Class 9 students turn bizmen, supply home-made granola bars to restaurant

It all started when the kids from KC High International School at Kotturpuram, set up a small stall within the school premises to sell home-made granola bars. It was a part of their business studies’ project to learn about costs, production and sale. 

While the team, Rishab, Netra, Harshini and Naveen, were selling granola bars priced at Rs 30, two representatives from Kimberly House restaurant — who had set up a stall nearby — tasted it. They liked the product and offered the students a business opportunity.

“After that, we had multiple meetings where discussed the look and feel of the product and from where we could source our ingredients and printers for our packages,” said Usha Lakshmi, teacher and the mentor of the students. She said that the meeting also looked into the expenditure and the legal ramifications of the product, business and registration. 

“As we plan to sell it at Coimbatore Airport, where Kimberly House has an outlet, we are targeting travellers who require a quick and nutritious snack before they leave the airport or board a flight,” Lakshmi said. The students, meanwhile, are happy with the opportunity to turn their knowledge from the classroom into a business. 

“We were lucky to have the opportunity to apply in real life what we learnt in class. This made us better students of business studies,” said Netra. 

The students also said that they have created a logo and a name for their product — Lekker which means “tasty” in Dutch. Of the students, Rishab designed stickers for the project, including ones of our logo and for each flavour of the granola bar, and was in charge of packaging.  

Naveen, on the other hand, designed a booklet containing the ingredients and their entrepreneurial story. He is also in charge of managing the finances. Netra is in charge making the bars. She bakes hundreds of granola bars in her kitchen, which she said, was not an easy job. 

“We just started out and it is going to be quite difficult,” said Netra. 

Meanwhile, Harshini designed the invitations for the product launch and also contributed to the packaging and helped Naveen in managing the expenses. The team plans to increase the variety of products and sell it to a larger customer base. Currently, the students supply 100 granola bars a week. “We plan to increase the production in a way that it doesn’t affect our studies,” said Harshini.