in an interview.
“Our brewery and blending unit is state of the art and was built to provide high quality and innovative Ugandan-made products in the space of spirits and beer. The beer was initially only meant to be produced in kegs but we use the bottle format to drive people to try and give feedback while we prepare to serve in kegs,” he says.
Punit has to date invested USD8 million and counting. The business employs 100 direct employees so far.
But who is Punit Shah?
Born in India, lived in Uganda and studied in the United Arab Emirates, he describes himself as a “son of more than one soil”.
He went to Madonna University, in the United States of America where he completed a Bachelor of Business Administration, majoring in Accounting & Finance.
As soon as he completed University, he naturally joined private business- as it was more of a family calling.
“I come from a family where my parents, their parents and their ancestors believe in creating opportunities. My father and mother are both entrepreneurs. I married my childhood sweetheart who is also very enterprising. My extended family have also been entrepreneurs for generations,” he says.
“For me, the stage was already set. The question asked to me was – not what I was going to do when I grow up, but, which business I was going to be in and what difference I would bring in as a next-gen entrepreneur,” he recalls.
His love and passion for adventure led him into the hospitality sector early in life. Soon after university, he set up and now co-owns City One, a Tourism & Travel company in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Under his watch, the company initially started with local tours, then expanded to visas, ticketing, and then to outbound and Dubai holidays, turning the company into an end-to-end travel solution provider for both individual and B2B clients.
He says that over the last decade, he has been in charge of City One, the business has achieved consistent YoY growth, expanded geographies of trade, created profitable channels, enhanced client loyalty, increased market capitalisation and gained a stellar reputation for putting more emphasis on technological innovations.
On what sets City One apart, he says, “We are most sought after in the industry for our expertise in this domain, lightning-speed response and exemplary customer service. Having high-end infrastructure with cutting-edge technology enables us to be a popular choice among our retail and B2B clients”.
After gaining good traction in the United Arab Emirates, Punit in 2018 decided he needed to “give back” to Uganda, the country that raised him. This is how he came to set up K Hotels, a 4-star hotel for business travellers, vacationers and business events.
“Today, we have achieved the No.1 spot in Entebbe, amongst hotels in our category,” he says.
In 2019, he decided to set up Yuti Breweries and he says, “another food and beverages venture, is brewing”.
On what exactly attracted him to Uganda, Punit says he has always been keen on giving back to the countries that raised him, in form setting up businesses and creating jobs.
“Businesses do transform people, societies and countries in several ways,” he says.
What keeps Punit grounded?
The youthful businessman says that having grown up in an entrepreneurial family, he was able to observe his parents closely and learn from them and but the real learning came about when he eventually got into the game himself.
“I have seen the toils, and perseverance and understand the resilience quotient required to be an entrepreneur. I have come to learn that there will be cycles of ebbs (downs) and flows (ups) and have been part of many cycles of ebbs and flows myself. The ebbs trained me to expect anything in life and embrace problems; waking up to uncertainties is something I have been accustomed to. The flows inculcate values in me and made me what I am today,” he says.
As a leader, Punit, reckons, he is a doer.
“I am a field person. So, when I talk to my team, I do not talk 5 feet above the ground, but I would be with them. As in – I do know the ground-level issues faced by them, and I steer and provide inputs from that place – rather than from a cozy corner office,” he says.
“My leadership style is also based on that – let my team do their work, as Steve Job famously put it – I have smart people with me for me not to tell them what they have to do, rather they tell me how to solve a problem, and where the next win could”.
“To foster such an environment – they need to experience things. So my fundamental belief is to allow them to experience on their own, pitch in when they have an issue, and show them ways where they can solve it,” he says.
His mantra and advice about life, is “take action”.
“When things are happening the way you wanted, wonderful; keep taking action and move forward. If you are having a bad day and things are not in your favour, take action and keep moving. The action can be even as small as getting out of your office and doing some mundane administrative work or going for a walk. Remember, you may not change the way the day unfolds or the world treats you, but you can alter the results by taking action. Taking action helps you avoid the setting in of inertia and takes care of the energy levels for the next day,” he quips.