Fifty years of building brands in Nepal

Founded Santonza in Kathmandu in 1975 and has led it for five decades. What began as a trading house has become a group spanning seventeen distribution categories, three retail banners, its own lens manufacturing and an investment portfolio built on promoter positions rather than passive stakes.

As Chairman he directs the group's investments and its long-term strategy — the decisions that take years to prove out: which categories to enter before the market is ready, which relationships to build slowly, and when to hold stock and extend credit so that a brand can grow.

Four decades in international sourcing and export, working between Indian manufacturing and global buyers across glassware, crockery, home décor, carpets and handicrafts — a portfolio that maps closely onto several of the categories Santonza distributes in Nepal.

He is also founder of a hospitality supply business serving international hotel and restaurant groups, with exclusive partnerships across global tableware and kitchen-equipment brands. He advises the group on international sourcing, supplier relationships and its HoReCa business.

Ashok Kumar Agarwal shaped much of what Santonza is today. He opened the group's luxury, household, cosmetics and fragrance, and eyewear businesses, and led its first move into retail — the decision that turned a distribution house into a consumer-facing group.

He built those divisions the hard way. He travelled to find them: visiting brands, walking factory floors, and going into new countries himself to judge a partner before the group committed to one. Several of the principal relationships Santonza holds today began with a trip he took personally. He passed away in 2021, and the categories he started continue to carry the group.

Joined Santonza as Executive Director in 2009 and leads the group's strategic partnerships and forward direction — identifying the categories Santonza should hold next, and building the principal relationships that bring those brands to Nepal.

He oversees sourcing, import, distribution and marketing across consumer goods, vision care, watches, hospitality and tableware, and leads new sector development for the group. He holds an MBA from Babson College and began his career in risk management at HSBC and in strategy consulting.

Brings the group's investment and financial discipline. She is a founding partner of Global Equity Fund, Nepal's first licensed private equity and venture capital fund, and serves on the board of Laxmi Sunrise Bank, where she has sat on its risk management, human resources, and merger and acquisition committees.

She began her career at Credit Suisse and holds an MBA in Finance from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management and a B.Com (Hons) from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi.