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Project-based learning at Laurus: how a student team built a coffee brand

Quick answer: At Laurus Institute every batch learns supply chain by running one: students form teams, choose a market, find suppliers, build a product or service, get it certified, price it and sell it, with the institute’s guidance and funding. The best-known result is a green coffee brand created by a student team from the 2020 batch and carried forward by later batches, a story the Press Trust of India reported in May 2024 and Deccan Herald, The New Indian Express and Onmanorama carried. Fees and batch dates are quoted on enquiry: call 0484 4023484 or WhatsApp us.

This page is for students and parents comparing logistics institutes in Kerala who want to know how Laurus actually teaches.

What project-based learning means here

Most logistics courses teach freight, warehousing and procurement from slides and then send students to find a job. Laurus runs the course the other way round. Alongside the classroom modules and the SAP MM lab, each batch is split into teams and given a real assignment: start something. The teams pick a sector, research it, talk to suppliers and customers, make something people will pay for, and keep it running. The institute supports the work with guidance, introductions and seed funding, and a project that works is handed to the next batch to improve.

The point is not the product. It is that a student who has sourced raw material from another state, negotiated with a packaging supplier, sat through a lab test, applied for a food-safety certificate and sold face to face understands procurement, inventory, quality, distribution and sales from the inside. That is the same supply chain a freight forwarder, a port operator or a manufacturer runs, and it is why employers find Laurus students easy to train.

The green coffee project, as reported

In 2020 a batch of about 30 students was divided into teams and asked to explore starting their own ventures. One ten-member team chose fast-moving consumer goods and looked at tea and coffee. While searching for suppliers in Palakkad they came across green coffee, made by grinding sun-dried beans rather than roasting them, which was little known in Kerala at the time. They decided to build a product around it.

Over the following months the team sourced Arabica beans from Coorg and Palakkad, tested grind sizes, ran laboratory tests to establish shelf life, tried and dropped added flavours that shortened it, chose packaging (and learned from a first order that arrived partly defective), and obtained an FSSAI certificate. Early sales were slow; the team found its first repeat customers by visiting health clubs, gyms, medical shops and business groups and explaining the product in person. The institute’s chairman, Dr. Ajay Sanker, provided financial support and guidance throughout, and the project was passed on to later batches, who continued to research improvements.

The story was reported by the Press Trust of India on 27 May 2024 and carried by national and Kerala newspapers:

• Deccan Herald: “Kerala students’ attempt to make green coffee powder popular” (2024)
• The New Indian Express: “Securing futures with a cup of green coffee” (2024)
• Onmanorama: “Kochi students brew the spirit of entrepreneurship with a green coffee brand” (2024)
• Kodagu First: “Laurus Nature’s Green Coffee” (2024)

The product’s health benefits described in those reports are the students’ own claims as quoted by the press; Laurus makes no health claims. Student names are omitted here out of respect for their privacy; they appear in the articles.

What the team actually learned

• Sourcing and procurement: finding and comparing suppliers in two states, negotiating quantity and price
• Quality and compliance: laboratory shelf-life testing, FSSAI certification
• Inventory and packaging: order quantities, defective supplies, what shelf life does to stock
• Distribution and sales: choosing channels, direct selling, learning why customers reorder
• Working as an operations team: roles, deadlines, handing the project to the next batch

Every one of those is a module in the one-year PG Diploma and Diploma in Logistics and Supply Chain Management, and the SAP MM system taught in the lab is the software that runs purchasing and inventory in the companies that hire our students.

How it fits the rest of the course

The venture project runs alongside the classroom modules (freight forwarding, warehousing and inventory, customs documentation, shipping and port operations, transport planning, SAP MM, Excel and ERP, communication and interviews), practical exposure inside the group’s own logistics operations, industrial visits and an internship. Certificates come from Medhavi Skills University, NSDC and the STED Council, with a separate certificate for the SAP MM training. Placement support leads to roles in freight forwarding, documentation, customs clearance and supply chain operations; Laurus has placed 4,000+ students since 2011 through 400+ direct company tie-ups. It offers placement support; it does not promise a job with any employer.

Questions to ask any institute about practical training

• Will I work on a real project with real suppliers and customers, or only case studies?
• Is SAP taught hands-on in a lab, or as a demonstration?
• Is there practical exposure inside a working logistics operation?
• Which companies hired last year’s batch, and in which roles?
• Can I visit, see the lab and talk to current students before paying?

Our answers are on how to choose a logistics institute, what the SAP module covers and eligibility and duration. Come to the campus at North Kalamassery, Kochi: call 0484 4023484 or WhatsApp us.

Questions students ask

Last updated 13 October 2026. Laurus Institute, Karipai Road, North Kalamassery, Kochi 683104, Kerala. Phone 0484 4023484.