An enriching industrial excursion was meticulously arranged for the vibrant IV semester students of Poornaprajna Institute of Management on the 1st of June 2024 in the scenic locale of Puttur, nestled within the picturesque Dakshina Kannada District. The Visit was organized by Poornakash-The Training and Placement cell of the institute.
55 Students along with faculty members visited two major industries at Puttur D.K. District. Students initially visited Campco Chocolate Factory where the students witnessed an elaborate process of chocolate processing. The high-Tech production was explained very patiently by the supervisors of the plant, who took the students across the production unit. Students were divided into two groups and for both the group of students, the supervisors elaborately explained about the chocolate processing systems that begins with the collection of cocoa pods, where campco mainly collects cocoa pods from the states like Andra Pradesh and Kerala along with local places in the state of Karnataka. Once it is collected, it is followed by fermentation and drying of beans, which are then roasted and winnowed to remove the shells, after which the nibs are ground into cocoa mass, further processed into cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, and cocoa powder, and finally conched , tempered, and molded into the final chocolate products.
Campco is mainly into exporting the chocolate drink powder mix to countries like South Africa. Also, they sell their semi- finished products to prominent Indian cooperative brands like Amul, Nandini cooperatives. The students were shown the latest automated technology which required minimal human intervention for chocolate production. The students also viewed the packaging of the campco chocolates such as Eclairs, MegaBite. etc.
Finally, the students and faculty had an interactive session with Mr. Radhesh, Administrative Manager Campco, who provided valuable insights to the students and faculty about the plant.
Further, students visited Master Plannery at Puttur, where the students met the proprietor Mr. Anand Kumar SK who started the business in 1950. He started the business and it had only 2 employees. Now, it has grown to employ over 1200 people, providing them with stable jobs and support.
Mr. Akash SK, Mr. Arjun SK, Mr. Akshay SK the senior project executives of Master Plannery had an interactive session with students and faculty where they spoke about the raw material used and their products such as construction materials, hardware, sanitary products, paint, cement, steel etc reducing the overall cost of construction. The students also viewed the products of the plant.
