MUMBAI: Over 400 years after it was first established, the East India Company has relaunched in a new avatar — a luxury goods brand.

At its peak, the company was responsible for 50% of global trade, employed a third of the British workforce and ruled much of India. Now, the brand will sell luxury gift sets, teas, coffees, jams and other goods inspired by the East India Company’s history through its new e-commerce website. The site, and the company’s flagship store in London, was launched on Independence Day .

Mumbai-born owner Sanjiv Mehta, 48, says he is just a trustee of a brand that he is taking through the next stage of its history. ‘‘The winds are blowing eastwards and I see the East India Company as a brand tomorrow’s India can build upon,’’ he says.

"The world would be a very different place if there had been no East India Company,” said Mehta, after the company launched its e-commerce site and flagship store in London on Independence Day.

Mehta said he is inviting fellow Indians to join him as custodians of the brand through investment and helping the business to grow in new areas. He believes the brand has not lost its power.

"The East India Company was the Google of its time. It controlled the world’s navigation routes in the same way the online giant controls many information routes today. Its input on the world stage was massive," says Mehta. "Today, the East India Company is one of the most recognized brands in the world with over two billion people aware of its history."

In response to suggestions that aspects of the company’s heritage, with its conquest of India, could mean the brand would be better confined to history, Mehta said: "One must have the ability to judge yesterday and learn from it. The East India Company had great pioneering spirit and that remains."

“Without the company, Britain would not have tea on its tables and in Mumbai and Bangalore, people would not be having jam on their toast for breakfast,’’ pointed out Mehta. The brand’s transformation from the 1600s may already be considerable, but there are some things Mehta doesn’t want to change. He says he hopes to ‘‘capitalize on and retain the brand’s impeccable pedigree and enviable heritage’’.