Success is a desire; an innate obsession which keeps us awake for nights and days!
And then, one fine day a blowing innovation hits the floor.
SUCCESS and INNOVATION go hand in hand. So, you dream of success, and watch your INNOVATION shaping into a spendulous venture!
Vaibhav Tidke is a 31–yr old hard–headed innovator, who leaves no stones unturned in putting food processing agro industries on storms. With his “SUNNY Driers”, he qualifies as a star innovator and now a successful entrepreneur.
Tidke, as a child, often used to visit Tuesday weekly bazaars in Ambajogai, a small city of Maharashtra. There he could apparently recognize the sudden price fluctuations of fruits and veggies in a very short spell, say a day. The fruit which costed him Rs. 30/kg in the morning was blatantly available at a reduced price of Rs. 10/kg. This abrupt fluctuation left him with a jolting question in his mind, “What is compelling the farmers to bear this loss?”
“I saw, during a particular season of harvesting, fruits and vegetables were really cheap. There was a lot of supply, and much less demand. The farmer didn’t have a way of preserving fruit and vegetables,” Vaibhav Tidke
Coming from a family which survived its bread and butter from farming, he could relate to this disturbing plight of farmers. The question kept on haunting him until he got convinced with his erupting idea of “Sustainable Storage”.
“Sunny” Driers!
Tidke’s innovation in his “solar conductive driers” feeded his immense desire to do something exceptionally working for the farmers and that it may directly hit and serve the purpose.
“The dryer is a box with a clear plastic top. Farmers place produce on a black, heat-absorbent surface, and the sun does the rest. About 95% of the water inside the items is evaporated off, leaving dehydrated produce ready for storage.”
Dry Chains–A boom
Drying fruits and veggies and storing them for future uses has been prevalent since civilization. But what is the new crunch in it?
SOLAR ENERGY + MACHINE AGE = SUNNY DRIERS
Although cold storage has been a popular practice these days, but with usage of huge fridges and enormous amount of electricity, it is extremely costly, and it is no new to us! The dry food storage, on the contrary, through solar powered driers, can meet the revolutionary upsurge in agro industries, which is strived hard for, by the cold storage industries since eras.
Moguls in Making
Tidke, with Sheetal and Nidhi, as poised co–founders, laid the founding stones of “S4S”, Science for Society.
“S4S Technologies is a food preservation company that invents new food processing machines. We sell these machines to farmers or use these machines at our own facility to produce best quality processed food”, says mastermind of S4S, Vaibhav Tidke. Having its initial presence in Mumbai and suburbs, now the start-up is emerging as a Pan–India revolution.
Enrouting Kenya
“Success lies in consistent competency with SELF”
Tidke decided in 2010 to provide wings to his caterpillar and make it fly to the sky–high zeniths of Kenya.
Being a developing agro–based economy, with tropical weather conditions, Kenya along with India, faces the same miserable plight of farmers. The excessive use of cassava, viral food–love in tropical Kenya, led to another huge installation of “Cassava Tech” in the country. With this, the budding innovator turned into a successful entrepreneur!
Feeding your Hunger
DesiVdesi
The room for thinking and innovation doesn’t ends here. S4S, after the resilient drier, came up with a more consumer penetrating vocation in DesiVdesi. From instant mixes like instant khichdi to sliced fruit chunks and non–fried spinach–chiku chips, nutritious products are a big attraction of the side–venture.
Indian prospects
India is one of the hungriest countries in the world–yet it wastes a huge amount of food. Production of vegetables and fruit totals about 220 million tons a year. About 30% of that never reaches the table.
The main reason for this waste is a lack of storage infrastructure, particularly at harvest-time. Without electricity or electric freezers, farmers have to sell everything immediately, which inevitably means it’s not sold at all.
“You wash and cut down the fruit and vegetables and load it in the drier. By the evening, most of them are dry, and you take it and pack it,” Tidke says. The produce retains its color and texture, just loses its volume. Farmers rehydrate the items by adding water again, and they can also use the dryer for fish or meat.
So far, S4S has installed 1700 units in 11 countries, and hope to distribute 1 million units by 2020.
Pep–Up your prep
Tidke took his flight from an innovator to a successful entrepreneur very soon in his life. But, during this journey he had managed many crusts and troughs. Ranging from challenges including initial capital, team building, scale up to lack of experience at business front, Tidke and his colleagues had a hard time yet rewarding one.
“The foremost quality that the investors look in new entrepreneurs is the scale up possibilities of the business, and here lies our major challenge”, says Tidke.
He also pays equal importance to team play and says passionate employees are a must for a start up.