Twenty seven years ago, Anand Kapoor left an MBA course in India to take up a job on a treasury and forex desk at a Ugandan bank.
After 18 months on the job, the entrepreneurial Kapoor considered his salary increase for the following year and concluded that being employed was not worth it.
He quit the job to set up his own business, Midcom Group which dealt in forex.
“I opened up a foreign exchange bureau because that was my experience; I used to manage risk and treasury. It made me a lot of money,” said Kapoor in a previous media interview.
The risk has certainly paid off, eventually. Kapoor, now aged 50, has grown the Ugandan start-up into a $1.5bn conglomerate that has interests in seven industries in 17 countries.
The money made in the forex business allowed Kapoor to match his ambitious plans for growth — but not before he faced potential ruin when his forex bureau failed.
Kapoor slowly rebuilt the company once more. After the acquisition of a rose farm and a school in Uganda, the decision to relocate Midcom’s headquarters to Dubai and venture into the mobile phone distribution in 2004 turned out to be the best risk of all.
At its height Midcom operated more than 1000 shops across two continents.
With money made from distribution of mobile phones, Kapoor and his business partners ventured into other businesses.
One of which is Pearl Dairy Farms in Uganda which he launched in 2012.
Pearl Dairies produces and distributes a growing portfolio of dairy products across Africa under the brand name ‘Lato Milk’.
Redefining the CFO Role in Oil and Gas: Inside How UNOC’s Emmanuel Mugagga Is Executing Strategy for National ImpactThe four leading export products for the company are: powdered milk, UHT milk, butter and flavored milk. The company also makes yoghurt.
The factory is built on 15 acres in Bihaarwe, Western Uganda. It purchases milk from farmers in Mbarara and neighboring communities.
In 2020, the company invested an estimated UGX 10 billion (US$2.73 million) in commercial honey farming in collaboration with local dairy farmers.
The need to diversify both the company’s and farmers’ incomes, arose out the challenges that have faced the milk production and processing industry. Local over-production, limited local consumption and difficulty in securing willing regional buyers are some of the challenges.
As part of its diversification strategy, the company announced plans to enter new regional markets including, Ethiopia, Malawi, South Sudan and Zambia.
In June 2021, the company unveiled a new milk-processing line capable of packaging 130,000 litres daily. The line, which incorporates Sweden-based Tetra Pak technology, cost UGX 9.25 billion (approx. US$2.6 million) to install.
In 2023 Pearl Dairy began manufacturing Lato Grow, a line of fortified instant milk powder formulated for children between the ages of 3 and 5.
There is no doubt that the company has grown by leaps and bounds. According to latest statistics from Uganda Revenue Authority, Pearl Dairy had a turnover of Shs 171 billion.
