Three organic outlets in 30 days. Six more in the year that followed. Jaycee Greens has grown big in the organic food business.
Its ECR outlet, opened last week, has shelves packed with a great variety of vegetables.
The founders of Jaycee Greens — brothers K. Chandrasekaran and K. Jayachandran — however believe the organic food business has to cover more ground in Chennai. In fact, the issue is about retaining the covered ground.
“Of the five organic stores opening in the city every month, three close down,” says Jayachandran, a sugar technologist who retired as joint managing director of Empee Sugars.
They started the cultivation business five years ago, when their first major challenge was to convert 265 acres of barren land into cultivable land. “It took us three years to convert the non-organic soil to organic,” he says.
Once the fields producing yield, they started supplying to organic stores in the city “Then we supplied to retailers. We found out they were selling the products at exorbitant prices,” Jayachandran says, explaining what led them to open their own outlet. The T. Nagar store, opened one-and-a-half years ago, has nearly 200 walk-ins a day and accounts for a sale of Rs. 75,000 to a lakh a day. He says 85 per cent of the fruits and vegetables are sourced from their three farms in Madhuranthagam, Thirupattur and Thiruvenelli, which makes it easy for them to offer them at affordable prices.
“Our strength is production. We don’t have to pay any commission or margin to the middlemen in sourcing products. Around 25 shops in the city get their supply twice a week from our farms,” he says. They are members of Foundation of Organic Association. Apart from 40 varieties of vegetables, the stores also stock organic pulses, rice, oil, millets and home-made snacks. The ECR outlet also has a kids play area, cafeteria and a counter selling cow’s milk. Visit them at >www.jayceegreens.in or call T.Nagar (43359271), Adyar (42695944) and Kovilambakkam (49527252), ECR (42024116)
