Our
Vision
‘To
spearhead a new herbal revolution in all our
countries of operation. To harness the natural
wealth and
herbal potential of these countries towards establishing
their significance in the subsistence and good
health of the entire mankind. To promote and
be instrumental in the farming of a total area
of
one million acres by the year 2025’
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Our Mission
To explore new opportunities
in farming, identify a farmer’s hurdles to
adapt, innovate, provide solutions and organize
service providers to facilitate
him at every step. To add more value at each stage
in the value chain and to ensure that all links from
the farmer to the industrialist to the end consumer
stand to gain from our operations. To maximize the
efficiency and productivity of the value chain, by
lubricating the chain to minimize all hurdles and
resistance.
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Our
Credo
This is our credo, within which, we shall at all
times seek for an answer to our concerns, a counsel
for our decisions, a guide in our actions, a moderator
for our aspirations and a direction in our darkness.
We believe that Jesus Christ, is the Son of God
and he is the Lord and Master of all our assets,
homes,
families, offices, farms, agencies and factories
and of the environment we do business in. In all
that we do, we shall ceaselessly strive to glorify
his name and live as true witnesses in Christ.
We shall constantly keep aside one tenth of our profits
every year, and the same shall be used to exalt
his
name across the world.
We believe that we are responsible to our contract
farmers to ensure that they get quality planting
materials and the most sincere consultancy and
technical advice. We shall work towards maximizing
the support
they get from all ancillary service providers like
bankers, insurers, agro-input suppliers and government
offices. We shall commit ourselves to maximize
the returns of all our farmers and see to it that
their
products find the best markets and the best prices.
We also undertake to do our best to ensure that
the interests of all our service providers and
partners
like bankers, insurers, franchisees, agencies;
input suppliers and government bodies are safeguarded.
These organizations which supplement the value
chain
with their services should benefit both strategically
and financially out of the service they render.
To all our buyers down the value chain, Herbz India
promises to promptly supply them with the best
quality agricultural outputs at fair and globally
competitive
prices. Our buyers and their countries should be
given the opportunity to benefit out of the herbal
wealth of the developing world. We shall harness
the synergies of our farming communities in order
to allow our buyers to gain in costs, quality and
productivity.
We believe that we are responsible to our employees,
to give them fair remuneration, scope for growth,
encouragement to perform, motivation to excel and
space for innovation. They form the foundation
upon which we stand and we promise to support them
as
they support us.
We are responsible to our partners in the business
environment – our agents and our distributors,
our suppliers and our sources, our financiers and
our buyers and our business partners and our collaborators.
We guarantee these and other partners in our business
an opportunity to make fair profits in their dealings
with our organization.
We are responsible to the society in which we live
and work and to the whole world as well. We shall
be good citizens and shall without fail, pay our
fair share of taxes every year. We shall maintain
in good order and take care as our own, the property
we are privileged to use, and shall uncompromisingly
preserve our environment and the resources nature
has blessed us with.
We exist to benefit our owners and to provide for
their subsistence. Our business should make substantial
profit. Our standards should be maintained, plans
adhered to, targets met, ideas experimented and
values upheld. It shall be our constant endeavor
to optimize
profits and thus ensure a fair return on our owners’ investments.
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Our Heritage
Herbz India is part of the 40 million dollar (200
crore) Kynadi Family based in Calicut, Kerala. The
family can trace back its plantation history to the
beginning of the 20th century when they were instrumental
in the implementation of the Holland Scheme paddy
cultivation initiated in Kuttanad, better known as
the rice bowl of Kerala. From paddy fields in Alleppey,
the family diversified into Rubber and Cardamon trading
in the early 1930s.
In the year 1947,
the patriarch of the family, Mr. PJ Jacob, decided
to backward
integrate his rubber
business and invest in rubber plantations in Malabar.
His historic efforts in the establishment of the
Philominapuram and St. Mary’s Estates in Thamarassery
near Calicut, paved way for the large-scale migration
of planters from South Kerala to Malabar.
Now, more than 50 years after the family set foot
in Malabar, the Kynadi Family, finds its business
interests in several diversified avenues which include
tourism, dairy products, construction, agricultural
supplies, consumer goods, footwear, granite quarries
and plantations spread across South India.
The plantation interests of the family include the
following:
•
Rubber, Areacanut, Coconut, Vanilla, Patchouli, Pineapple
and Cocoa plantations in Thamarassery.
• Tea Estates with Multi Cropped areas in the Nilgiris
Dist., Tamil Nadu.
• Coconut Gardens in Kuttanad, Kerala.
• Coffee and Cardamom Estates In Koorg.
• Coconut and Fruit Orchards in Mysore District of
Karnataka.
• Rubber plantations in Kottayam and Ernakulam Districts
of South Kerala.
• Medicinal and Aromatic Herb farms in Mysore, Karnataka.
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Our Leadership
James
Jacob Kynadi, Partner & Chief
Operating Officer - India
James Jacob, the youngest
son of PJ Jacob Kynadi, started his stint with
the
family plantations in
Thamarassery near Calicut, fresh after his graduation
from St. Joseph’s College, Bangalore. His penchant
for farming continued even after his Masters in Social
Work and his LLB.
After practicing as
a lawyer in Calicut for a few years, in 1980, James
decided
to expand the family’s
plantation business into Karnataka and later in 1992,
to Tamil Nadu.
Over the last 2 decades he has been maintaining
a stable multi-crop portfolio, which includes rubber,
tea, coffee, cashew, cardamom, areacanut, cocoa,
coconut, pineapple, vanilla, teak, mango and pepper.
It was
post 1996,When the cultivation of almost all crops
planted in the region became non-viable due to
fall in prices and yield, that his eyes opened
to the fact that the farming community of
Kerala, had failed to look at several potential crop
options other than the ones which were introduced
to us by the British, several years back. This is
the key insight, which led to this venture into medicinal
herbs and contract farming.
In Herbz India, James
looks after all technical aspects of the firm including
crop suitability suggestions,
technical consultation, planting material selection
and manages our seed propagation facilities. Being
a progressive farmer with profound knowledge in all
aspects of agriculture, James would ensure all of
Herbz India’s farmers the best answers to their
queries.
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Vinay
James Kynadi, Managing Partner & CEO
It was in the year
2003, that Vinay James Kynadi, the second son of
Mr. James
Kynadi, carved out and
materialized the concept of Herbz India to fulfill
his father’s dream of resuscitating the farming
industry in Kerala.
Vinay is a 5th generation
planter and an MBA from XIME, Bangalore. After
his education,
he joined the
Coca-Cola Company in Trivandrum and later in the
year 2001, took charge of the company’s marketing
operations for the state of Kerala. After a two-
year with the Company, he joined the family
plantation business and took up the onsite management
of Kynadi Farms in Ayrahally Village, Mysore.
In early October 2003
Vinay moved out from Mysore and under his father’s
experienced guidance worked towards establishing
Herbz India. Finally,
in November 2003, Herbz India was set up as a partnership
firm with its head office at Mavoor Road, Calicut.
With his innovative marketing strategies and dynamic
execution skills, in a span of 7 months, Vinay was
able to lead Herbz India into being the largest contract
farmer in Kerala.
Now, Vinay looks after
the day-to-day management of Herbz India and co-ordinates
all its operations
from the tying up with contract farmers to the marketing
of the agricultural output. Vinay also works towards
enriching each link of the value chain by collaborating
with service providers at each stage. He is instrumental
in the numerous tie-ups Herbz India has with bankers,
insurance companies, brokers, research centers, industrial
buyers and agricultural input suppliers. With his
enterprising hard-work, futuristic vision and experienced
passion for marketing he affirms Herbz India’s
promise of the best of services to its clients.
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Ajay
James Kynadi, COO – International
Business
Ajay is the eldest
son of James Jacob Kynadi and is presently based
in Kuwait after
his MBA in finance
from the Simon School of Business, University of
Rochester, New York. After graduating in engineering
from The National Institute of Technology, Calicut,
Ajay was looking after the family plantation in Niligiris
Dist and later moved on to oversee the family’s
interests in dairy processing at White Field Dairy
Private Limited (The makers of Amrut and Aryan dairy
products) before leaving to the US for his Master’s
in the year 2000.
After his MBA, Ajay joined
Alghanim Industries in Kuwait and was in charge
of production, planning
and procurement for the Alghanim Engineering group.
Currently, he is a Business Development Manager with
PWC Logistics, working on M&A and JV’s.
He also heads the International Operations of Herbz
India.
With his global exposure
and proven prowess in logistics and trade negotiations
Ajay works towards ensuring
Herbz India’s meticulous adherence to the specified
needs of all its alliance partners and buyers. The
perfectionist that he is, his strict set of deliverables
are never deterred from thus ensuring all buyers
prompt delivery, the best of quality and the most
competitive prices.
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Teresa
James, Partner & Head – Welfare & Charities
Teresa James, the wife of James Jacob Kynadi, hails
from the plantation based Kottukapally Family of
South Kerala. Her father, Late Mr. George Thomas
Kottukapally was a well-known Member of the Indian
Parliament. He was also promoter and director of
plantation companies like Teekoy Rubbers Ltd, Periyar
and Perikandy Plantations Ltd, Velliamattom Rubbers
Ltd and the erstwhile Palai Central Bank.
Teresa,
a Botany graduate from Stella Maris College, Chennai,
apart from helping her husband in the management of our seed propogation facilities,
is also resposible for our community welfare and
charity activities.
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