Mangalore: Woman chucks techie job, turns chocolate entrepreneur

Mangalore: The Covid-19 pandemic-induced lockdown has wrecked many lives, resulted in loss of lakhs of jobs, closure of industries and what not. In the face of the crisis only the doughty have faced the challenge and found newer ways of putting their lives back on track.

One such gritty person is undoubtedly Swathi Kallegundi who worked in an MNC along with her husband Balasubramanya in Bengaluru.

They came to their native village -- Bettampadi Renja -- in Puttur taluk in Dakshina district last year to work from home. The fear of losing job loomed large and the couple quickly found a way to face future uncertainty. They have 5 acres of areca nut estate in which they grow cocoa as mixed crop. Owing to lockdown there was no buyers for cocoa.

The couple, instead of getting panicky, hit upon the idea of making chocolates themselves. They soon took a quick online training in chocolate making and bought machinery.

Speaking to The Hans India on Tuesday, Swathi said that initially there was poor response from people to their chocolates. Not disheartened by it, she continued to move ahead and now finds many enthusiastic online customers because they are free from chemicals and preservatives.

Her catchphrase of her advertisement is, "Bean to Bar" and proudly says she uses first quality and farm fresh cocoa beans. Another uniqueness of her products is use of jaggery unlike other chocolate makes who use sugar and chemicals. Swathi says that the taste that is what attracts more buyers.

Balasubramanya said they invested Rs 3 lakh to acquire the machinery and set up infrastructure at their home. They have employed two women workers.

According to Balasubramanya, Swathi earns equal to 70 percent of the salary she got during lockdown when she worked as a software engineer and hopes that she will make many times more than her previous salary once things get normal. He said they did not go for fully automated machinery because of its prohibitive cost.

The couple are also buying organic cocoa beans from neighbouring growers apart from sourcing from their own farm.

They are selling 14 varieties of yummy chocolates on Amazon, Facebook and Instagram under the brand name Anuttama. A bar of 50 gram Anuttama chocolate costs Rs 175 compared to Rs 50- Rs 60 for popular brands in the market.

In spite of the huge price difference, there is a good demand for Swathi's products among upper middle class people as she uses jaggery (Bella in Kannada ) and coconut in chocolates. This is called Bella Tharai (Tharai means coconut in Tulu, the language spoken in coastal region of the State).

The couple are looking for new technology to make organic chocolates and establish a larger factory in the coming years.