BUSINESS MOGHULS

Business Moghuls is HTE's attempt to depict views, work and life of important businessmen and senior executives of the region. In this issue, Aziz Haider talked to Mayur Garg, Managing Partner of Tex India Distributors, handling revered brands like Louis Philippe, Allen Solly, Van Heusen, and Peter England.

He is suave, young and articulate. What’s more, he has got a very calculative brain over his young shoulders. So much so that when he realized that a great deal of his money was spent on outdoor advertising campaigns for four of India’s highest selling readymade garment brands, he started an outdoor agency of his own, which is today one of the leading outdoor advertising agencies of UP.
Mayur Garg, Managing Partner of Tex India distributors, looks skywards when you ask about his future plans. Carrying forward the traditional family business as C&F agents for medicines, Garg showed his business acumen by realizing the future potential of retail at a time when few knew the significance of this word. With time, the garment retail became a passion for him so much so that it cannot be said precisely whether he takes time out of business to watch movies, another of his passion, or takes time out of seeing films to conduct business deal. Whatever, Garg’s success story has proved that innovation and hard work pays; whatever you do.
Consequently Garg ventured out into other areas as well. This included the successful venture of Origins, the advertising agency, and a not-so-successful venture of restaurant business, which he attributes to wrong timing rather than anything else.
“Retail will grow considerably in future,” says Garg. “Existing markets will have no option but to upgrade. Already, the change is visible in Hazratganj and Gomti Nagar, where space-owners have closed shops and rented out the premises to multinationals.” Garg is of the view that the entire market dynamics will change in Lucknow once the six more malls that are in varying stages of construction opens.
But Lucknow is still far away from really becoming a metro, says Garg. “Metro is not about certain number of people alone. You have to have infrastructure. You should have railway stations, roads, transportation services, airports of that standard. Lucknow has seen much development in two years but still lot needs to be done. Lights have come up on traffic intersections and more importantly Lucknowites have started stopping on red lights. UPSRTC has introduced new buses, but public transport system still continues to be bad.” In next two years, however, the Lucknow skyline is going to change tremendously, considering the amount of construction that is happening at present, adds Garg.