London: For the thousands of Malayali students who go to the United Kingdom every year to do a higher education course, Jacob Thundil’s story is an inspiration.
Most often, the youngsters have to go back to India when their student visa expires as it is near to impossible to turn it into a work permit. To achieve that, a student has to find a high-paying job with an employer who believes they are absolutely essential for the job.
After coming to London in 1997, Jacob was also in a similar position. He completed his MBA from London Metropolitan University and was on the verge of expiry of his student visa. Instead of waiting for the return date, Jacob wrote his own future. He faxed a letter to over 25 big UK companies. The content of the letter was this: “If you are not prepared for the European Union, talk to me. I will help.”
It was the beginning of the European Union, a new phase for business in the UK, and Jacob had done his dissertation on it. He got calls from three companies -- British Telecom (BT), Fiat and Visio. He started his career by joining BT as an intern for their graduate programme.
Today, 22 years later, Jacob has a successful business, Cocofina, based in London that sells to 3,000 outlets in the UK. Last week, the 46-year-old was awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for his services to international trade and exports. A meteoric rise for a man whose life was at crossroads in his teenage.
Jacob said his career really started at 17. His father died when he was doing mechanical engineering at TKM College in Kollam. “I tried to turn that moment into positive rather than negative,” Jacob recalled. “I took over my dad’s cashew byproduct business while continuing my studies. My father had started the business after his retirement. So it was still at an infant stage and had kept limited customers as he didn’t want stress. “I continued studies and business together.”
Four year later, he handed over the company to his mother and flew to London to do an MBA. From being an intern at BT, Jacob climbed the career ladder with jobs at Lloyds, HSBC, Bank of Scotland, Accenture and Standard Chartered Bank. It was during a business trip to Rio de Janeiro in 2004 when Jacob got the idea for Cocofina.
Seeing that coconut water is given to customers, he thought to himself — why couldn’t this be sold in the UK! “I always wanted to do something on my own,” Jacob said. “And I was always a big fan of coconut water. But the problem was, no one really liked coconut water in the UK,” Jacob recalled.
At a taste festival at London’s Regent’s Park, 50% of the participants said they hated Jacob’s product. So he went back and slightly changed the taste. Until then, he used to export the water from India. After the review, he blended three different types of coconut water to create a milder drink.
Fortunately, it was also the start of a health wave when the trend for organic food was growing. Jacob and Cocofina also appeared in Dragon’s Den (British version of Shark Tank) in 2016 and was offered £75,000 investment by the Dragons.
The British government’s honour came as a surprise for the businessman. Having been exporting to 28 countries, Jacob is a source of information for new businesses and the UK government’s department of international trade. “British government’s goal is to increase exports. So they contact me often to inspire other small businesses to export and to consult on trade policies. We are also their export champions. But when they recommended my name for the MBE, it was very unexpected,” Jacob added.
To the Malayali diaspora who strive to make it big abroad, Jacob has one mantra: “Always try.” “Trying is very important. No one can blame you for trying. You don’t have to look desperate, but you can try hard,” he added.
Jacob has 19-year-old son who studies in Newcastle. His father John Mathew hailed from Kollam; his mother Sophy now lives in Kottayam while his twin sisters Maya and Jaya live in Kochi.
(Kiran Tom Sajan, who hails from Kochi, is a journalist based in London)