The Good Juicery : Story of an Expat Entrepreneur

A couple of weekends back, Mr Jules and I attended the Bandra Wine Festival - where after sampling a few glasses of Indian wine in the midday sun, became rather in need of something more refreshing to drink (say no more!)  That's when I came upon the brightly coloured 'Good Juicery' stall and a lady called Michelle Bauer - who is responsible for creating and launching this new brand in India.  I was very impressed by the drink - particularly the apple flavour. And as natural sparkling fruit drinks are not so widely available in India, I ended up buying a cart load of the stuff to store in our fridge. Mr Jules even wanted some to put in his office fridge to wheel out for special guests.

Cold, refreshing deliciousness!

Being a fellow expat, I was interested to know more about Michelle and how she came about starting her business (which I think follows on nicely from my last post about another inspirational expat woman getting involved in a Mumbai NGO project). So I questioned her for her story:

Michelle, aged only 31, is originally from Cape Town, South Africa and now lives permanently in Pune. She has a background in retail advertising and marketing, working in both South Africa and Dubai before moving to India in 2011.

Michelle Bauer

When Michelle first moved to India, she noticed that, despite the vibrant social and dining-out scene (and the heat!), there were very few non-alcoholic, premium, healthy beverage options on offer. Her friends, neighbours and co-workers all enjoyed active, social lifestyles, yet there did not appear to be many options available to suit this way of living.

At the time, Michelle was not sure she would be able to find work (they moved to India when her husband opened an office of his company here), so she started looking into the idea of making her own beverages – taking the idea of a sparkling fruit juices from the huge variety available in South Africa. Although she did find work in a marketing role quite quickly, the seed for the project had been sown, and Michelle continued to work on it in the evenings. A friend, who works in the food industry, came on board to help develop the recipes and as a partner in the company. It was very important to them that their juices appealed to a local audience, so they used friends and neighbours (essentially the target audience) as a sounding board for everything, from flavour and taste, to packaging ideas and logo.

Love the branding!

From the time Michelle started exploring the idea, to the launch itself, took 2.5 years – as there were a fair few things to figure out! Not in the least the FSSAI regulations, how the juices could be made to strict specifications without compromising on quality, and finding someone who was willing to make the product in small batches. India is not set up for small scale production – everyone wants to appeal to the mass market…the initial quotation from a contract manufacturer for three variants was 900,000!

Although a range of flavours were shortlisted, the final three were ultimately chosen after deliberating with friends, neighbours, and even strangers in the supermarket!  The team wanted to launch with a good range that offered something for everyone. The Sparkling Pink Guava flavour uses guava pulp sourced locally and offers consumers a new take on a well-loved favourite. Sparkling Passion Fruit, sourced from Europe, is a more exotic offering not widely available in India, whereas Sparkling Apple is a classic, crisp taste, which is is popular with a younger audience. The company is often asked what flavours will be coming next (they even receive emails with suggestions from strangers!).

Over the next 12 months The Good Juicery products should be made available in Goa, Bangalore and Ahmedabad in addition to Pune and Mumbai - and based on the positive feedback from customers the company hopes to launch new flavours.

Good luck to Michelle and well done to a fellow expat woman for being brave enough to launch a new business in foreign lands from scratch! I am certainly impressed and inspired. Mumbai readers can buy this delicious product at Nature's Basket and other stockists as noted on the website. Each can of drink contains two portions of fruit with no artificial flavours, preservatives or colouring. The Good Juicery plants one tree for every 1,000 cans of drink sold as they have a solid 'green' policy.

The Dharavi Cameras - Follow-up News

I received an email today that made me so happy.  It concerned the cameras that were donated by followers of the blog to a Reality Gives project - please read this post and this post.  To cut a long story short - I went to an exhibition of photographs taken by the kids of Dharavi ('Asia's largest slum') and I was so blown away by what they had achieved that I asked readers to donate cameras to the project - so that more children could benefit from photography classes initiated by the NGOs Reality Gives and Bombay Underground. We received nine cameras (successfully brought back in a suitcase from the UK by Mr Jules despite heavy questioning by Indian customs at the airport!) and I took them down to Dharavi last June.

I had been meaning to follow up on what had happened with the cameras - and as it transpires, they have been put to fantastic use.  Because it has not just been the children of Dharavi who have been able to make use of the equipment.  Through this latest project (described below), a select group of women were taught to be self-confident and self-aware through the medium of photography.

Here is a report from Joanna who kindly emailed me this morning with the news and photographs from the programme:

"The project ‘ladies only – stories for all’ was a collaborative venture between myself, Joanna Wingate, and Aqui Thami, from the Art Room. The workshop ran for 10 sessions, 2 hours a session in Dharavi, Mumbai.

The workshop focused on using photography, story telling and interviews, as a way of expressing how to be ‘free’ in a safe environment. The aims were to create positive awareness and raise self-confidence, and to build new relationships between the 5 participants.

We believe we achieved this as far as possible in the short time available. It was the first photography workshop for women in Dharavi. I taught them new skills, using basic camera techniques including: angles, composition, different props such as the use of tripod, and reflector. We followed various themes, such as ‘faceless portraits’, ‘abstracts’, ‘a day in a life’, and environment and street photography. I am certain, that most of the participants, loved ‘portraits’, which was their favourite. They imagined being somebody else - such as a Bollywood star for one session. At the end of the project, we went on a trip to Colaba, looking at different galleries, focusing on ‘Photography’ and ‘Women in Indian Photography’.

I conducted the sessions in English and Aqui, translated the workshop into Hindi for the group. This was the first such experience for me. Our group was a multi language group! English, Hindi, Marathi and Telegu.

One participant told us that she felt ‘young, free, and not having to worry about marriage, life, and children during the session’. For me, that was a positive step, to help the participants to be themselves and relax in a safe environment. Another participant said that she likes to dress up and feel good about herself in the sessions. I was so encouraged that they really enjoyed spending time together. Even though they had much work at home, they still made an effort to come each time, and did not drop out during the 10 sessions, as they created something new.

I hope the audience will enjoy the participants’ images - Amirita, Anuradha, Kaveri, Nirmala and Shobha. You can see them at the exhibition and in our photo book"

The work culminated in an exhibition at the Art Loft in October which I unfortunately missed due to travelling. So I would like to say 'well done' to Joanna and her team for doing such a fantastic job with these women. And it's so inspiring when you hear of other expat women using their skills and doing something so worthwhile with their time. 

The five participants, Joanna and Aqui

Time for laughter and forgetting the stresses of their daily lives

Thank you Joanna and Aqui, you've made a real difference to these women!

Holding our noses at Sassoon Docks

MaximumCityMadam was back in town and it was her birthday.  What did she want to do? Visit Sassoon Docks to take photos and 'take in the atmosphere' of course! 

An early morning visit to Mumbai's oldest docks - at the south end of Colaba Causeway - is certainly not for the faint hearted.  But if you can overcome the smell that hits you far before you even reach the main entrance, you will be impressed by the frenzied activity of the Koli fishermen and women that lies beyond.

The Sassoon Dock was built in 1875 by Albert Abdullah David Sassoon - son of the Baghdadi Jew David Sassoon who himself was responsible for building the historic Sassoon Library in Colaba.  The Sassoons were traders of cotton and the dock was originally used to unload this valuable commodity. However, after the decline of the Indian cotton industry, fishing became the main activity there.  Since then, the docks have employed thousands from the Koli fishing community - the most ancient residents of the original Mumbai islands. (The same folk that we have previously photographed when we visited Worli Fishing Village).

Although the fishing boats return to the docks at 5am, the activity continues all day. We got there at about 9.15am by which time the men were making repairs to their nets and busily trading fish in a covered area beside the sea. The main fish that you see in the big plastic tubs and crates are pomfret, mackerel, rawas (Indian salmon), kingfish and bombil.  It's absolute mayhem as the fish are dragged from the boats to the side of the dock and carted around by porters on long handcarts as other men and women crowd around to negotiate their trades. You have to be very careful where you step - MCM slipped on a squid which had fallen off a cart - thankfully she did not fall over into a fetid puddle (sorry MCM, but that was an amusing banana-skin moment!).

The Koli fisherwomen - brightly dressed in traditional costume, process, pack and freeze the fish before sending it off to destinations across Maharashtra.  The women are an extremely grumpy bunch and don't allow you to take their photos - aggressively putting up their hands when you try to interact with them. In fact, although you are welcome to have a look around, you are not allowed to take photographs at all unless you have permission from the Mumbai Port Trust. Thankfully for us MCM brought a friend whose maid's husband is a big cheese at the docks.  We arranged to meet up with him and he proudly gave us a tour of the area.  We were allowed to take photos - but mostly of the men as we'd given up with the women by then.  I can't blame them really - they were after all breaking their backs at work whilst we were spying on them with our lenses. 

Grumpy Koli Fisherwomen

After two hours of touring the docks and viewing the incessant but interesting activity, we were ready to go off for breakfast.  When we got back in the car, our driver Peter was so disgusted by the smell that he sprayed each of us with his bottle of aftershave!  

Note: if you wish to visit Sassoon Docks, I recommend that you wear closed shoes with a good grip as there is a lot of fishy water on the ground (and the usual Mumbai detritus). The area nearest to the sea is guarded and you will be told to put your camera away unless you have permission from the Port Trust.  I have not been able to locate any specific tours to Sassoon Docks.

Koli fisherwomen buying coriander for themselves

New nets being woven

Above and below - nets being repaired. Feet are used to hook the netting

We were told that this is 20 lakh Rs of net! (£20,000/$30,000)

This bag of fish represents what is left over for the fishermen and their families to eat - the good stuff is sold at market.

The fishing boats can be out to sea one month at a time

Water supplies for the boats.

Cacophony of sights, sounds and ...smells!

Trading of today's catch

Love the hat!

Ice being crushed prior to distributing for the packing of the fish

Impromptu fish sale

Mackerel - as fresh as you like

A Koli fisherwoman mid-trade

No digital scales here!

Fish being carried out to waiting trucks which will then take the supplies all over Maharashtra and perhaps beyond.

Truck driver prepares to leave