The Village Fair founders Radhika Menon and Priya Deepak.
Radhika Manghat Menon and Priya Deepak fondly call their clay pots and cast iron pans “our babies.” So do their customers. These are not the mass-produced, teflon-coated, non-stick cookware that you would use and throw eventually. Each of these pieces is seasoned by loving hands. Each has gravitas.
To those unfamiliar with traditional Asian cooking, ‘seasoning’ for utensils might sound like wizardry out of Harry Potter. But those who have seen grandma clanking them in the kitchen, with finger-licking good results, will know exactly what I am talking about.
Radhika is the founder and Priya the co-founder of The VillageFair, a Kochi-based niche ecommerce startup that took baby steps to peddle traditional, natural cookware from the southern Indian state of Kerala through a Facebook page last year. Today they sell goods worth US$4,448 every month, shipping out around 50 pieces a day to clients in India and abroad.
The startup is bootstrapped, highly profitable, with a margin of 40 to 50 percent on everything it sells, and is empowering a clutch of women from lower economic backgrounds by letting them practise an ancient skill – that of seasoning cookware by treating it with natural materials to make it more durable.
Priya spells out one of the biggest reasons for their success: “A frugal, no big bang, approach.”
The founders, both women from the corporate world, decided early on that they would operate on a small scale and sacrifice fast growth for sustainability. Like grandma’s cooking, they would go slow.
It all started with Facebook
The pull of The VillageFair lies in the inherent promise of health in natural cookware made of cast iron, clay, stone, wood, and bronze – not to mention their antique-like look.
Baking pans. Photo credit: The VillageFair.
In fact, a Facebook food blog post by a US-based doctor about the health benefits of using iron in cooking is what triggered the startup. “When Radhika read it, she put up pictures of the cast iron wok she had at home, and suddenly there was a flurry of people asking where they could buy it. That got her thinking,” says Priya.
Radhika has years of experience in the service industry, Priya in software. The two had become acquaintances during business meets. “She called me and we knew exactly what to do. The purchase process, the supply chain, the deliveries…I could handle the backend part very well,” says Priya.
Radhika created their Facebook page, and within a few days the orders started coming. “Facebook has played a big role in our growth,” Priya tells Tech in Asia. Even now, two months after they have set up their own website, a lot of their business comes via the Facebook page.
They set up the company with an initial investment of around US$200.
Laying their hands on good quality cast iron pans and clay pots, however, posed a problem. “You would not feel like buying the stuff available in the local markets of Kochi. We realized that we would have to season these.”
This is where Radhika’s domestic help stepped in. She knew how to season utensils.
The seasoning sisters
The startup works with a bunch of women that Priya calls “the seasoning chechis.” Chechi is the local term for elder sister. Most of them used to work as domestic helps, and their husbands were fishermen or workers living off meager incomes.
Women seasoning utensils. Photo credit: The VillageFair.
“We started with one or two women, now there are 15 of them,” says Priya. The women, all of them from five or six families that live close to each other, earn around US$148 per month by seasoning utensils – a skill they had inherited from their mothers and grandmothers but which had been made dormant by the availability of modern cookware.
Besides earning more, it was empowering for them to be able to work in their own homes and be self-reliant. “Our vision is to be a social enterprise, but for profit,” says Priya.
Not everyone knows that cooking utensils made of stone, clay, or iron need to be seasoned before use – for instance by polishing or heating. Seasoning material can vary from oil to rice to milk to water to onions and more. These processes have been in place for centuries in countries like Egypt, China, and India.
Isn’t it fascinating how a few simple, natural elements that go into crafting your cooking pot can make a huge difference to your food? That is why tea served in little clay cups is such a hit, that is why clay pot rice has a distinctive aroma, that is why red fish curry cooked in a stone kalchatti looks as enticing as it does.
Photo credit: The VillageFair.
All The VillageFair’s products are ready-to-use, and unlike what you might think, perfectly suited to modern day cooking – that is, on the gas stove, induction cookers, or the oven. From baking a pizza to flipping pan cakes to rustling up the more traditional dosa, idli, biryani – these pieces lend themselves to a wide range of cuisine. “Yes, they can be heavy,” admits Priya, “but that is more of a mental block.”
The startup has 15 product categories, the most popular being the cast iron dosa pan of which they stock around 50 at a time. Of the other items, they stock around 25 each, in keeping with their small-is-beautiful approach. “Our goal is that the products should be shipped out as and when they come.”
Their Attic section has old, second-hand kitchen equipment with looks to die for. But these are hard to come by. Priya says it is an extension of their main offering, especially for those who prize antiquity.
The entire range is priced between US$9.6 and US$96, exclusive of shipping charges. They have Razorpay as a payment partner and have also tied up with PayPal.
FedEx ships the products for them. International deliveries started only recently, with the first formal order from foreign shores coming from New Zealand. Indians in Singapore, the US, and Dubai have been ordering their products for a while now.
“In the initial days, I used to go from door to door to deliver to our customers! Non-resident Indians would have us keep their orders with relatives back home and would pick up whenever in India.”
Slow and steady
People are now moving back to natural cookware, says Priya. She gives the example of a customer in Bangalore who recently bought US$370 worth of cookware for his new home. He threw out all his modern cooking utensils.
A village kitchen in India. Photo credit: The VillageFair.
The founders realize that they are now staring at the second phase of growth. That will mean ramping up the website, which is rather slow to load, and more investment. “We are completely bootstrapped and have invested everything back into the business. Radhika and I have not taken salaries,” says Priya.
The team has to grow bigger too, as the staff right now is a close-knit circle of people “who wanted to do something with me.” That includes her son who is gearing to be a management graduate.
They are also about to introduce copperware. “But we are going slow, so that our vendor can deliver quality,” she says.
Since almost every corner of this ancient country might have something to contribute to The VillageFair’s store, the startup next plans to scout eastern India. It is the region I hail from and I can swear they will have plenty to pick from, from iron coconut-scrapers to clay roti pans.
Priya takes pride in their deeply personal approach. “Our mails to customers are personalized, we are on WhatsApp with them; our customers call these vessels their ‘babies.’ These are products full of memories and nostalgia.”
The founders would, evidently, have it no other way.
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