Shri Vasuprada Plantations Ltd is a 150-year-old agricultural enterprise that grows, processes and sells tea, coffee and natural rubber from eight estates across Assam, Karnataka and Kerala. Originally founded in 1874 as a single tea estate in Upper Assam, the company passed into the hands of the House of Bangurs in 1954 and has since expanded into a diversified plantation business, renaming itself in 2022 to reflect that broader identity. The recurring approach is simple: own the land and the bearer plants - tea bushes, coffee bushes and rubber trees - harvest the crop, process it in-house, and sell the output to established buyers through auctions and direct channels, while steadily investing in quality certifications, irrigation and cost-saving measures to protect the harvest against weather and market swings.
Business segments
Three plantation crops grown on the same estate footprint - tea, rubber and coffee, in order of their contribution - each a distinct harvest with its own processing, pricing and buyer base, supported by a shared agricultural backbone.
1. Tea: the original crop and still the largest
The company grows and manufactures black tea on estates in Assam and South India, selling it through auctions and direct deals to packers, blenders and exporters.
- Two regions, two tea types - Assam estates produce CTC (Crush, Tear, Curl) teas, the granular style that dominates the Indian mass market, while South Indian estates in Karnataka and Kerala produce both CTC and Orthodox teas, with well-made Orthodox grades commanding bullish demand.
- Quality marks open doors - the Joonktollee estate in Assam holds ISO 22000 food-safety certification, the Goomankhan estate in Karnataka holds ISO 9001 and HACCP certification, and the Pullikanam estate has won Golden Leaf Awards, all of which help secure buyers among large Indian and global tea houses.
- A structural headwind - small tea growers and bought-leaf factories now supply over half of India's tea, creating a surplus that weighs on prices, while changing weather patterns have eroded the organised industry's crop by about 1% a year for a decade.
2. Rubber: a quality play in a deficit market
Natural rubber is tapped from trees on Kerala estates and sold into a domestic market where consumption far outstrips production, with the company chasing a premium through quality.
- India needs more than it grows - domestic rubber production was estimated at 8.70 lakh tonnes in FY24 against consumption of 14.20 lakh tonnes, so the country imports heavily, including duty-free from ASEAN countries under a free-trade agreement.
- Quality as the differentiator - the company focuses on producing rubber that fetches a premium in the market, which matters because it competes directly with zero-duty imports that set a ceiling on prices.
- A legal clearance unlocked the trees - in December 2025, the Kerala High Court permitted the company to cut, remove and replant rubber trees, reversing an earlier order that had required depositing sale proceeds with the Forest Department, so the company can now renew ageing plantations under official oversight.
- Wild animals are an operating risk - encroachment by wild animals into rubber plantations is an ongoing concern, and the company has had to invest in measures to minimise man-animal conflict on its Kerala estates.
3. Coffee: the smallest crop, with a bet on water
Arabica and Robusta coffee are grown on a single South Indian estate and sold into a global market where India is a modest producer, with irrigation investment aimed at stabilising yields.
- Two beans, one estate - the Cowcoody estate produces both Arabica (the higher-value, milder bean) and Robusta (the hardier, higher-caffeine bean), with Robusta making up roughly three-quarters of the harvest in most years.
- Water is the yield lever - the company has expanded its capacity to irrigate Robusta fields by excavating reservoirs to store rainwater and recharge the water table, directly addressing the climate variability that threatens coffee output.
- A price-taker in a global commodity - India produced around 348 million kgs of coffee in the 2021 season, a fraction of the world's 167 million bags, so the company sells into a price environment set by global supply and demand rather than anything it can influence locally.
Shared plantation backbone
The three crops are grown on a common estate infrastructure - eight estates, 2,728 permanent workers, and a set of agricultural practices and certifications that cut across tea, coffee and rubber.
- Bearer plants are the factory floor - tea bushes (useful life 50-60 years), coffee bushes (30-80 years) and rubber trees (30 years) are carried as property, plant and equipment on the balance sheet, while the unharvested crop on them - green leaf, unpicked cherries, latex on tree - is measured at fair value as a biological asset.
- Research comes via subscription - the company does not run its own R&D lab; instead it pays subscriptions to four industry bodies - the Tea Research Association, UPASI, the Karnataka Planters Association and the Association of Planters of Kerala - spending Rs. 16.75 lakhs in FY25 to access their agronomic research.
- Labour is the constant challenge - plantation work is highly labour-intensive and subject to stringent laws, with rising wages, absenteeism and worker migration to cities pushing the company toward mechanisation of key field operations and labour optimisation.
- Inputs are stockpiled against isolation - because estates sit in remote areas vulnerable to weather and logistics disruption, the company holds higher-than-normal inventory of consumable stores - packing materials, coal and high-speed diesel - as a buffer.
Group structure and partners
The company sits inside the Bangur group with a 75% promoter holding, operates through a wholly owned plantation subsidiary, and has a web of related-party transactions that include loans, green-leaf sales and a partly-divested former subsidiary.
- A wholly owned subsidiary in the same business - Koratty Plantations Private Limited (also called Keshava Plantations) is a fully-owned subsidiary with which the parent trades green leaf, tea and plants, and into which it invested Rs. 800 lakhs via a rights issue in FY25.
- An associate with a land connection - the company holds a 24.68% stake in The Cochin Malabar Estates And Industries Limited, and leasehold land at two rubber estates is held in that associate's name, with title transfer still in process.
- Concentrated customer relationships - one customer, J. Thomas and Co. Pvt. Ltd., accounted for 21.56% of total revenue in FY25, and in prior years a single buyer, Pranjivan J Shah, represented over 10-18% of revenues, so the sales book is built on deep relationships with a handful of large tea and commodity buyers.