Geetie Singh is quite ahead of her times. She set up London’s first organic pub, The Duke of Cambridge Organic Pub, way back in 1988 and till now it is the only Soil Association certified organic pub there. UK’s leading certification organisation awards organic food and farming certificate only if 95% of the ingredients used are organic. Substitutes are permitted for the rest when there are no choices.
Little wonder, she has hosted the likes of Cherrie and Tony Blair, Kylie Minogue, Cate Blanchett, Brad Pitt, Salman Rushdie and Ian Jack.
The seeds of the business were sown when she was growing up with strong political grounding in a self-sustaining Worcestershire commune. It was a natural way of life. It was about being ethically and environmentally correct.
When she grew out of the commune and was on her own in the big world, she was confronted with a different worldpersonally as well as professionally.
Though she had trained as an opera singer, she was convinced that she did not want to practise and live listening to her own voice for most of the time. That was the beginning of the end of her competitive singing, which wasn’t promising in the first place.
The daughter of a Punjabi father wanted to live a full, fun-filled life. It wasn’t fun trying to live a fun-filled life, though. Particularly, watching others was worse. While in catering jobs for a little less than 10 years, she witnessed gross violation of the rights of the staff. It was tough on an idealistic person.
She didn’t retreat. She didn’t adapt. She felt challenged. It spurred her to think about setting up her own little world. She decided to set up an organic, ethical and profitable business. Why organic food is safe for people as well as the planet, she explains.
The next step was writing business plans and shortlisting properties. Anything that could go wrong went wrong. She raised money through private investment. I’ts was not as difficult as it is usually, she recollects. And soon she had The Duke of Cambridge at her disposal.
She hadn’t forgotten her original brief. She began by restoring the 1851-property with reclaimed or sustainable material and refurbishing it with recycled furniture. Wind and solar sources were harnessed to supply the energy.
The concept was extended to daily operations to leave the least environmental impact. The menu is organic or fair-trade or both. Even wines are organic. So are draught beers, thereby reducing waste from refilling barrels.
All the food is typically British with Mediterranean influences. Most of the ingredients used are seasonal and sourced locally from small, independent producers. Air freight is avoided because it causes more carbon emissions.
Fish are sourced from non-depleting stocks or farms using sustainable methods. Tea, coffee, sugar, chocolate and some fruit come from fair-trade producers. Bread, pickles and ice-cream are made in-house. Water purification is also done in-house. Transported bottled water is a strict no-no.
Reusing, recycling and composting are a way of life, depending upon whether its leftover food, kitchen waste, paper, cardboard, corks or glass. Used cooking oil is sent to bio-diesel facilities. Hippos are employed in loos to reduce water consumption. She says, “The idea is to reduce carbon footprint. I don’t believe in carbon offsetting. It’s rubbish.”
Managing such a niche pub business, which still lacks universally accepted and applicable benchmarks, has meant that the 37-year-old restaurateur has had to set her own standards and in turn for the rest of her fraternity.
Besides, she is improving upon the standards on a day to day basis because its a living organic business, thereby making it more and more challenging for the competition.
Whether she is an activist businesswoman or a businesswoman with a foresight may be debatable. She says, “I am not concerned about labels. What matters is doing business on my own terms.” The mere fact that she is continuing to do it even ten years after founding it is a testimony to the fact that she is doing it well and profitably.
Source: The Financial Express
Published on 22 October 2007