After quitting his IPS dream, this man became an entrepreneur by selling tea
Joseph Rajesh did not dream of becoming an entrepreneur. His goal, since his teens, had been to become a police officer. Despite doing everything that was required of him, he did not get a posting as an IPS officer. While fighting the injustice at court, he went on to become an entrepreneur aiming to provide world's finest tea with Black Pekoe.
Wanting to join the police force, Joseph finished his studies from Bishop Heber College, Trichy. He was also active in NCC during his college days. In his words,
I joined NCC in my college as I wanted to become an IPS officer. I also participated in the NCC parade that took place in Delhi during republic day.
After college, he cleared exams and qualified to get into the police force. However, he did not get posted anywhere and he filed a case in the court.
At the same time, he also took up a series of jobs before realising he did not want to work under anyone else and instead wanted to start up on his own.
After deciding to become an entrepreneur, he met a tea plantation worker in Ooty, who steered him in the direction of tea business. He said,
I asked him what kind of tea you drink and he told me that he just adds tea leaves and makes tea. And then I asked him what about the one we drink and he told that it is written in the product you buy, it is just tea dust.
That is when Joseph decided to take it up on himself to build an Indian brand of tea and take it to the global market. He took his idea to six of his friends and together they started Black Pekoe.
Joseph aims at providing high quality tea to the customers; hence the name – Black Pekoe.
One of the friends, Bharani, a graphic designer took care of the logo designing, and Selva, an architect, helped with designing the shop.
At present, one cup of tea is sold at anywhere between Rs 20 to 50 and the shop is located in Grand Mall, Velachery. Talking about the sales of tea, he said,
Despite having a shop in the mall, we sell tea at a low price compared to other shops. So people visit the mall just to have our tea.
Joseph looks forward to the day he can sell 10 lakh cups of tea in a day. He also aims at giving franchise to like minded people and make entrepreneurs out of them.
Read this in Tamil.
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