Karan Bilimoria's multimillion-pound business, Cobra Beer is a household name today and he has written an intriguing book, Bottled for Business, The Less Gassy Guide to Entrepreneurship, which explains the burgeoning portfolio of his products and unearths the ups and downs of introducing the world to his special brew. He was surprisingly running late, busy dropping his children to school which he explained was a true privilege given his hectic travel schedules and long hours.

Can you both tell us a little about your childhood?
Karan: My father was in the Indian army so we moved around a lot, and I went to seven different schools. Since he used to be away often, our base was Hyderabad. My mother's family home, Anand Bhavan, is there; it has been in the family for more than 70 years now.
I remember being about five years old and going to school with my grandfather in a chauffeur driven car in the morning and being picked up by my ayah in a cycle rickshaw, just before lunch in the afternoon. I eventually ended up at a boarding school called Hebron, in the hill station town of Ooty (Ootacamund, now renamed Udhamangalam). It's now a very popular school and is the only British boarding school left in India (it offers the British curriculum). It's over a hundred years old. In fact, the current headmaster was in school with Tony Blair.
I later studied at Osmania University in Hyderabad, and then came to England to study at Cambridge. It was a tradition in my family to come to England. My grandfather did his military training at Sandhurst and my maternal grandfather and mother were both graduates from Birmingham University.
Heather: I was born in South Africa and went to St Michael's school in Bloemfontein and then studied English and Latin at Rhodes University in Grahamstown. After that I taught Latin in Cape Town before coming over here to England.

How did you two meet?
Karan: A friend who was invited to a party in south London took me along. I still remember the date, it was May 17, 1991. Heather was the first person I met there and from then on there was no looking back. I never thought I would find the right girl and get married so quickly!
Heather: We had five different wedding ceremonies! First, there was a Zoroastrian jashan in our flat, followed by a marriage ceremony in a lovely church, and then an Indian ceremony at the High Commission here in England. We then went to South Africa and were joined by my relatives and Karan's family and had a Catholic ceremony on our farm, Southlands, in Free State. And then, we finally went to India, and got our blessings there! The honeymoon was continuous and we stopped over in Dubai on our way back here.

How did you get into the beer and wine business?
Karan: The idea came to me when I was a student at Cambridge, and like most business ideas, it stemmed from dissatisfaction with a product and having a passion for doing it better and differently. I have always loved beer and hated the lager here; I find it gassy, fizzy and bloating and much too strong and difficult to drink with Indian food.
Every year I used to visit my father wherever he was posted, whether it was in Kalimpong, in a desert, or in Punjab, and on one of those trips, I decided to produce my own beer. I started with Mysore Breweries in Bangalore and made sure the beer had all the refreshing qualities of lager but it was smoother, so that it could accompany Indian cuisine and also appeal to the ale drinkers here. Today we brew Cobra Beer in the UK, Belgium, Holland, Poland and India. Wine came about as a diversification about six years ago and we produce 10 different varieties in South Africa, France and Spain and they are all named after my father, General Bilimoria.

Has being in the House of Lords changed your life?
Karan: There are certain life-changing experiences like getting married, having children and this is certainly one of them too. Not a day goes by when I don’t pinch myself to check if it’s real! I am relatively young and almost a quarter century younger than most of my fellow Lords. It’s a huge honour and privilege. The peers are very eminent people in their own fields. I try to learn from them every day.
As you know we must have a ‘coat of arms’ and mine has a shield with a fire in the middle, reflecting my Zoroastrian Parsi roots. Fire is a sign of purity for us. The shield has rising suns in four quadrants representing our children. And there is a winged Persian bull on one side and a lion representing Britain, India and South Africa on the other, and they stand as supporters of the shield. They are both standing on sprigs of heather, representing my wife, Heather, who is my rock and my foundation. On the baron’s helmet is my crest, which has an elephant with its foot in a barrel of beer and our motto is in Latin which when translated means ‘Aspire and Achieve’.

How feasible is it, do you think, for an entrepreneur to invest in India today?
Karan: As you may know, I chair the Indo-British Partnership initiative, which was started by the former Indian Prime Minister, Narasimha Rao and the former British Prime Minister, John Major. I was appointed to the post by the British government three and a half years ago and it was the first time someone of Indian origin had been appointed as chairman for the Indo-British Partnership for Britain.
At the time, the initiative had started to waver. Prior to that, Concorde had been chartered and business delegations had gone across to India and Her Majesty’s yacht, Britannia, had sailed across too. And then, suddenly, all that momentum was lost. It needed to be revived. With the help of the British government, the foreign office and the department of Trade and Industry, we have managed to revive the initiative.
I have recently led a delegation to India with (Chancellor of the Exchequer) Gordon Brown – his first visit to India. There’s a huge increase in awareness about doing business in India. The NRI community is in a perfect position as ambassadors to bridge the gap and I encourage them continuously to invest there and take advantage of the opportunities available.
We ourselves are brewing Cobra Beer in Rajasthan and in Goa and are hoping to start two more breweries in the north and the east of India. We are also looking into building a brewery there from scratch this year.

Cobra Beer withdrew its support and sponsorship of the Celebrity Big Brother TV show after the furore over the racial issue that involved Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty.
Karan: This whole thing broke out when I was with Gordon Brown in India. The entire Indian business community was waiting to meet him and they were impressed with what he had to say, but we were asked a lot of questions about the Big Brother episode and I remember saying that Britain is an open, multicultural, democratic country where there is opportunity for all regardless of race and background and if there’s any bullying or racial behaviour, it is completely unacceptable. Of course, the way it all evolved, I was thrilled to see Shilpa Shetty winning with a huge majority and that restored everyone’s faith in the British public. It also proved that they actually believe in being multicultural and are not just saying it.

What is it like raising children with such a multicultural background? How do you keep the balance?
Karan: Our children are becoming more aware of their Parsi side and the older two, Kai and Zara, are going to have their Navjote (ceremony that initiates children into the Parsi faith) in March, in Hyderabad. That’s a big affair, with the whole community coming together. They are learning their prayers and I have told them to remember how lucky they are to be half Indian. When we are in India they see me wearing the sudreh-kusti (sacred thread and vest that Parsi’s wear). We are very conscious that they relate to India and South Africa and feel completely at home there, where their roots are. But England is their headquarter; they are British first.
Heather: We have four young children Kai, Zara, Josh and Lilly. I remember Zara saying when she was younger that she didn’t want an Indian Barbie doll, despite my explaining to her that she’s half Indian. I was worried about it and spoke about it to our oldest son, Kai, who mentioned that he didn’t realise he was half South African. And then much to my relief, recently, when we were going to South Africa for the Christmas holidays, the children were rushing to board the plane and the air stewardess asked them where they were from. They replied that they were half South African, half Indian and are English. I am so glad that I did not make a big deal about it at that time. They are beginning to understand that their identity is British Asian.

Where do you go for family holidays?
Karan: We visit India every Easter and go to South Africa for Christmas, where we spend time on our farm and in Cape Town.
Heather: In the summer we visit our close friends in Greece, they have a home on the island of Skiathos and Karan and I got engaged there. It’s lovely there as our kids have friends too. We try and go there every alternate year. But this year we are thinking of Brazil.

Which are your favourite places in India?
Karan: Now that the kids are getting older we will start taking them to more historical places. I want to show them the Golconda Fort in Hyderabad.
Heather: I love the buzz of Mumbai. We have friends and family there. I am getting to know Delhi better and have started to enjoy it. The landscape of Hyderabad is a bit parched and arid and that makes it very interesting.

Any new pursuits or enduring interests?
Karan: I am learning to sail in Greece with my friend who has a boat. I started from scratch, dinghy sailing, and have passed my intermediate stage. We also scuba-dive together and Kai has just started learning it. We are keen on tennis and play a lot of it as a family on holiday.
Heather: I love shopping in Delhi and Mumbai. I like Rina Dhaka’s stuff and shop often at Ogaan. I also like Hyderabad-based designer Anand Kabra’s style.