Marine and more

He was a captain with Scindia Steam Navigation Company, with long experience in the ways of wind and wave. But what he really wanted to do was to steam ahead on his own, to test the waters in business. Capt Percy Master, founder chairman and managing director (MD) of the Master Group, ferries us through the early years and the choppy approach channels to individual enterprise: "I resigned from Scindia and in March 1983 started off as marine surveyor and consultant, with my wife Arin as secretary and one peon. I had a young family to support. Arin’s uncle Minoo Mukadam gave us table space in his accountancy firm Navroze A. Davar and Company at Motlibai Wadia Building at Horniman Circle (in Bombay). The first six months saw tough times. No one wanted to give work to a new entrant in the market. But we got our first break and the business grew.”

Today Master commands a flotilla of family-owned companies — Master Marine Services Private Limited, Prudential Shipping Agencies Private Limited, Meher Container Terminals Private Limited and NYK Master Auto Logistics Limited. Master Power, which runs a mini hydel power plant in Karnataka, is a division of Master Marine Services. With 42 branches all over India and over 1,500 employees, Group turnover is close to Rs 100 crore, as per company sources.

The Master family: (from left) Zeenia, Percy, Arin, Xerxes, Kainaz; late Pinaz

A strong force steering towards expansion and diversification is Percy’s son Xerxes, on board as director after his return from Plymouth, England in 1998 with an MSc in international shipping. "The shipping industry today is doing very well worldwide. With the economies of India and China booming, much of the cargo is centered around this area,” explains Percy. "Traditional sea lanes to Europe, UK, USA, etc are still busy but growth lies in our region. I anticipate this to go on for at least 10 years.” The captain’s visage is calm, the speech measured. Hidden below the surface is the drive and dynamism which has seen him pull the business out of the trough of the worldwide shipping recession of the 1990s, as well as the personal tragedy and trauma the family had to undergo in 2003 when Xerxes’ young wife Pinaz was knocked down and killed in a dreadful hit-and-run accident on a south Bombay street. They had been married for less than two years.

The oldest and largest of Group companies is Master Marine Services. In container survey, "we are the pioneers in providing back office operational support to over 90 leading shipping lines. Our activities include marine survey, loss assessment, cargo tally, delivery, tracing, outturn, lashing, etc,” states their brochure. Prudential Shipping acts as agent for foreign shipping lines, mainly Conti-Lines, Antwerp, Belgium with whom they have had a long association. Prudential is also a leading air and sea logistics company — door-to-door, airport-to-airport, or as per the clients’ needs. Their expertise covers bulk commodities like rice, wheat, fertilizer, coal as well as break bulk operations (cargo which is not containerized, such as heavy machinery, turbines, large steel products, etc) and forwarding for power, energy, infrastructure projects. "The future lies in logistics which is a $125 billion industry worldwide,” says Xerxes. "The Indian logistics industry has seen only the tip of the iceberg. With an expected eight percent growth year on year, we intend to play a strong part in India. Warehousing, distribution, supply chain management require funds on a sizeable scale. We want to enter the big league.”

A joint venture is NYK Master Auto Logistics. "NYK Tokyo is one of the oldest and most respected shipping lines and the largest auto logistics company. We are the pioneers and market leaders in India for handling vehicular cargo on car carriers. Presently our fleet consists of 65 car trailers. We also offer pre-delivery inspection of export cars (for paint/polish/engine defects, etc) for Tata and Maruti Suzuki vehicles and are the official carriers for these two companies as well as BMW and Honda,” states Xerxes. "There is severe competition. Multinationals are coming in with a lot of expertise in logistics. We have to persevere. There is a lot to learn,” the captain’s tactical thinking comes to the fore. Adds Arin: "Many people have jumped onto the bandwagon of shipping. It is important to diversify.”

The family charted unfamiliar waters in 1998 when they ventured into the setting up of a mini power plant in a remote inland area in the Nugu Valley, 58 km from Mysore. Narrates Xerxes: "It was a total saga, a two-year-tussle with bureaucracy to get the site and the permissions and two years to build the 3,000 KW plant after we had bought the rights from an international firm. The World Bank finances greenfield projects for renewable energy resources. It was Dad who handled it singlehandedly. I was his biggest critic, telling him to leave it, but he stuck on.” "It is a beautiful area. The Nugu Dam is an old British built dam with vast agricultural fields all around, near the boundary of the Kabini game reserve. There were no roads. It was a backbreaking jeep ride,” describes Percy. "There were cost overruns, loans had to be serviced but we did not default and we were complimented (by the World Bank) for that,” adds Xerxes. "At the last moment we were told we would also have to make the arrangements to evacuate the power. We had to build the towers and connect the cables to the government substation,” Percy elaborates. Constructed on a 40-year BOT (build, operate, transfer) basis and with a 20-year power purchase agreement in place with the Karnataka State Electricity Board, it’s smoother sailing now, smiles the captain. The company may in future venture into other wind or hydropower projects, the directors state.

"It has also long been at the back of our minds to build a residential school. When we had the finance, there was no land,” says Arin. The land is now ready (near the Maharashtra/Gujarat border), adds Xerxes. "It has also been a dream to build a home for the aged, where good care is provided and not just a place where the old are dumped. I hope we can make this dream come true,” Arin voices her thoughts.

The Pinaz Xerxes Master Foundation, set up in memory of a young life prematurely snuffed out, seeks to bridge troubled waters for the less fortunate. "We have set up scholarships from SSC to PhD level. We are not limiting ourselves to Parsis, but we would certainly like to look after our own. We renovated the Hodiwalla bungli (at Doongerwadi where her funeral was held), restored the stained glass at Bhikha Behram Well, put paver blocks on the road leading to the Iranshah in Udvada. We intend to do a lot more, but time is a constraint,” asserts Xerxes. "I just don’t know how that year (of her death) passed. Honestly we couldn’t have done it without divine help. I pray at home, Percy and Xerxes go to the agiary every day,” the trauma comes through in Arin’s voice. "At the end of the day, either you cope or you wither away. Family, friends and faith have seen us through. There was a period (late ’90s — early years of the new millennium) when everything was going wrong—business and personal,” Xerxes remarks. The tide started to turn at the end of 2004: "The business started picking up. I remarried. Kainaz is an associate architect with Talati Panthaky and Associates. We have a one-and-a-half-year-old son Derezar. There is now direction, optimism for the future.” "Xerxes and Kainaz live in the same building. We are close to each other, there for each other, yet independent. This could not have happened without help from above,” the mother is certain.

Control room at power plant

The Masters’ 20-year-old daughter Zeenia is presently doing hospitality management in Switzerland and will graduate in December 2008. "There is a 10-and-a half-year age difference between Xerxes and Zeenia. I helped Percy to start the business. In fact I was the only one with him! Thereafter the children needed me. Social work (through the Rotary Club and other institutions) has occupied a lot of my time,” says Arin.

Percy recalls his early days in Porbander where his grandfather Khanbahadur Framroze Sorabji Master was the Diwan of Porbander. "We lived on the palace estate in Porbander and my birth in 1945 was the first Caesarian in the town, performed by a German doctor! After my grandfather retired, we lived as a large joint family in a big bungalow in Rajkot where I studied at the well-known Rajkumar College (a school). My father Meher (after whom Meher Container Terminals is named) was a bleaching and dyeing expert in a German firm.” Meher later branched into pharmacy, setting up a big chemist’s shop in Rajkot. When the shop started giving inadequate returns, Percy and the immediate family moved to Bombay in 1954 where they lived as paying guests (PG) in Khareghat Colony ("from palace to PG!” quips Xerxes). Schooling at St Joseph’s at Umerkhadi, the lad thereafter joined the training ship Dufferin in 1963. "It was a very tough all-India entrance exam, with thousands of applicants and only 80 selected. You had to be physically very fit, have extremely good eyesight and top in the exams as well. But I was very focused. Our financial condition was not so good and I had to start earning early.”

Parsis were pioneers in the handling of port activities, prospering in stevedoring, trucking, etc, observes Percy. "But they slowly lost out as old family-owned businesses did not diversify and grow. But we still have a good presence given the numerical size of the community. New entrepreneurs have come in and filled the gap.” The captain rates JNPT (Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust at Nhava Sheva) among the premier ports in India, with Bombay port too regaining some of its lost glory with the introduction of greater professionalism. New ports are coming up very fast. The shipper will benefit, though competition is stiff. What really ties shipping up in knots is poor inland infrastructure (road/rail communication), he notes.

Hailing the imminent advent of universal adult franchise for the election of the trustees of the Bombay Parsi Puncha­yet, Percy however sounds a note of caution: "Good people have to stand. If we elect unruly elements, we will suffer. Let there be a committee which selects candidates. The trustees should be a mix from different walks of life. We must persuade topmost professionals from different fields — law, accountancy, business, etc — to come forward. There can also be a representative from the masses — the common man, so to speak.”

The ‘orthodox’ and ‘liberal’ divide and infighting are leading us on to a disastrous path, believe father and son. Sit together, talk intelligent solutions and be realistic, they advise. Be it community or country, change is inevitable. Comments Xerxes: "Five to 10 years ago, there were people who were trying to sell me the idea of emigration. Now it is ‘do you think we should return home?’ I do not for a moment doubt my decision (to return to India). This is home; what we have here we will never get elsewhere.”