TIRUPATI: Pulling people away from the artificial food products, a bunch of graduates-turned-entrepreneurs have brought the essence of pure organic honey to the streets of Vijayawada by procuring naturally produced honey from farms to the palms of residents.
Software couple Mahesh Yegilisetty and Meghana Yegilisetty, along with Mahesh’s brother Shiva Durga Rao, founded the ‘BTech Wala Organic Honey Farming’, which has changed the tides of the honey business in the city.
With the aim of becoming job givers rather than job seekers, the trio has come up with this noble idea and leased out organic honey farms in Kollur village near Tenali, where the honey is being produced naturally through backyard beehive boxes. From these farmers the young entrepreneurs collect honey and sell the produce to the customers in Vijayawada.
What started as a small startup, has now turned into a multi-lakh business as the sale of organic honey in February clocked 600 kg in the first month with a turnover of Rs 3 lakh. Now, the sales crossed 1,000 kg with a turnover of more than Rs 5 lakh in less than three months giving the trio profits to the tune of at least 20 per cent in honey sales with an average earning of Rs 1 lakh per month.
Sharing his success journey with TNIE, Mahesh attributed the runaway success to the hard work he put into doing the travel and food vlogs, which garnered him popularity in social media circles in Vijayawada region. “My Instagram pages bezawada_backpacker and bezawadafoodhunters, where me, my wife Meghana and my brother Shiva Durga Rao did travel and food vlogs, bringing the best tourist destinations and food delicacies across Andhra Pradesh to hands of denizens,” said Mahesh.
“After I lost my job in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, I was forced to return home, allowing me to pursue my dream of starting my own business venture. Being a health-conscious freak, I hopped onto the new trend and started this organic honey business, although my financial situation didn’t help me then,” Mahesh recalls.
However, following my marriage a year ago, my wife Meghana, who also worked as a software employee at an MNC firm in Bangalore, supported my dreams giving wings to my business, Mahesh added. The entrepreneur couple started the sml_organic_foods Instagram page, where customers can place orders which would be door delivered by the couple them self within Vijayawada limits.