For those who are ready to slog and do the hard work with immense patience and perseverance, nothing is impossible, big or small. Not the business they are doing or the aim they are going to accomplish.
The rising tale of a humble middle-class family to becoming Freshy, North-East India’s successful, favourite and popular home-grown flagship brand of a hundred crore, offering a fresh, natural, organic, healthy, tasty and original range of freshly made fruit juices, pickles, sauces, jams, and snacks, is a testament to the fact that Fortune favours those who decide to make their own fortune. Established in 2005, Freshy is the brand of food products from S.M. Commotrade Pvt. Ltd.
As it happened with Prakash Goduka – now only 38 and yet the Managing Director of SM Group of Companies, back in 2005, when he along with his younger brother Bikash Goduka visited an exhibition in Guwahati. Prakash recollects that while roaming around the huge exhibition, he came upon a huge crowd gathered around a small stall. Curious he investigated and saw to his amazement that people were gathered there to drink Lychee juice sold cheaply by a Bangladesh-based company showcasing its products at the exhibition. When Prakash himself tasted the drink, an idea came to him as, to why no one from India could think of a drink made of Lychee? “But since I could think of it, then we as in family could definitely do it,” thought Prakash.
Surmounting the Adversities
He discussed this idea with his father RK Goduka and Brother Bikash Goduka, all living in Guwahati as a joint family and surviving by selling 3000-4000 KG processed tea to tea stall owners every month – again an idea of Prakash, both the brothers were studying in college but had to work harder since their family shifted their base from Sivasagar to Guwahati.
“Those three-four years from 2002 to 2005 were the real hardship. But I never felt down, as we were a family, and we were together and we survived the hardship by selling processed tea before the Freshy idea struck me and my father and brother supported me in that,” tells Prakash.
Freshy Inception of Ideas
The family from their own reserve and by taking loan from friends & relatives – and set up a ready-to-drink orange squash and lychee juice unit in a rented 3000 Sq ft area in the Guwahati itself. Immediately the trio commenced their marketing to food suppliers and technologists so that they could launch their product. Prakash adds, “We recruited ten people and began our company with an initial goal of doing at least 50 to 60 lakh rupees business in our first year.”
To achieve it Prakash and the family appointed distributors in Assam, Meghalaya and Manipur. They also began visiting distributors and shop owners to market their products. Soon they began receiving tremendous responses because “The quality of our products is top-notch. With Freshy, we make North-East’s favourite range of pickles, fresh juices, jams, sauces and more — we bring the celebration of taste with the freshness and health of fruits and vegetables,” reveals Bikash.
Expanding the Horizons
The response was so huge that with Freshy, SM Group did a roaring business of two – two and a half crore rupees in just a year, “Surpassing all our expectations. And we knew, that if we maintain the quality and freshness of our products intact, we could expand the brand. And during the last two decades, we did just that,” shares Prakash.
Without looking back, the trio bought a huge plot of 57,000 Sq ft in Guwahati and expanded the plant by 2006. “Encouraged by our father, the Chairman of SM Group, we immediately expanded our product line to pickles, sauces, jams, vinegar, other fruit juices and fresh food items,” states Prakash.
In 2009 SM Group have been contracted by a leading Indian F&B brand Britania to manufacture and pack its popular biscuit brand ‘Rusk, “Which we continued till 2013, after which we commenced manufacturing and exporting similar biscuits to Gulf Countries,” says Prakash.
Post that, the company expanded into packaged drinking water and also set up an additional fresh juice manufacturing plant having a 1000 liters per hour capacity in 2013 itself. By 2015 SM Group’s turnover was hovering over 20 crore rupees with an employee strength of 100.
Today, The company, with its vast and highly advanced processing and packaging units offers a range of food and allied products to consumers across the key locations in the North-East of India. High on quality and taste, Freshy products are trusted and loved by consumers across age groups.
A Hallmark of Health, Freshness and Purity
Freshy products are today a hallmark in quality and trustworthiness. This has been earned with its single-minded focus on ensuring that its processing units are in the most hygienic of environments and technology for eliminating any adulteration is the most modern in the industry. It employs a multiple-stage testing process to ensure that only the choicest and the freshest of the produce are picked as raw materials.
For this, it only partners with the most reputed of farms, orchids and experienced suppliers. Bikash Goduka he himself personally looks after the procurement of fresh fruit & vegetables to ensure quality. Every fruit, vegetable, herb and condiment samples are thoroughly checked to ensure the highest of quality, Freshy stands for. Its filtering and cleaning processes ensure that only the best enters the next stage of processing.
With investments in technology and machines, Prakash and the team ensure that every aspect of the processing including water sources, pulping, mixing, and cutting up to packaging and storing of various products is done in a dust and adulteration-free environment. Prakash says, “Our inspection processes involve the most stringent of quality measures to ensure that only what’s worth being called a ‘Freshy’ product reaches out to the consumers.”
The Spirit of Excellence
It is in Freshy’s core values that the team must conduct its business fairly, with honesty and transparency. Everything it does must stand the test of public scrutiny. The Spirit of Excellence is the guiding force for the company.
“It is aligning with these core values, our mission and vision that during the pandemic, we set up a face mask production unit and are planning to launch our range of personal health care products this year,” reveals Prakash.
The Future Benchmark
As an exemplary leader and visionary entrepreneur, Prakash’s wisdom full of advice to the budding aspirants and enthusiasts trying to make it big in the business world is straightforward. “When it comes to your business or goal, nothing is big or small. Instead of blaming luck, if one should keep doing hard work then sooner or later, they are going to be lucky. Always remember fortune favours those who keep persistent in their work forever.”
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