With two growing children, Suma Shenoy, a Mangalorean homemaker, was looking at supplementing the family's income. She came across a training course organised in the Yeyyadi Industrial Area and she took up the training. Soon, she was making pickles at home.
At the training centre, she got to know of a Krishi Mela in Karkala where her homemade products could be sold. She went ahead and the pickles sold well enough to get the attention of The Entrepreneurs Multipurpose Co-operative Society Ltd, that supports small entrepreneurs in marketing their products.
The society provides marketing facilities to products made by micro and small scale industries and sells them under the name “Kayaka”. The society had 2,000 members, said Puttaswamy B., CEO of the Society.
When the society offered to market the products for Ms. Shenoy, she accepted it. Now, she was quickly learning how best to maximise her profits from the home-based business. “When the society asked for pickles, I supplied mango pickles. But of the 10 kg, 3 kg of the fruit went waste. Now, I use lemons instead,” she said.
The main aim was to provide banking services. However, since it was a multipurpose society, it had extnded marketing support, Mr. Puttaswamy said. The society, which was registered with the Dakshina Kannada District Registrar of Cooperative Societies, had various accounts including savings, current, pygmy, and recurring deposits. It offered loans to agriculturists, to the self-employed, self-help groups (SHGs), and to agriculture-based units.
Shivu, who had a pygmy deposit at the society, got to know of the marketing support. He manufactured bleaching powder and detergents and said that he manufactured products in limited quantities, “on demand”.
He used the society for marketing his products as doing the marketing on his own required funds and manpower, which he did not have at present. He said that 20 per cent over the cost of production was what he got from society.
Hasina, another woman with a home-based industry in spices, said that going through the society to market the products “had more value”. She said: “Sales in not a problem. The demand is growing day by day.” Now, she was engaged in increasing the range of products to include “kashayas”. She said that the society insisted on quality and so she had not used artificial colour and chemicals in the food products. She said she got a profit of 20 to 30 per cent overall on the spice powders that she sold. She made 10 kg of various spices each month.
