Background
Synthia D’souza lives in Kundapura Taluk of Udupi district, with her family. She runs a chakli making unit (snack making) adjacent to her house, along with her husband. She has employed four other people in the unit. She and her family are dependent on the income from the unit alone. Before the pandemic, she used to make INR 2,000 per day. She sold her products to wholesalers/distributors, who further supplied the product to nearby retail shops. During the lockdown her business suffered significantly- dropping down by 70%.
Solutions
Synthia suffered a loss because of her market linkage. The orders from the vendors went down significantly, and there needed to be a complete revision of her market linkage strategy. This would require Synthia to develop branding material, identity channels for sales and engage in relevant communication material and pricing strategies. Additionally, currently the entire process of chakli making is done manually, from mixing to the frying of the chaklis (except for flour grinding). She wanted to mechanize the entire unit in order to increase efficiency and enhance productivity.
Testimonial
“The packaging and branding has improved from before and that makes me happy. It helps me establish myself with customers. Further, making chakli is straining- my new unit would reduce the physical stress and I can concentrate on marketing and business strategy.”
Impact
Solar powered chakli making machines would improve productivity significantly.
Her workshed is currently an open tin and tarpauline structure- which would require modification to allow her to invest in appliances.
Synthia was provided with assistance in designing and packaging of her chakli packets. With her business being B2B earlier, she was advised on pivoting to B2C i.e. taking orders f rom her contacts in her neighbourhood.
She developed channels through her local church network, and shared information through whatsapp to her contacts in nearby villages as well.
A training was also done on hygenic food processing practices.