• Opportunities

He’s no Slumdog Millionaire, but his story is just as inspiring. E. Sarath Babu found himself in the spotlight in 2006 when he declined a plum offer from a software company at IIM Ahmedabad’s campus recruitment event. Instead of joining the high-flying MNC bandwagon, he decided to follow his dream: to generate employment for the country’s poor.

So, with a meager sum of Rs. 2,000 from personal savings and Rs. 1 lakh borrowed from friends, Sarath Babu launched his company, FoodKing Catering Services, in Chennai back in April 2006—one day before he graduated from IIM.

The food industry, which is usually considered to be a low-lying sector for B-school graduates, had a special appeal for Sarath Babu. “Food is an everlasting industry,” he says. “It generates jobs for everyone, including the poor—unlike the infamous software business.” Today, Sarath Babu is popularly known as the ‘Idli Man’­—a term linked to his childhood, which he spent helping his mother sell idlis on the streets of Chennai.

According to Sarath Babu, if each entrepreneur in India can create one lakh jobs, it is possible to directly support five lakh people. Determined to prove these figures, Sarath Babu persisted in getting into India’s top-notch business school.

Once in, Sarath­ Babu—an elected member of the student body—tested the waters, actively organizing catering services for big campus events. These ventures fired him up to pursue his personal ambition.

“What mattered to me the most was my mother’s permission to pass up on a good job offer and start my own business. The media attention I got for dropping a campus placement was inconsequential to my decision,” Sarath says. On the plus side, the publicity helped him get his first order­—ironically, from a software firm!

Four months after Sarath Babu founded FoodKing, he received funding of Rs. 9 lakh from a bank and the Rotary Club. This helped him generate Rs. 40 lakh in revenue in the first year itself. “I have had a good start, but I still have a long way to go to create one lakh jobs,” says the determined entrepreneur.

FoodKing, now a thriving Rs. 7-crore company, caters to premier educational institutes and offices across India. But to Sarath Babu, the wealth of employment that FoodKing has spun is more significant. “I’ve always wanted to do something for the lower strata [of society],  because I know what it feels like to be there,” he says. The company now has over 200 employees across six cities.

With a few more projects in the pipeline and a plan to get into food retailing, Sarath Babu is confident about doubling his revenues and employee base in 4-6 months. Giving an analogy for his zeal, he says, “A bamboo tree only grows six inches during the first six years; then, it shoots up to 90 feet in the next six months.”

Gathering Steam:
• Launched in 2006 with Rs. 2,000 from personal savings and Rs. 1 lakh from friends
• Revenues in the first year touched Rs. 40 lakh
• FoodKing now has 200 employees across six cities
• Revenues for 2008-2009 touched Rs. 7 crore

©Entrepreneur September 2009

Tags:
Catering Services, Chennai, food, FoodKing, Idli Man, IIM Ahmedabad, Sarath Babu, Slumdog Millionaire, smetv, software