Kelachandra coffee to buy own curing, roasting units; plans B2C foray

Kelachandra Coffee, one of India’s largest privately held coffee plantation companies, plans to acquire its own curing works in a year to ensure the quality of the beverage and have a fully vertically integrated business-to-business (B2B) with it.

“If we don’t have our own curing works, if we don’t have own pulping machines, we can’t control the quality of the coffee at every single stage. Each stage matters so much. We have just leased out a new curing works. We’re going to buy our own curing works and roasting unit. We plan to set up a comprehensive unit including curing and roasting units next year,” said Kelachandra Head- People and Culture, Ryana Kuruvilla. 

She told businessline in an online interaction that the company is considering entering the B2C (business-to-consumer) segment while trying to integrate its supply chain. 

Plans on cards

“We are still working on the plan. We are looking at e-commerce and then having our roasting units like specialty experience centres in main metro cities across India. Then, we plan to have smaller outposts in each city,” she said. 

The company, which forayed first into agriculture in 1910 acquiring a natural rubber company, markets its B2B coffee as Kelachandra Coffee.  The company exports to Europe, the Middle East, Australia and Japan. 

Most of its coffee is sold domestically but about 1,500 tonnes will likely be exported this year. “Over the past year and a half, we have been going to these international exhibitions to meet with global roasters and export to them directly,” said Neelema Rana George, Head of Coffee Works & Technology.

“We have had buyers in the past but we thought it is high time to get out and let people know about our coffee. We have started advertising and talking about it,” she said. 

In the domestic market,  some of the company’s specialty is sold to firms such as Blue Tokai and Third Wave, she said. “All of our coffee is shade-grown at very high altitudes and hand-harvested. It is one of our advantages. That makes the quality of our coffee superior,” said George.

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Kelachandra acquired its first coffee estate in Chikkamagaluru in 1995 with about 1,000 acres. Since then, it has expanded to over 6,300 acres now. The company also owns robusta plantations in Wayanad. The plantations are managed by its permanent staff besides seasonal employees. 

Coffee plantations make up 80 per cent of Kelachandra’s business. Besides, it has turmeric, arecanut and fruits. Its rubber plantation holdings are about 500 acres, said Kuruvilla. 

Kelachandra’s coffee is Rainforest Alliance-certified. The certification requires strict compliance with the standards. “Our waste products are reused as fertilizers for our coffee plants. We have built our own water tanks which makes us sustainable and more cognisant of the amount of water we use. We have brought new technologies from Brazil and Colombia which reduce the amount of water used,” she said. 

The company is the only one apart from big planters who have Brazilian technology. It is trying to upgrade and improve its sustainability efforts, said Kuruvilla. 

No rain impact

George said Kelachandra bought coffee pulping machinery from Penagos of Brazil and it was an advanced one. “It reduces human interference and increases efficiency in sorting and pulping of coffee beans,” she said. 

Kuruvilla said Kelachandra has hired P Kurian Raphael as the new Head of Research and Development, who is helping the company produce coffee plants that are climate-resilient besides trying to increase the yield.  

On the impact of heavy rains on coffee plantations this year, she said they were “pretty much unaffected” mainly since they are shade-grown. 

The company provides quality housing besides creating 640 living quarters for its seasonal workers. They are provided free electricity, water and health care. The staff’s children are provided with free education, while it also promotes financial literacy among its workers. 

Objective

On problems of getting labour for its plantations, Kuruvilla said with the facilities the company provides, workers are keen to work with it. For the regular staff, it provides opportunities for “upward mobility”. The workers it employs are from the north-east, with many from the West Bengal region. 

George said the company was doing well financially and by next year, it will be able to sustain its business only through coffee sales and other crops. 

Kuruvilla and George said the company’s objective is to put Indian coffee on the world map.