What were Blackburn Rovers' owners The Venkys doing before they joined the club? | OneFootball

The Indian company's exploits away from Ewood Park are already well known

It is now almost 14 years since Venkys completed their takeover of Blackburn Rovers.

Back in November 2010, the Indian company purchased a 99.9% stake in the club, which had previously been owned by the family of the late Jack Walker.

According to reports at the time, the deal for Venkys to take control of the Lancashire club was worth around £43million.

That apparently came with the company spending £23million on their shares in the club, while also taking on around £20million worth of debt.

Since completing that purchase, though, things have certainly been eventful for Venkys in their time at the helm of Blackburn Rovers.

Turbulent times for Blackburn Rovers under Venkys

Little more than a month after they had completed the takeover of the club, the new owners sprung something of a surprise, with the sacking of manager Sam Allardyce.

Under his replacement, Rovers would struggle, and only avoided relegation from the Premier League on the final day of the 2010/11 season.

However, Blackburn were not so lucky during the 2011/12 season, when they dropped out of the top-flight of English football, amid a raft of fan protests against the owners and manager.

So far, the club have yet to make a return to the Premier League, and even dropped into League One for the 2017/18 campaign.

While they did bounce back from that at the first attempt, Rovers have remained in the Championship ever since, and have found their budget limited under Venkys.

Indeed, the past year or so has seen the owners have to apply for permission from the courts in India, any time they want to invest money into the club.

Those hearings have been delayed at times, which has given rise to concerns among some fans about the financial stability of the club.

What will be even more frustrating is that it has previously been reported that the Rao family, who own the company, are worth £2billion.

That, of course, means they do have plenty to invest in Blackburn should they wish to do so, but how did they make that money, prior to completing their takeover of the club back in 2010?

Poultry farming a key source of funds for Venkys

The Venkys were formed in 1971 Banda Vasudev Rao, whose daughter Anurandha is now chairperson of the company, with her brothers Balaji and Venkatesh also on the board.

Ever since its formation, the main source of income for the company is poultry farming, which saw them move from Hyderabad to Pune for climatic reasons shortly after its formation.

The group has now formed several companies, all of which are based around the creation of animal-based produce, predominantly chicken.

That livestock is then used for companies in industries ranging from processed food to animal vaccines, as well as human healthcare products.

Through that, Venkys now have offices and production plants based in several countries across Europe, Asia and the USA.

It was through the funds they generated from that production and sale of livestock for those industries, that they raised the money to buy Blackburn back in 2010.

Just a month after their takeover, Venkys would also branch out into fast food themselves, opening a restaurant, specialising in chicken, by the name of Venkys Xprs.

Given the range of avenues they have to generate funds, and with the position Blackburn currently find themselves in regarding that investment, plenty of the Ewood Park fanbase may be taking a keen interest in just how those other businesses fare for Venkys in the years to come.