B Nitish Harihar: Setting Industry Benchmarks Through Outstanding Leadership Skills
B. Nitish Harihar
Founder
One such leader with not only the right attitude and skills but also the right vision is B. Nitish Harihar, Founder, Nithara Coffee. While leading an innovative coffee company, he also steers his team towards achieving excellence across all functions and operations of the firm, thereby ensuring complete customer satisfaction, uniform quality of product, and achievement of every target on which the company sets its sights to. Here’s a highlight from our recent interaction with B Nitish Harihar where he shares more about the success of Nithara Coffee.
How is our Indian Coffee Market changing in contrast to the global scenario?
Coffee is a quality-driven industry. Consumer awareness of the various factors of coffee quality has grown, resulting in the establishment of a number of filter coffee submarkets such as Single Origin Coffees and Made to Order Coffees. Customers currently expect their coffee blends to be tailored to their tastes. The best course of action is to customize each customer's coffee by understanding what type of coffee they want. Furthermore, the market is becoming more aware of the many brewing procedures available, including the Moka Pot, Aeropress, and Siphon, which differ from the traditional method of producing filter coffee using a stainless steel or brass South Indian filter. Customers have been enticed to taste variously prepared coffees as a result of these diversified brewing techniques.
What are the major expectations of customers from a Coffee manufacturing company? How do you meet those expectations?
Filter coffee customers desire freshly ground coffee with consistent flavor throughout the
year. The brewed coffee should have a pleasing texture and persistent after taste, in addition to an excellent flavor and aroma. All of our customers require highquality coffee. Sweetness, sourness, and bitterness must all be harmonized. Our coffee is sourced from award-winning farms as well as other leading estates in India's southern hills, mostly in Chikmagalur, Kushalnagar, and Wayanad. Only after strict quality controls and favorable cup tasting is this done. Our great team of cup tasters tests the coffee before purchase guaranteeing that the green beans are of the highest quality.
Coffee is only roasted on demand, and we only keep a basic minimum of roasted coffee in stock to ensure freshness. When the coffee is roasted, it is sent to our company owned facilities, to be freshly ground and packed in front of the consumer. This preserves the freshness of the coffee before it is processed and consumed. We have obtained world-class imported roasting machines and grinders to process roasted coffee and powder. This ensures that the roasting and grinding quality of the coffee powder are not compromised.
How is your company positioned in this market?
We are positioned in the market as a D2C and B2B brand. We sell coffee at wholesale prices to HoReCa (Hotel/Restaurant/Cafes) enterprises as well as clients directly through our physical branches in several locations throughout Tamil Nadu. We also deliver coffee directly to customers and through our e-shop on Nithara. Our items are also available on major e-commerce sites.
What are the major differentiating factors that set you apart from other players in this segment?
We are unique in this market because of our just in time philosophy. Our goal is to provide the goods to the consumer as quickly as possible so that the coffee is still fresh, fragrant, and delectable. In order to meet the needs of our consumers, we have opened a number of outlets around Tamil Nadu. The most critical aspect of manufacturing that we maintain is quality. Quality in the acquisition of unroasted coffee beans, in the tools used in processing, in the techniques used in processing, and in the services provided.
Highlight the milestones achieved by the firm since inception.
Our Ramagiri Estate won 'The Best Among the Arabica Bababudangiri Region' in the 'Flavour of India The Fine Cup Award 2012' Competition. The 'Flavour of India The Fine Cup Award 2011'Competition recognized our Krishnagiri Estate as 'The Second Best Among the Arabica Bababudangiri Region'. On August 17–18, 2021, Entrepreneur India
Our coffee is sourced from award winning farms as well as other leading estates in india's southern hills, mostly in chikmagalur, kushalnagar, and wayanad
Coffee is only roasted on demand, and we only keep a basic minimum of roasted coffee in stock to ensure freshness. When the coffee is roasted, it is sent to our company owned facilities, to be freshly ground and packed in front of the consumer. This preserves the freshness of the coffee before it is processed and consumed. We have obtained world-class imported roasting machines and grinders to process roasted coffee and powder. This ensures that the roasting and grinding quality of the coffee powder are not compromised.
How is your company positioned in this market?
We are positioned in the market as a D2C and B2B brand. We sell coffee at wholesale prices to HoReCa (Hotel/Restaurant/Cafes) enterprises as well as clients directly through our physical branches in several locations throughout Tamil Nadu. We also deliver coffee directly to customers and through our e-shop on Nithara. Our items are also available on major e-commerce sites.
What are the major differentiating factors that set you apart from other players in this segment?
We are unique in this market because of our just in time philosophy. Our goal is to provide the goods to the consumer as quickly as possible so that the coffee is still fresh, fragrant, and delectable. In order to meet the needs of our consumers, we have opened a number of outlets around Tamil Nadu. The most critical aspect of manufacturing that we maintain is quality. Quality in the acquisition of unroasted coffee beans, in the tools used in processing, in the techniques used in processing, and in the services provided.
Highlight the milestones achieved by the firm since inception.
Our Ramagiri Estate won 'The Best Among the Arabica Bababudangiri Region' in the 'Flavour of India The Fine Cup Award 2012' Competition. The 'Flavour of India The Fine Cup Award 2011'Competition recognized our Krishnagiri Estate as 'The Second Best Among the Arabica Bababudangiri Region'. On August 17–18, 2021, Entrepreneur India
awarded us as the 'Food & Beverage Start-Up of the Year'. Economic Times has awarded us as the 'Emerging Startup of the Year' during its 'ET Leadership Excellence Awards 2022'.
Tell us about your team. How is your combined experience helping your company to grow?
R.P.Sarathy, my maternal grandfather, was a pioneer in the coffee industry. Under his administration and supervision, the Ramagiri and Krishnagiri Estates were acquired and developed. His natural coffee knowledge was so vast that people from all over the world sought his help on all aspects of coffee cultivation and processing. All operations at our Chikmagalur estates are managed by my parents, R. Badri Prasad and B. Jayashree. Their considerable knowledge of coffee growing and cultivation has provided the entire team with a thorough understanding of coffee, starting with the seed stage. They designed and executed best practices at the estate to ensure the greatest quality coffee is cultivated there. We interact with some of the most known Coffee Cup Tasters to ensure that the coffee cultivated and procured is of consistently excellent quality.Our Production and Sales Teams are dedicated to maintaining good hygiene and standard operating procedures in order to assure the quality of our products and services.
Tell us about the overall journey of the company. Illustrate the growth it has observed in terms of revenue, clients, & geographical presence.
In the month of January 2020, our roasting unit began operations. Currently, Coimbatore, Erode, Salem, and Chennai are the locations where our roast and ground products are sold. To increase our visibility and enhance our services, we are gradually expanding into more Tamil Nadu cities. We also send coffee powder via courier to those who are unable to visit our R&G Branches.
What is the future roadmap for Nithara Coffee? How is the company gearing up for the same?
Nithara Coffee's future strategy is to expand our footprint throughout India, beginning in South India. This is done to ensure that our items reach our consumers in the shortest amount of time possible, which ensures product quality. We are increasing our production capacity and sales team to ensure that we can be reached for coffee product purchases.
B.Nitish Harihar, Founder, Nithara Coffee
B Nitish Harihar is a successful entrepreneur and academic leader based in Tamil Nadu, India. He is the Founder of Nithara Coffee, a thriving coffee business, and serves as the Chairman of a reputed engineering college situated in Salem, Tamil Nadu. Nitish has over 15 years of experience in academic leadership, having previously served as Pro-Chairman of the same institute. He holds a Bachelor of Technology degree in Mechanical Engineering from VIT University. Nitish is also highly skilled in employee engagement, soft skills, and team management.
Tell us about your team. How is your combined experience helping your company to grow?
R.P.Sarathy, my maternal grandfather, was a pioneer in the coffee industry. Under his administration and supervision, the Ramagiri and Krishnagiri Estates were acquired and developed. His natural coffee knowledge was so vast that people from all over the world sought his help on all aspects of coffee cultivation and processing. All operations at our Chikmagalur estates are managed by my parents, R. Badri Prasad and B. Jayashree. Their considerable knowledge of coffee growing and cultivation has provided the entire team with a thorough understanding of coffee, starting with the seed stage. They designed and executed best practices at the estate to ensure the greatest quality coffee is cultivated there. We interact with some of the most known Coffee Cup Tasters to ensure that the coffee cultivated and procured is of consistently excellent quality.Our Production and Sales Teams are dedicated to maintaining good hygiene and standard operating procedures in order to assure the quality of our products and services.
Tell us about the overall journey of the company. Illustrate the growth it has observed in terms of revenue, clients, & geographical presence.
In the month of January 2020, our roasting unit began operations. Currently, Coimbatore, Erode, Salem, and Chennai are the locations where our roast and ground products are sold. To increase our visibility and enhance our services, we are gradually expanding into more Tamil Nadu cities. We also send coffee powder via courier to those who are unable to visit our R&G Branches.
What is the future roadmap for Nithara Coffee? How is the company gearing up for the same?
Nithara Coffee's future strategy is to expand our footprint throughout India, beginning in South India. This is done to ensure that our items reach our consumers in the shortest amount of time possible, which ensures product quality. We are increasing our production capacity and sales team to ensure that we can be reached for coffee product purchases.
B.Nitish Harihar, Founder, Nithara Coffee
B Nitish Harihar is a successful entrepreneur and academic leader based in Tamil Nadu, India. He is the Founder of Nithara Coffee, a thriving coffee business, and serves as the Chairman of a reputed engineering college situated in Salem, Tamil Nadu. Nitish has over 15 years of experience in academic leadership, having previously served as Pro-Chairman of the same institute. He holds a Bachelor of Technology degree in Mechanical Engineering from VIT University. Nitish is also highly skilled in employee engagement, soft skills, and team management.