SOS Organics
Coordinates: 29°37′09″N 79°42′14″E / 29.619114°N 79.704001°E
| File:SOS Organics Green Logo.jpg | |
| Private | |
| ISIN | 🆔 |
| Industry |
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| Founded 📆 | April 1, 2008 |
| Founders 👔 |
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| Headquarters 🏙️ | Chitai Pant Village, Almora, Uttarakhand 263601 |
Number of locations | 1 |
Area served 🗺️ | Worldwide |
| Products 📟 |
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| Services |
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| Revenue🤑 |  ₹12 million (2018) |
| Members | |
Number of employees | 35 (2019) |
| 🌐 Website | www |
| 📇 Address | |
| 📞 telephone | |
SOS Organics was established in 2008 in a village in the Kumaon region in the state of Uttarakhand, India.
The core philosophy behind SOS Organics was primarily to create a holistic habitat for the local community. Towards this, SOS Organics initiated a sustainable livelihood model wherein people of the region learned to not only respect old traditions of the region but also harness its abundant natural resources. The concept behind this unique project was to create a decentralized ecosystem that works as a catalyst to resurrect age-old recipes used in India and bring them to the forefront in an otherwise chemically-ridden environment.
The vision of SOS Organics is to bring the true value of each selected ingredient across their portfolio. All the products at SOS Organics have been carefully curated by the founders Amrita and Santosh, who have over three decades of hands-on experience in identifying the core ingredients available indigenously in various geographical locations across India and the value each of these ingredients brings to our daily lives.
Today, SOS Organics has many firsts to its name: the first brand in India to produce the Hemp Seed and Nettle Salve, the only brand to offer unique blends of Herbal Infusions and running the entire project based solely on rainwater harvesting and not using any other water source.
After over a decade since SOS Organics was launched, the founders are encouraging local entrepreneurs to consider this model as a prototype to build similar communities in villages across India.
History
1990-2000: Simplicity, our way of life
The founders of SOS Organics, Amrita and Santosh, had a philosophy of simplicity and harnessing what nature has to offer, which set them on a path to establish India's most popular organic brand - Organic India. They were co-founders who participated in cultivating Tulsi across hectares of land in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh. They created a cooperative for the farmers and built a state-of-the-art factory to process the sourced Tulsi. The duo, together with the other founders and the team from the local village, were instrumental in spearheading the Tulsi revolution in India. Today, Organic India has a global footprint and is a well-established brand in the Organic Food market; to this day, one of their flagship products is Tulsi tea.
As the brand grew exponentially, the philosophy of the brand changed, and Amrita and Santosh decided to move on and pursue other options closer to their hearts. The takeaway from their experiences seeded the idea of creating an ecosystem where they could thrive in an environment that was about living and sustaining with what nature has to offer. From cultivating vegetables and fruits to sourcing water from natural springs to having a dairy farm.
2001-2008: A serendipitous journey
The idea to start the SOS Organics brand was serendipitous. After they took leave from Organic India, they travelled the length and breadth of the Himalayas, and during one such sojourn they stayed at Papersali, Almora. During their short stay, they met with local people and got talking about natural resources and traditions; they realized their way of life struck a chord with the locals.
A project was needed for an inclusive ecosystem in this remote place that would not only create jobs for the local community but would also act as a catalyst to restore and revive the abundant natural resources.
Equipped with relevant experiences and passion, the founders, Amrita and Santosh, set out on this journey of establishing SOS Organics. The vision of the project was and is to keep things simple by following select tenets: reviving the benefits of organic and natural local produce, minimalism in formulation of products for true therapeutic value, employment of locals, a production unit that does not deliver scale but quality, ingredients sourced only from the Himalayan region, robust supply chain management to empower local farmers, and finally a brand that believes in "sharing organic standards" with people who believe in the brand.
SOS Organics' operations started in a make-shift three-room village house in Chitai, a small hamlet 5 km northeast from Almora. After innumerable trials, the formulations for the cosmetic range were ready. Diverse local produce had been sourced for assembling and packaging Organic Foods. Hence, the next step was to train the village women and men in the manufacturing process of all products.
As the production began successfully, the next big step was the sale of the products. The founders set up meetings with local retailers who believed in their philosophy and in May 2008 the brand was made available in a few retail outlets in Papersali, the village where their journey had begun.
As the brand gained visibility in the marketplace and sales grew exponentially, the need of the hour was the building of a larger production unit. In late 2008, SOS Organics purchased land in Chitai and began building a unit in the heart of the village. The entire structure was erected by the local community along with the founders and friends. All material for the unit was locally sourced, water harvesting tanks were built simultaneously, and all the machinery required for production was handmade by the founders and local artisans.
Today, the production unit is housed in a two-storey building, located at the centre of a 2-acre campus. It is surrounded by water harvesting tanks, trees, greenery, and local mud-plastered cottages that are part of the production facility and named after philosophers, mystics, and other entities that have inspired the founders throughout their journey.
2009 onwards: Innovation exists at the grass-root level
Over the last decade, SOS Organics has grown in revenue and stature in the Natural Cosmetic and Organic Food segment of the industry. Since its launch, the brand has never been aggressively marketed to be positioned across thousands of retail touchpoints but focused on the quality and experience at select outlets. Currently, the products are retailed across 25 locations in all metros and Tier I & II cities in India. In 2010, SOS Organics launched its website and integrated the e-commerce platform in 2015. The brand has also made considerable inroads in the hospitality industry as the preferred partner for niche destination properties.
Today, SOS Organics has fully trained staff who have been working with the company since inception. The staff is well equipped with complete understanding of each step of the production processes, the therapeutic value of the ingredients used, the source of these ingredients, and why SOS Organics is different as compared to commercial brands available in the market.
Over the years, to maintain high-quality standards, SOS Organics has invested time and resources on regularly testing its entire product range. The brand has been certified by all noted agencies for its Organic products.
Further Reading
Business Standard:[1]
Guide Star India:[2]
OSHO News:[3]
External links
Official Website: www
References
- ↑ https://www.business-standard.com/article/beyond-business/small-is-truly-beautiful-a-tiny-organic-set-up-and-lessons-in-minimalism-118013001178_1.html
- ↑ https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=3389
- ↑ https://www.oshonews.com/2015/06/22/how-sos-organics-has-successfully-created-a-sustainable-village-model-in-uttarakhand/
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