He merely went there to buy office space. It, however, proved to be a game-changing moment for him. The transaction slowly but surely got him entangled in a web. Much water has flown under the bridge since then. As he played the Good Samaritan, he pushed himself into a mission mode. The next decade saw him toil hard to revive one of the country’s oldest fertiliser brands, cleaning up Rs 52 crore in liabilities and ultimately reshaping KICL into a diversified enterprise spanning fertilisers, drones, food and footwear. Today, as the Chairman and Managing Director of KICL, Rafiq Ahmed speaks with unalloyed passion and confidence of a crusader who has succeeded in rescuing a sinking ship and putting it back to open waters. His story is one of grit, tenacity and self-belief.
Unlearn, relearn and improvise
Rafiq was not a fertiliser man by training. His roots were in steel trading and contracting. Later, he spent time in Delhi’s corporate corridors, where he learned the fine print of finance, compliance and negotiation. Those two worlds – the ruggedness of steel and the sophistication of corporate Delhi shaped his instincts. If steel taught him endurance, his engagement with the corporates has helped him to understand the importance of process. Together, they prepared him for the chaos he would face at KICL.
When he entered the fertiliser plant in 2013, reality hit. The unit had been idle for years. Dealers had lost trust. Workers were demotivated. Restarting operations meant not just buying raw material but rebuilding faith. “I had to stand on the floor, side by side with them,” Rafiq recalled. “They needed to see that I wasn’t here to cut and run.” Losses were heavy in the first months. He calls them his tuition fees, the price of learning an alien business. Every day was a new subject: sulphur sourcing, subsidy rules, bagging standards, freight costs… There was no handbook, only trial and error. But Rafiq had one advantage: he didn’t carry any baggage. With no fertiliser background, he questioned everything. That fresh lens slowly turned into a strength. He was willing to unlearn, relearn and improvise — and that would later become KICL’s DNA.
Cleaning the Slate
By 2018, Rafiq formally joined the KICL board as Vice-Chairman & Managing Director, and the first order of business was clear: fix the balance sheet. The numbers were brutal. The company carried heavy liabilities, some stretching back decades. The brand name then carried more baggage than goodwill. “The hardest was Kotak Mahindra Bank. We had a Rs 52 crore liability. Until that was cleared, nothing else mattered,” stated Rafiq. The negotiations were long and tense. But once the settlement was signed, KICL was finally debt-free. That single move changed the company’s psychology. Employees began to see a future. Vendors restarted credit lines. Even dealers slowly came back into conversation. For Rafiq, it was more than numbers. It was about dignity. “Those employees had given their lives to this company. Clearing their dues was the least I could do. Otherwise, what are we building on?” he stressed. He often describes those years as patching holes in a sinking ship. One leak after another, he plugged them, sometimes with cash, but many a times with sheer persistence. But once the holes were sealed, the vessel began to float again. KICL restarted with a clean slate. Rafiq knew that survival required more than just revival.
Fertiliser Ambitions
Fertilisers were KICL’s foundation. The Single Super Phosphate unit in Tamil Nadu kept the wheels turning, but Rafiq was restless. He knew India’s fertiliser industry was hostage to subsidies, imports and shifting policy. If KICL wanted scale, it had to think beyond India’s borders.
In 2021, an opportunity opened up in the Gulf. Qatar was seeking industrial partners to move beyond oil dependence. Rafiq saw the fit instantly: gas is the single biggest input for fertiliser production. Qatar had it in abundance. He signed an MoU in Doha to set up a 1.2 million tonne DAP/NPK plant. The deal had backing from none other than Sheikh Falah bin Jasim bin Jabor Al Thani, giving the project both credibility and visibility. “It was about supply security and global presence,” explained Rafiq.
India imports fertilisers. Producing in Qatar made perfect sense. “For us, it meant stepping out of our comfort zone and building something on an international scale,” highlighted Rafiq. This was a bold leap and investors and dealers, once sceptical, began to look at KICL with new respect. As plans took shape in the Gulf, another crisis back home would change his trajectory altogether.
COVID Pivot
COVID struck. For months, factories were shut, logistics collapsed and fertiliser operations slowed to a crawl. Many companies froze, waiting for the storm to pass. Rafiq took the opposite view: a crisis is the best time to diversify.“COVID taught us one thing, never depend on a single track.” That urgency sparked three new divisions in 2020–21: healthcare, food and drones. Healthcare and food were natural picks. Both are essential, and both are resilient even in lockdown. KICL began testing nutraceuticals, packaged food products and basic health supplies. It wasn’t yet a revenue giant, but it signalled that the company was not trapped in its old mould. The boldest bet was drones. In 2021, KICL launched its drone division targeting two spaces: agriculture (spraying, seeding, soil surveys) and security (police, defence, industrial estates). India’s drone policy was still evolving, imports were restricted and training requirements were messy. But Rafiq didn’t wait for the perfect framework, “if we waited, we would be too late. So, we started small, built assembly capacity, trained people and placed ourselves in the conversation when Delhi was drafting rules.” The diversification has been an insurance. Fertilisers were cyclical, drones futuristic, food and health stable. Put together, they give KICL the resilience it needs to survive the pandemic. And yet, his biggest pivot was still to come!
Leap into Footwear
If fertilisers were KICL’s legacy and drones its experiment, footwear is its boldest leap. The turning point came in August 2022, when Rafiq met a Taiwanese footwear partner. The timing was perfect. Global brands like Nike, Crocs, Adidas had long relied on Chinese and Taiwanese factories. But China was getting costlier, supply chains were shifting and brands were scouting for alternatives. “They weren’t looking at Tamil Nadu and that is what I wanted to change,” pointed Rafiq. To prove his seriousness, he bought land in Perambalur with his own money. No subsidies, no waiting for incentives. “I invested first. That showed them we weren’t just chasing headlines and we were committed,” beamed Rafiq. Construction moved fast. By November 2023, less than a year after the MoU, the first Crocs factory was operational. On 240 acres, it now employs around 2500 people, majority of them women. “Today, thousands of women in Perambalur are part of a global supply chain. That is impact,” pointed Rafiq. The ripple effects can be seen across the villages. Buses run daily to ferry women workers. Small eateries and shops thrive around the factory. Lodges and hostels house young employees. Transporters find steady contracts. Families that were once dependent on agriculture now see daughters and wives bringing steady incomes. In a district once tagged as backwards, KICL has seeded a new identity. “When I see women earning with dignity, it feels worth it,” he said. “Business is not just profit. It’s about restoring dignity — to people, to communities, to places,” highlighted Rafiq and to him, this is as important as contracts with Crocs or Adidas.
People Impact
The success drew in other global players. Adidas soon signed up, with a factory planned in Karur. Already, 200 engineers are being trained across China, Vietnam and Indonesia. Production is expected to begin in early 2026. And Rafiq didn’t stop there. He secured a 35-year licence for the Kickers brand across nine countries. Four stores are already open in India, one in Qatar, with production split between France and India.
The Crocs’ success in Perambalur has built an ecosystem of suppliers. To further leverage it, KICL is proposing a Footwear Park in Madurai with unique ownership. Unlike typical industrial parks developed by governments, this one will be 100 per cent owned by KICL and will be open for other brands to set up alongside KICL’s own partners. Thirty-two component manufacturers are mapped into the park, covering everything from soles and insoles to laces and packaging. Already, 22 have signed MoUs with the Tamil Nadu government and KICL. All these developments are quietly making the state emerge as India’s footwear capital.
Waste-to-Energy
Even as footwear takes centre stage, Rafiq is already scanning the horizon for the next big play. “Waste is the oil of the future. Cities are drowning in garbage, and industries need energy. If we convert waste into power, we solve both problems,” highlighted Rafiq. To bring this vision alive, KICL has tied up with BEEAH, the Sharjah-based sustainability pioneer known for building some of the Middle East’s most advanced waste-to-energy plants. They are working on large-scale platforms that can process urban waste and convert it into clean, reliable power. Tamil Nadu is set to be the launchpad. The idea is not only to handle municipal waste more scientifically but also to create a parallel energy stream that can feed industries and reduce fossil fuel dependence. For KICL, this is not just diversification — it’s positioning. “Fertilisers gave us our roots, footwear gave us wings. Waste-to-energy will give us long-term relevance,” said Rafiq with conviction. It is a long-gestation bet, but so was footwear.
When Rafiq stepped into KICL, it was more than a broken balance sheet — it was a broken reputation. Today, it is once again on the move with several successful projects and more interesting ones lined up. It is not just the scale of transformation that stands out, but the speed. In less than a decade, Rafiq Ahmed has transformed a company that few believed in into a story of revival, diversification, and global ambition. What could be his biggest challenge? Managing growth could yet prove his biggest challenge. Not surprisingly, he has embarked on a path to put in place systems and procedures so that the growth momentum picks up steam sans any bias.
His philosophy remains disarmingly simple. “Business is borderless. It’s not about caste, religion, or nationality. It’s about trust, quality, and delivery.”
~ With inputs from Mohamed Ameen M