How Cocoguru Adigemane started
Cocoguru Adigemane was started by the husband/wife duo of Keshava Ram Bonanthaya and Suprabha K Bonanthaya. Given below is Keshava Ram’s account of how they got into this restaurant business.
It is a common question among my well-wishers as to how I got into the restaurant business from coconut oil? As they find it strange for a person of my nature. Though I started the coconut oil business and built Cocoguru from scratch, they consider it to be an improvement from our family’s coconut oil business. The account of how I started Cocoguru is here.
I am trying to build a restaurant where I and people like me would like to eat. Ever since I have started the restaurant, I have always eaten there, never cooked food at home.
Food preference before 25 years of age
During my youth, I used to only consider the taste value of food, completely ignoring the ingredients and health aspects. So, I had a liking towards North Indian dishes, chats, bakery products, Chinese and packed foods. Spicier and sweeter the better. My mother had warned me about the health hazards of eating such foods, But like all kids I was also curious about the experiences that the world had to offer. My school teachers would also inform us about the underlying dangers of having food with preservatives and other synthetic flavours. I used to mock my mother and other relatives for carrying foods prepared at home when they travel. Instead of having fresh food readily available in the restaurants, why do you take so much pain in preparing food at home and carrying it only to eat stale food later?
While working at Tata Elxsi they provided a great lunch with all tasty delicacies at a subsidised price. But I saw our CEO, just taking rice with curd. My manager brought home cooked food. It made me wonder the reason behind that action, surely they are earning enough to eat better food than that.
Food Choice after 25 years of age
Later on in my life, my body wouldn’t tolerate synthetic food ingredients. Just thinking about the after effects of such foods created an adverse feeling for me. Researching on food and nutrition was not my cup of tea, but once I started the coconut oil business, I had to study it. Then I found out how food is made tasty and why our body can’t bear them. I understood the dangers of refined oils, hydrogenated fats, maida (refined wheat flour) and sugar. I read books and articles by well renowned nutritionists like Rujuta Diwekar, listened to talks of Dr. B M Hegde where they were vouching for home grown unrefined oils like coconut oil in south coastal India, groundnut oil in Deccan plateau, mustard oil in northern India.
I was working in Japan for a brief period of time and the food there was of higher quality and fresher vegetables meant the food was still tasty without much salt and spices. So, I started enjoying bland food. Enjoying the taste and flavour of vegetables rather than overpowering them with spices.
After coming back to India I was looking for restaurants that serve basic homely food. Our family get-togethers happen at local restaurants that serve North Indian food. Before the party, I fill my stomach by eating at home so that I can sit through the party without taking any soups, manchurians, gravies, juices and ice-creams. I rather have some basic Dose or Chapathi throughout the party.
Cooking Oil
All restaurants use refined oils (either palmolein or sunflower) for its cost, reusability and region neutrality. I found an exception in Udupi where they use only coconut oil. Staple cooking oil for this region was coconut oil but now almost everyone has converted to refined oil for cooking and coconut oil is used only for hair. Coconut Oil consumption has hit its rock bottom now. With the advent of covid, there has been a small revival in the usage of coconut oil. Personally, I feel coconut oil tastes great, it is the one secret ingredient that makes any food edible. I am fond of oil fried items at home like poori, podi, chips etc. But outside I don’t eat them at all as I can’t stand the pungency of refined oil, especially sunflower oil . As a promoter of a leading coconut oil brand of the region, I wish to revive the usage of coconut oil for cooking here. I intend to do it by setting an example of preparing delicious local food using coconut oil.
Homely
Restaurants are known to provide commercially viable food items. But we intend to disrupt the industry by providing homely food which is commercially difficult and taking up the challenge. Our customers should feel light in their stomach even after a heavy meal. Ladies at home are not housewives anymore, they work. The task of cooking and cleaning vessels can be daunting to them. We look to provide homely food to such families when ladies like to relax.
Hygienic
My mother and relatives always tell me how dirty restaurants and bakeries are. It has been true as far as I have seen in small budget restaurants. Cleanliness when maintained in bigger restaurants, the cost of food items are much higher. We intend to change this stigma in the industry by offering affordable food and yet maintaining great hygiene and cleanliness.
Local brand
We have built a strong local client base for coconut oil in Cocoguru. It is a brand that stands for high quality pure coconut oil that people trust and pay a higher price compared to other local brands. A restaurant with the same brand and same values of quality, hygiene, purity, ethics and honesty can be built with hard work and patience. We started building the brand Cocoguru to make various products from coconut. Now we are pivoting towards becoming a food product brand for the local market.
Traditional foods
Whenever I visit a new place, I make sure to visit the local tourist spots and eat local food. I get a lot of such opportunities because of sales visits and new site seeing. But if we look around at the local restaurants, they don’t promote local foods, they focus on promoting adopted cuisines. If I go to neighbouring states of Andhra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, I get to enjoy their local food. Mangaloreans have been very successful in the restaurant industry and have setup great hotels outside like in Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru. Many of them name their hotels in association with Udupi and Mangaluru. Unfortunately they don’t offer typical Mangalorean food. So, it is time we celebrate our local traditional cuisine. There are so many of them. They are all good for our health and tasty for us here.
Direct to consumer
At one point of time while running the coconut oil mill, it turned out to be increasingly exhausting to manage the sales team hence I shifted my focus to B2B business. While doing B2C business it is more about the brand, but with B2B it is about the commodity. The move was a terrible one and I realized that my strength is in building a brand and not commodity trading. Managing the sales is a pain that has to be suffered, but selling small consumer packs as a brand is great. As a brand too, Cocoguru started out as a mass brand and slowly moved on to become a premium brand. Building a premium brand has its barriers when it comes to managing shopkeepers and our sales force. I have the experience of overcoming them. But with a restaurant the product need not go to the retailer before it reaches a consumer, it is directly sold to the consumer (D2C). For a brand it is about the consumers, retailers are only a means to the end.
Higher gross margin, value addition
Coconut Oil or edible oil is a high value and low margin business because of low value addition. At Cocoguru, we have built a higher value addition in packaging, branding, marketing and distribution to enjoy higher gross margins compared to other players. Restaurants that way have very high gross margins because of tremendous value addition from food ingredients to tasty dishes served to customers and aura built around it in the form of a brand. So, for my strengths, this is the way to go.
Stabilisation of coconut oil business and looking for next challenge
The Coconut Oil business was built from scratch. I had no experience of building and running a business before. I had to learn all aspects of business like accounting, sales, pricing, distribution, purchase etc from scratch and it took a long time. It took about 6 years to start making profits. Starting with a 1:1 debt equity ratio, the cumulative losses widened to such an extent that the entire equity portion got wiped out and debt was the only source of funding. Then we started making profits and repaying debt. Now, we have almost fully repaid the debt. The team is set, processes are established, product quality is consistent, no new investments are necessary for plant, machinery or any assets. We have built a solid local as well as online clientbase. The only work remaining is to increase the sales. Having built a team that works without my involvement, it frees me up to take up the next challenge.
Suprabha
Suprabha used to work for Cocoguru Coconut Oil before delivery of our first child Kshipra in 2017. Then with the delivery of second child Kshiteesha in 2018 and bringing them up till they went to school. She couldn’t find time and energy to work professionally. Now, she has decided to take the plunge into difficult waters again. Coconut oil business has matured and is functioning without her involvement. She feels she has lost touch with the profession and is reluctant to get back into it. Instead, the restaurant being a new business, she feels she will have a lot of ways to contribute.
Children
Children are used to getting a lot of attention from us. I used to spend all my post working hours with them. I teach them chess, science, nature, and mythological stories. Suprabha spends the whole day in developing them, taking care of their food, schools, drawing, clay, swimming, extra classes, teaching them values. Now with the start of this business, our attention towards them will take a back seat for the next 6 months to 1 year till the business is established.
My Parents
My parents were vehemently opposing the idea of starting this business. However, they are aware of my stubbornness and have given up opposing me. Now, once we have started, they are supporting me to deliver the best. My mother takes care of the children. To my daughter Kshipra, Ajji is her most favourite person ever. Kshipra calls her Chaatha or Abbe out of love. My son Kshiteesha enjoys gardening with my mother, where he gets to dig out mud and extract underground vegetables.
Suprabha’s Parents
They have always supported us through all the difficult and good times. They are proud of the business we have built so far. Fact that they have got their darling daughter married to a yet to be established businessman is a testament to this fact. They take care of children during a few weekends.
Coconut oil mill employees
They understand their roles and are performing well. They don’t need hand holding to do their routine activities. They happily perform any duties when required for the restaurant. The coconut oil business runs without me actively performing the day to day activities. Though expensive, this is the advantage of building a team that works without its owner. It allows the owner to build something new without impacting existing business.
