Two co-founders of Brentwood-based Guy Brown Products — Bappa Mukherji and Jay Chawan — confirmed yesterday Chawan is leaving the privately held company, which projects $215 million in annual revenue.Mukherji told NashvillePost.com yesterday Chawan's departure as chief operating officer comes as the company acquires one business, divests of another and sets its sights on a new market segment it has long passed-by.GBP was launched eight years ago by Mukherji, Chawan and President Tera Vazquez. The company is a government-certified minority supplier that makes and markets recycled laser-printer toner cartridges for the federal government and other very large customers. Mukherji said yesterday he now owns 90 percent of GBP and President Tera Vasquez retains 10 percent interest. Previously, each of the three co-founders owned a third of the company.There may still be legal details to be addressed in all this.Chawan told NashvillePost.com yesterday that while a non-binding "letter of intent has been signed on deal points," binding agreements have not been finalized. He confirmed his departure has been announced to GBP employees. "It's a matter of timing," Chawan added. The 41-year-old declined to discuss his future plans.Chawan's exit would mark a sharp turn, if not an end for a partnership that began while the two self-proclaimed "Brown Guys" were students at Vanderbilt. Since then, one or both have been involved in numerous ventures, including investing in Tom Kats, acquisitions of medical properties and running afoul of some intercollegiate athletic rules. Mukherji said yesterday the sports incident seven years ago reflected the VU alumni's uninformed attempts to "protect" two Vanderbilt athletes from contracting with professional agents, prematurely.The shakeup at Guy Brown has been in-the-works, awhile. In addition to buying-out Chawan and reducing the share of ownership held by Vazquez, GBP recently paid about $1 million for full ownership of Concerto Office Products. Concerto was a joint venture with publicly traded OfficeMax Incorporated in which GBP previously held controlling interest. In anticipation of Chawan's leaving, Mukherji said sales-focused Vazquez is taking on additional duties, including oversight of offshore manufacturing. And, former Concerto General Manager Philip Markuson, based in Chicago, has been named to take-up Chawan's former domestic-operations responsibilities.Co-founder Vazquez told NashvillePost.com yesterday that "as partners, we were the perfect fit," with Mukherji as CEO, Chawan for many years handling finances, and her selling. Growing the larger company depends on the success of Mukherji's multi-pronged strategy.GPB's recent moves follow several short-lived experiments in diversification. For example, Mukherji said GBP is "in the process of exiting" ownership of Diversafile Everett LLC, a paper-product manufacturer he formed by combining two other companies.Mukherji explained he next plans to leverage GPB's size and geographic reach to reach "medium-sized" business with a minimum 50 employees. Such customers are only 3 percent of GBP's current business.He said the firm will also bring in-house its distribution to the Top 10 markets U.S. markets, a potentially lucrative function previously outsourced to OfficeMax and others.Mukherji projected GBP annual revenue at $215 million for the next 12 months. Revenue in the original GBP business grew modestly from about $48 million in 2005 to "just over $50 million" this year. Revenue from the former Concerto operation is running at $165 million per year, he said.GBP has about 65 employees in the United States, including 20 in its Brentwood headquarters, and the balance mainly concentrated in a Bristol, Va., call center and in a Chicago finance and accounting office. A GBP sister company employs 16 persons in a manufacturing plant located near Mexicali, Mex.A son of parents who immigrated here from the Calcutta region of India, Mukherji was born in Connecticut and reared from age 4 in McMinnville. He earned a law degree at Vanderbilt University School of Law in 1995. He then practiced two years with Neal & Harwell, and retains the firm as his corporate counsel.Mukherji, now 37, also earned an M.B.A. at VU's Owen Graduate School of Management, in 1995. In 1991, he earned his bachelor's in economics at California Institute of Technology at Pasadena. Mukherji is married and the father of four children, age 17 months to 10.
CEO shakes things up at Guy Brown Products
