In the recent decade, India’s has stories of entrepreneurs who have made it big in the tech sector, in manufacturing and in real estate. It was a welcome change for me to read recently ( and I was very impressed, I must add) in Business Today about two entrepreneurs from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu who have succeeded in the field of poultry. It is clear that B. Soundararajan and G.B. Sundararajan who have formally studied upto Class 11 and Class 12 respectively have what it takes to be effective entrepreneurs.
They started Suguna Poultry Farm in 1984 and their growth particularly over the last few years has been most impressive. Last year, Suguna sold around Rs. 2,000 crore worth of live chicken, eggs and processed meat. Their business model has attracted a lot of interest. They source poultry from 15,000 small and medium farmers across 10 states in India and sell about 1,000,000 branded eggs per month. Their corporate presentation gives you an idea of their achievements.
The poultry farms are not owned by Suguna-instead small farmers are contracted to rear poultry on their behalf for a fee. Suguna’s staff monitor the growth of the birds closely.
The owners expect to grow the Company’s turnover to Rs. 13,000 crores by 2013. Considering that Indians , on average, consume only 42 eggs per annum (compared to the global avearge of 128 eggs) and that the demand for chicken is shooting up especially in India’s many growing metros, their dream- it would appear- can be realised over time.
There are many stories of people at large- and entrepreneurs in particular- counting their chickens before they are hatched. Well, the Suguna Story is obviously not one of these.
You can subscribe to the A-Step-A-Day series using RSS at https://bprao.wordpress.com/category/a-step-a-day/feed
This is Post No: 235 of the “A Step A Day” series : To provide perspective and provoke thought to facilitate self-development across a wide spectrum of issues- big and small- crucial for executive success.
People at Work & Play 