Business is blooming
This second-gen entrepreneur, who has taken over his mother’s flower company, shares interesting observations he’s picked up on the job
At 23, Romit Ghosh, took over as CEO at Baisakhi Flowers, a business started by his mother Baisakhi Ghosh 15 years ago. Today, their clients include top hotels across the country including Sheraton and Adarsh Hamilton. This was just a year after he quit a sales and marketing job with the ITC Group. But taking over an expanding business has meant that life hasn’t been a bed of roses for Ghosh. “Growing up, I always watched my mum get flowers from across the country for the arrangements. It was a natural transition from the corporate sales team to my own set-up, which I’m familiar with,” he says.
But Ghosh is quick to add that the challenges and consequences of his own business are far greater. A large team to manage (they have 150 employees), labour issues and ensuring the delivery of goods irrespective of hitches is something Ghosh is still picking up. Working with resources which are highly perishable and have a short shelf life, there are times he has found himself in a fix. For instance, recently, when they were transferring a shipment from Kolkata to Jamshedpur, Ghosh was in for a shock when he found that two out of the six cartons of flowers had wilted and couldn’t be used. “We were working under a tight deadline for a wedding. The challenge is to think on your feet and be resourceful. Luckily, we were able to procure the flowers locally,” he recalls.
Ghosh, who divides his time between Kolkata (where the family is based) and Bengaluru (where they have a store), acknowledges that he still has a long way to go. That’s why he is taking up a floral course via correspondence from the International Floral Design School in Dubai. At the same time, he will also pursue a diploma course in floral art at the Canadian Institute of Floral Design in Dubai this September. “There’s much work that goes on behind the scenes –walling, fabrication, ironing and carpentry,” says Ghosh, who feels the need to be at the top of his game to grow the business.
After two years in the business, Ghosh shares five interesting facts that most wouldn’t know about flowers.
Flowers stay longer in sugar water: Chrysanthemums, carnations, lilies will last for a week, provided they are kept under the right storage conditions. Ghosh says that they get flowers from across the country and sometimes, by the time they reach their destination they look slightly droopy. To revive them, they are put intermittently put in a solution of sugar and water which provides glucose to the flowers. “Especially in summer when flowers wilt quickly, this method ensures that they last longer,” he says. This is a technique that they have implemented at their DIY store in Koramangala.
Garden city is a flower hub: According to Ghosh, most of their flowers (about 70 per cent) comes from Bengaluru.
Chrysanthemums and carnations, which are the most popular flowers in arrangements, are procured from Bengaluru, while lilies and Alstroemeriaare from Ooty. In fact, Ghosh’s mother Baisakhi, got into the business when a family member, who invested in a floral farm in Ooty, was looking for a partner to sell the flowers. Quitting her job at a Montessori school where she worked for 19 years, Baisakhi started selling flowers grown in Bengaluru in Kolkata.
Flowers love to travel: Flowers spend a lot of time at airports across the country. With Delhi being the international flower hub, exotics varieties like cymbidium orchids, calla lilies, proteas, hydrangeas and tulips are sent from the capital to different parts of the country. The flowers are transported in refrigerated vans. Some flowers that require a high intake of water to survive (like orchids) have small test tubes filled with water attached at their stems. During intercontinental transport, flowers are transported in ice packs, and these days even airports have colds storage facilities for flowers which has made transporting the perishable flowers much easier. “When one sees the final arrangement, few know that the flowers have travelled across the country,” Ghosh says.
Pop two dispirin tablets in water to quicken blooming: What do you do when you require a large numbers of flowers but they are still budding? That’s especially the case with Oriental and Asiatic lilies which take three days to bloom. Many a time, they are required in large numbers for mega events. At such times, Ghosh says that they pop two dispirin tablets in lukewarm water that will ensure that the lilies open up overnight or within a day.
Design depends on the architecture: A hotel like ITC Windsor which has “imperial architecture” would require a different kind of flower arrangement compared to Gardenia, which is more “green and modern”. “The indigenous factor plays a major role,” he says. Baisakhi, who is the head designer, has come up with a standard arrangement of about 80 designs, which are used at the star hotels. “We look after the floral arrangements in the lobby and public areas, which we change on a weekly basis,” he says.
According to Ghosh, there are several aspects that have to be looked into while putting together an arrangement – design (which applies to the floral arrangement as well as the other elements or props you want to use in the arrangement), proportion (the size of the arrangement vis-a-vis the environment of the installations), colour coordination and balance.
