Many of us made the resolution to fulfill our passions after the Covid-19 lockdown, but many of us failed to keep it. However, in the past year, a Chandigarh brother-sister pair converted their hobby of growing strawberries into a commercial enterprise.
Let us introduce them about
Freshville” began as a pastime for Vritti, 25, and Parth Narula, 20, when they were at home when the world came to a halt due to the lockdown. “Our father was always interested in growing strawberries, and we have a few acres of land in New Chandigarh where we started growing them on a small scale,” Vritti, a jewelry designer who was born and raised in Chandigarh, says. They’re both Vivek High School lifers in Sector 38-B.
Some interesting experience
Vritti shares their experience with us -“Earlier, we were growing strawberries on half an acre and selling them to our friends through WhatsApp. But now, we have expanded it to over four acres of land and started an Instagram page from where we take orders. We make around 80 deliveries per day,” Vritti adds.
How do they share their responsibilities?
Though Parth is primarily responsible for growing and planting the fruits, Vritti is in charge of marketing, customer relations, and operations.
About Partha education and strawberries business
Parth, a final-year student at Mumbai’s Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), explained how the strawberries are grown: “Earlier, we started with two varieties, but now we are up to six, which we hope will bear fruit till May. The mother plant that we use has been imported from California while we get runners from places like Himachal Pradesh. It’s completely organic, and no chemicals or pesticides are used at all.
How many employees work with them?
There are about 11 workers, who assist them in picking strawberries, and after picking in the morning, they transport them back to their city home to load them, and they recruit three riders to distribute the orders daily. He went on to say, “We are the only venture here that provides fresh strawberries.”
How will they expand their business?
Strawberry items such as jelly, crush, slush, sugar-free jam, and ginger ale are now being made and sold by the brother-sister. According to them, “We started making jam based on our mother’s recipe. The response was positive, so, we recently diversified to other products. The crush and ginger ale are especially popular”.
Vritti said they are pursuing tie-ups with numerous supermarkets in the region and extending to other cities as part of their plans. They explain their procedures that “We have received queries from places as far as Kanpur and Bangalore. Even now, we supply orders as far as Gurdaspur and Ludhiana. By next year, we plan to start a venture in Delhi”.
Good quality strawberries price in KG
The strawberries start at $200 per kilo and can be bought via their Instagram page, freshville. They are classified into three sizes depending on their bulk, with the A+ grade containing giant strawberries fetching $400 per kilogram. Both of them explaining their strawberries quality that “All grades sell equally well, and for people who want to make jams or smoothies, we suggest they go for the smaller ones.”
I hope this real story will inspire you! Now it’s your turn to make your dream a reality
