Beverage in my Village   

KARWAR : ​This electronic engineer chose the less trodden road. When it is de rigeur for engineering graduates to take the software route through campus interviews and land assignments abroad, ​​Naveen Hegde, an engineering graduate from Sirsi, did an about-turn. Naveen decided to return to his village in Sirsi and set up a business that would offer direct and indirect employment to villagers, even if it was in a small way. And that’s how his start-up iTOrFood was formed. 

If returning to his village to do business was risky enough, starting a beverages company where he had practically no hands-on experience was even riskier. But Naveen had set out to do this even before he graduated. He did his own ground work on selling beverages, more specifically natural juices. He assessed the pulse of the market and trends.

He also did a survey of the products available near Sirsi. And in 2015 at the age of 23, Naveen turned entrepreneur with iTOrFood, iTOr being an abbreviation for Idea to Reality. It pretty much sums up his own journey.Naveen says, “I was not interested to leave my parents alone in the village and go to metros in search of a job. I kept thinking of starting an initiative in my village.  I explained my idea to them and they were very supportive.” 

With the backing of his parents, he invested nearly `15 lakh along with a partner and began to produce kokum, lemon, amla and tamarind juices without adding flavours, colours and preservatives at his village Hulgol, about 15 km from Sirsi on Yellapur road.Concentrating on the markets of Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mangaluru, Naveen has been producing these juices under the brand name ‘Hooglu’. It was just meant to be a catchy word, derived from his village name Hulgol and making it sound similar to Google, that is Hulgol + Google = Hooglu.Life hasn’t been without challenges. It was tough to initially carve a niche for his products in metro markets. But he managed to market it as a natural fruit juice and healthy drink by cashing in on the growing health consciousness among people.

“We got help from the Indian Institute of Horticulture Research in Bengaluru. They gave us a lot of technical support. We also got some discounts on machineries under the scheme of National Horticulture Mission and started our unit in a plot in my village. We constructed a 2000 sq ft building for manufacturing.  We collect raw material from Sirsi and surrounding areas only to make the beverages,” says Naveen.Today, Naveen’s company has given direct employment to 10 people while another 15 people are indirectly employed in sales through his start-up. The daily production is 2,000 units of juice packs. 

Recently the company also ventured into making 12 varieties of banana and potato chips. Naveen is focused on building the brand in the three big cities first. He says after that, he plans to expand his business in smaller cities, including Mysuru, Hubballi, Belagavi and others. He feels there is a huge market for natural organic products that are free from artificial flavours and colours. “I want to gradually expand my business and become an example for other youngsters who want to go back to villages and tap their entrepreneurial spirit,” says Naveen.

It is a great initiative of a young boy ​from Sirsi region​. Such entrepreneurs​, who start their set-up in industrially backward regions,​ should be recognised by Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and the ministry should​ promote ​thei​r products Ramesh Patil​, President​ of​ Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Hubballi

In agriculture if processing happens at source, farmer can get highest price for his products. Naveen’s venture utilizes local resources like banana, koku​m etc. 
F​armers who supply products to hi​s venture are happy with the price they are gettingK M Hegde,​ ​farmer​,​ Hulgol village