“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” – Confucius I’ve chosen a job I truly love—building a business. I market a product I personally admire and use every day. Coconut oil manufacturing has been our family business, started by my father. But I didn’t...

In exactly one year, we have witnessed a dramatic rise in the prices of coconut oil, coconuts, copra, and coconut oil cake—from their lowest to highest (so far). The growth has been staggering—three times! Naturally, this has everyone talking. I’d like to reflect on its impact across various stakeholders, based on what we now...

The vendor I’m referring to is Weigh Control Systems Pvt. Ltd., particularly Mr. Samarjit Biswas. Weighmatics, based in Bangalore, manufactures filling machines, weighbridges, and other weight-based control systems. Mr. Biswas is the Director of the company. On my very first day as a coconut oil businessman in Puttur, I accompanied my father to our...

cocoguru.com now has a new website and design. This is the third version since the site was launched. What’s special this time is that the entire site has been self-developed. Here, I’d like to share the development process and some of the ideas behind it. The domain for cocoguru.com was registered with GoDaddy.com, and...

Cocoguru has now grown into a 25-member organization, with immediate plans to expand to 35. When we began operations a year ago, our hiring approach was simply to select anyone willing to work with us, without much regard for their skills or attitude. Fortunately, we were able to find a few good people, and...

Our new factory at Kallarpe (Aryapu Village, Puttur) manufactures Roasted Coconut Oil. Our new customers have instantly liked it due to its enhanced aroma and taste. However, our old customers—accustomed to the cold-pressed coconut oil produced at our previous factory in Parladka (Puttur)—have expressed some doubts. I would like to clarify those here. Cold-Pressed...

This is the letter we submitted to the Industry Chamber, and subsequently to the Government of Karnataka, to address several anomalies in the Value Added Tax (VAT) structure for coconut oil in Karnataka. Many of these issues were highlighted in an earlier post. To, The President Puttur Chamber of Commerce and Industry Subject: Revision...

Edible oils come in three forms based on processing: Crude Oil, Refined Oil, and Vanaspati. The uninitiated, based on the literal meanings of these terms, might perceive: Crude oil as natural but not yet fit for consumption Refined oil as improved and made perfect for consumption Vanaspati, meaning ‘lord of the forest’ in Sanskrit,...