Competition, says Driver, is hardly the main problem, with growing demand for the delivered meal service. “It’s the cost pressures such as wage and food raw material inflation that we are more worried about. We want to be able to grow our business with a decent margin.”
Printo Document Services Pvt. Ltd, Goodlife Integrated Fitness Solutions Pvt. Ltd and Cane-O-La Foods Pvt. Ltd are among the nominated companies at the Tata NEN Hottest Startups competition, of which Mint is the official print media partner. Details of the competition can also be accessed at www.livemint.com/hotteststartups
Sanat Vallikappen
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Cane juice, anyone?
Bangalore: Entrepreneur G. Srinivasa Rao is betting there is enough demand for sugar cane juice to justify a specialized chain of stores serving the syrupy beverage. His Cane-O-La Foods Pvt. Ltd offers the juice in six flavours—from plain to mint—at 13 stores in Bangalore at Rs10 for a 300ml glass.
Today, “people refrain from having it as it is not available in hygienic conditions, with it mostly being sold at roadsides”, Rao says. Cane-O-La’s hygienic, air-conditioned stores, including at the premises of insurer Aviva Plc. and Infosys Technologies, attempt to address that gap.
Cane-O-La, branded under the same name, procures sugar cane from various parts of Karnataka to maintain a year-round supply, which is peeled on imported machines and stored in refrigerators. The year-old start-up expects to have 50 more outlets in Karnataka, Hyderabad and Chennai in the year ahead, relying on internal accruals and franchisees for expansion. Break-even at each outlet comes at 1,000 mugs a day, says Rao, who believes the Cane-O-La brand and tight rein on prices will be its competitive edge.
Deepti Chaudhary