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Murugappa: The family adding value in diversification

April 18, 2013

Conglomerate Murugappa is sometimes dubbed southern India’s Tata Group, CampdenFB talks to its fourth-gen chairman about his plans for the family business.

Conglomerate Murugappa is sometimes dubbed southern India’s Tata Group, CampdenFB talks to its fourth-gen chairman about his plans for the family business.

Creative destruction

April 16, 2013

Oscar Farinetti is one of Italy’s best-known entrepreneurs. His latest venture, a food retailer called Eataly, is among the world’s fastest-growing brands. Family has played a big role in his success.

The calling to be an entrepreneur came to me when I was young, at the age of just 20. I had an overriding desire to be an entrepreneur. At that time, in the late 1970s, I realised that the electronics industry was becoming increasingly important and I decided to start developing my activities in the sector.

Ones to watch

March 21, 2013

The next-gens in luxury firms aren’t complacent. Campden looks at 10 who are making a name in their own right.

Kilian Hennessy, 40
He’s an heir of the legendary Hennessy cognac company, but Kilian Hennessy’s luxury interests lie elsewhere: in fragrances. After training under some of Europe’s most prolific noses he worked as a perfumer for Christian Dior, Paco Rabanne, Alexander McQueen and Giorgio Armani.

A view from Beijing: LuxSea founder Frank Wang

March 4, 2013

Frank Wang, 32, founder and CEO of LuxSea, on luxury, entrepreneurship and why China could be the new Japan.

Frank Wang (pictured, below), 32, founder and CEO of LuxSea, on luxury, entrepreneurship and why China could be the new Japan.

My family business is in the energy sector. My grandfather was the founder of Huaneng Group, which is one of the biggest electricity generating companies in Asia. It was the first Chinese company to go public on the NYSE and is in the Fortune 500.

Croc star

February 28, 2013

Ethan Koh, the 25-year-old fourth-generation tanner and founder of a London-based fashion business, on modern luxury, artisanship — and how to pick the perfect crocodile skin.

A vine romance

February 27, 2013

Mathilde Thomas and her husband’s beauty brand has conquered France. America is next.

New York, a week after Superstorm Sandy, and the morning of Obama’s re-election. In her new store in a prime corner location on the Upper East Side, Mathilde Thomas is lining up bottles of Caudalie skincare products with the precision of a chemist. A digital display shows the view from her bedroom at her family’s vineyard, Château Smith Haut Lafitte, with leaves rippling in the breeze. The central counter is made from wine barrels and the wallpaper is decorated with pictures of the varieties of grapes the family grows.

Soft centre

December 18, 2012

Angus Thirlwell, co-founder of Hotel Chocolat, reckons watching his father do business gave him a taste for entrepreneurship. He talks to CampdenFB about risks, chocolate and not following family expectations.

Angus Thirlwell, 49, is co-founder of Hotel Chocolat.

Six of the best

November 16, 2012

Want to know more about the family businesses on our Global Challengers 2012 list? Here are six of the best.

Fifty family businesses made our Global Challengers 2012 list. Here’s six of the best:

Scholz Group
Scholz family

Long-distance running

November 8, 2012

Nakumatt is a Kenya-based family-run retailer. It wants to be the Walmart of Africa. CampdenFB speaks to Atul Shah about the family’s ambitions – and his Olympic plans.

Atul Shah, the chief executive of east African retailer Nakumatt, is in the middle of an animated discussion with Olympic medallist Paul Tergat. Over a pot of English breakfast tea, Shah is telling his fellow Kenyan – who held the world marathon record between 2003 and 2007 – that they’ve got a lot of work to do. There are many people to speak to, to get on board, says Shah, if his vision is to be realised.

From wine to wind

October 18, 2012

The Argentinian empire founded by an accidental immigrant is an international player, thanks to its charismatic patriarch. CampdenFB speaks to the man behind one of the fastest growing family businesses in the world.

Enrique Pescarmona is a man who likes numbers. So much so that when asked what he thinks of people who are sceptical of wind farms and hydro power, the head of Argentinian energy business Impsa quickly asks for the loan of a pen and paper and begins scribbling down a series of figures. “It is easy to talk, but most people don’t like to put numbers to things,” he says. “But you cannot fool with numbers.”