Hailing From A Village, He Built A 78 Tea Point Chain With A Turnover Of 7 Million Rupees From Rs 50,000

Joseph Rajesh, a founder of Chai Outlets Black Pekoe and Tea Boy, hails from Mochakottam Palayam, a small village in the Karur district of Tamil Nadu, and has joined the league of educated youth who have set up successful tea chains in the country.

From a 100-square-meter tea shop in 2017 that he opened for 50,000 rupees at a center in Velachery, Chennai, he has built a chain of 78 branches in Tamil Nadu under his company Bigbillion Food & Beverages Private Limited.

“Our sales in the period 2020-2021 amounted to Rs 7 billion and we expect them to approach Rs 10 billion in the current financial year. This year we opened more than 60 points of sale ”, explains Joseph.

“Many IT and banking experts have chosen our franchise. Some have quit their jobs, but others continue to work and run the business as well.

He charges Rs 6-7 lakh for a Black Pekoe franchise. His company would design the interiors, supply raw materials, and also train the franchisee and his employees to manage the outlets.

“Tea Boy stores are small, typically between 100 and 200 square feet, where we only serve two or three types of tea,” says Joseph.

The Black Pekoe outlets are larger, with the largest being a 1,500-square-foot outlet that sells a wider variety such as ginger tea, masala tea, cardamom tea, lemongrass tea, and regular tea.

The price starts at Rs 10 for a cup and goes to Rs 30. In addition to tea, they also sell snacks and foods like egg sandwiches, paneer sandwiches, chicken, and banana cakes in their stores.

Joseph came from a modest family who lived in a village in a 200 square meter small house with one room and a kitchen.

His father worked as a coachbuilder in Karur for a monthly salary of Rs 8,000 and her mother was a housewife. He has a younger brother who is now the police chief at the police station.

"It was difficult to run the house with my father's limited income," he said. “I studied in a monastery until the fifth standard. Later, I went to a public school because my family couldn't afford the 300 rupees a month in the monastery. "

Even during his school years, he did odd jobs to earn some money. After the tenth grade, he worked for a time as an assistant in a handloom factory and was paid about 500 rupees a month.

"I took on these jobs so that I could pay my own expenses and not put a financial burden on my parents," said Joseph, a 2006 business graduate of Bishop Heber's College in Trichy.

Over the next three years, he joined several multi-level marketing (MLM) companies and started selling cosmetics and travel packages.

“I could barely earn 5,000 rupees a month. I tried to get a job abroad, but I didn't get it, ”Joseph said, recalling his difficult days after graduation.

In 2012 he moved to Axis Bank as Relationship Manager. He then moved to Andhra Bank and from there to the State Bank of India, where he sold insurance and was promoted to area manager.

“Although I was paid 42,000 rupees a month, I was not satisfied with my work. I decided to start my own company and quit my job in 2016, ”he says.

He came to Chennai that same year and opened his first tea house, a Black Pekoe store on the Grand Mall, in a 100-square-meter space under an escalator.

"I started the tea business because I am a tea lover," says Joseph, who founded the first branch of it with an employee. “The point of sale was a great success. We had a daily turnover of over 8000 rupees. I was very happy to see that I ended up doing really well and making a lot of money.

Encouraged by the sales, Joseph invested Rs 20 lakh in the second store, a larger 900-square-foot store that he opened in Alandur.

“I took out a bank loan to set up the point of sale, but the parking problems were causing problems for customers and we had to close the store in just four months,” he says.

But Joseph did not feel like giving up. It opened its third branch in Ramanujan IT City - Neville Tower in OMR with an investment of Rs 3 lakh and also started offering franchises. It turned out to be a turning point and there has been no turning since back.

"Our franchisees earn between Rs 40,000 and Rs 1 lakh per month, depending on the size of the stores and the brand," explains Joseph, who encourages women entrepreneurs and offers franchises to housewives at discounted prices.

"So far, 13 women have taken over our franchise. They make sales of about Rs 5 lakh per month. Most of these women's husbands lost their jobs during the pandemic. "

He plans to expand his tea business and open 500 stores. "My goal is to sell 1 billion cups of tea a day in 500 stores," says Joseph, who is married and has two children.