How B Soundararajan and GB Sundararajan created a Rs 4200 crore poultry empire - Economic Times

11/1/2014

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How B Soundararajan and GB

Sundararajan created a Rs 4200
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Peerzada Abrar, ET Bureau Apr 27, 2012, 06.09AM IST

Tags: Suguna Poultry

| information Technology | GB Sundararajan | B Soundararajan

Two brothers, B Soundararajan and GB Sundararajan , created and honed to perfection a business model
revolving around chickens. Their chicken-and-egg story model was simple - win the confidence of the farmers,
provide a logistics platform for them and provide a link with retailers to sell the merchandise.
The model clicked and 'Suguna Poultry' evolved into a Rs 4,200 crore company, working with 18,000 farmers
all across the country.

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I belong to Udumalpet, about 70 km away from Coimbatore and have studied only till class 11. Instead of
choosing higher education and turn a government employee, my parents - both teachers - wanted to see me
doing something on my own. My brother, who studied till class 12, and I started a poultry farm in 1983 at
Udumalpet.
We revamped our business model from a trading company to a contract farming firm. Suguna would supply
day-old-chicks , feed and medicines to farmers, who would in turn grow the chicks for 37-40 days and return
them to us to be sold in the market.

Suguna eyes Rs 1400 cr turnover by March '07

December 19, 2006

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Maize row: TN poultries prefer contract farming

We started the business with just three farmers. It took us seven years to scale up, as gaining the trust of
the farmers is difficult. We were able to work with 30 farmers, had 30 employees and did a business of Rs 7
crore. As we gained confidence , we thought of scaling up. We set up offices across Tamil Nadu and in three
years, we achieved Rs 100-crore turnover.

December 18, 2006

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Customer Relationship Management

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When we began the business, the size of the poultry industry was just Rs 400 crore. Today, it is a Rs
45,000-crore industry and growing at 15% year on year. But it is not a simple business. Breeding is a
completely technology-driven process; feed is capital-intensive. Managing 18,000 farmers across the country
with different cultures and languages is a big challenge.
USE TECHNOLOGY
We have deployed an information technology system that has integrated internal and external management
information across our 250 locations in the country - from finance and accounting to customer relationship
management. This has saved us lot of time and brought efficiency. We also have a dedicated team that uses
information technology to keep track of the supply chain and demand in real time.
GO FOR NEW PRODUCTS, MARKETS
Today we operate in 13 states of the country, work with about 18,000 farmers, and have 250 offices across
the country with 5,500 employees . We produce 7.5 million chickens per week, equivalent to around 18% of
the Indian market share. It reaches around 600 distributors, customers such as KFC, McDonalds and 22,000
retail shops across the country.
We also produce ready-to-eat products, such as chicken nuggets and sausages. We have started
businesses such as poultry vaccines and have entered markets such as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh . Last

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-04-27/news/31424228_1_poultry-farm-poultry-industry-three-farmers

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How B Soundararajan and GB Sundararajan created a Rs 4200 crore poultry empire - Economic Times

11/1/2014

financial year, our turnover was Rs 4,200 crore and for 2013-2014 we expect a turnover of Rs 5,400 crore.

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How B Soundararajan and GB Sundararajan created a Rs 4200 crore poultry empire - Economic Times

11/1/2014

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