The model
clicked and 'Suguna Poultry' evolved into a Rs 4,800 crore company,
working with 20,000 farmers, 4,800 employees all across the country.
BE YOUR OWN BOSS
I
belong to Udumalpet, about 70 km away from Coimbatore and have studied
only till class 11. Instead of choosing higher education and turn a
government employee, my parents - both teachers - wanted to see me doing
something on my own. My brother, who studied till class 12, and I
started a poultry farm in 1983 at Udumalpet.
We revamped our
business model from a trading company to a contract farming firm. Suguna
would supply day-old-chicks , feed and medicines to farmers, who would
in turn grow the chicks for 37-40 days and return them to us to be sold
in the market.
CREATE TRUST
We started the business with just three farmers. It took us seven years
to scale up, as gaining the trust of the farmers is difficult. We were
able to work with 30 farmers, had 30 employees and did a business of Rs 7
crore. As we gained confidence , we thought of scaling up. We set up
offices across Tamil Nadu and in three years, we achieved Rs 100-crore
turnover.
TAP NICHE MARKET
When we began the business, the size of the poultry industry was just
Rs 400 crore. Today, it is a Rs 45,000-crore industry and growing at 15%
year on year. But it is not a simple business. Breeding is a completely
technology-driven process; feed is capital-intensive. Managing 18,000
farmers across the country with different cultures and languages is a
big challenge.
USE TECHNOLOGY
We have deployed an information technology
system that has integrated internal and external management information
across our 250 locations in the country - from finance and accounting
to customer relationship management. This has saved us lot of time and
brought efficiency. We also have a dedicated team that uses information
technology to keep track of the supply chain and demand in real time.
GO FOR NEW PRODUCTS, MARKETS
Today we operate in 13 states of the country, work with about 20,000
farmers, and have 250 offices across the country with 4,800 employees .
We produce 7.5 million chickens per week, equivalent to around 18% of
the Indian market share. It reaches around 600 distributors, customers
such as KFC, McDonalds and 22,000 retail shops across the country.
We also produce ready-to-eat products, such as chicken nuggets and
sausages. We have started businesses such as poultry vaccines and have
entered markets such as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh .
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