It was a chance stop-over by a non-resident Indian at Bharat Soni’s plot of land that sowed the seeds for a green venture.
The land had been acquired about 12 years ago by Soni, who along with four friends had purchased an acre each at Panvel, a two-hour drive from the heart of Mumbai city.
“There was no fencing, water or electricity there,” Soni recalls, and soon the initial enthusiasm waned. The frequency of visits to their plots also reduced, as it became apparent it required attention, including protection against trespassers and maintenance. Two years later, Soni was the only one holding his plot, as the others gave theirs up.
To make up for the lost time, Soni set out to develop the land with a garden to start with. He scouted for nurseries across Mumbai for ready-to-plant trees to give his barren plot an instant green-scape. The trees were eventually found at a Gujarat nursery, and carted back to Panvel.
Here’s where the non-resident Indian comes in. Travelling to his farmhouse in Alibag, the “NRI, a sardar” saw the grown-trees stacked up at Soni’s plot and asked the caretaker to sell it to him.
With the NRI not accepting the care-taker’s response that the ready-to-plant trees were not for sale — the exasperated care-taker put him through to Soni. The NRI needed the trees to develop his farm-house, before returning to London.
To put off the persistent, unsolicited buyer, Soni quoted a high price, adding a zero to the actual price of Rs 150 per tree. But that was hardly a deterrent, for someone who may have been earning in pounds, says Soni. And the trees were sold!
The drive-by incident planted the idea in Soni’s head, leading eventually to the development of Go Green Nursery Pvt Ltd – touted to be the country’s first garden mall, offering plants including medicinal ones, ready-made trees of 8 to 12 feet, garden accessories, green-gifts and related services, under one roof.
Greens and maalis
The nursery was developed with the help of a horticulturist - the idea being, to recover basic costs and unforeseen expenses of about Rs 20,000 a month, says Soni. Soon enough, a hand-written board saying “nursery” was put up.
Unlike earlier, when Soni had visited local nurseries for himself, this time he went “with a different outlook”. He observed that plants were sold with no additional information on them, nurseries were unstructured and customers had to walk from end to end for their choice of plant.
Having set up an advertising agency, Thumbprint (now 25 years old), Soni formalised his nursery too - giving employees identity cards, educating them on the plants, how to interact with customers, give information, take feed-back and so on. The effort was to provide customers with plant-care tips, for instance, on the water, sunlight and fertiliser required, he says.
Soon customer needs increased. They wanted seeds, garden accessories, fertilisers and even “maalis” (gardeners) to help with their home (balcony or terrace) gardens, farm-house gardens and landscaping.
People want instant gardens, like two-minute noodles, he says, of the demand for ready-to-plant trees. The other common experience is when customers contract out farm-house gardens. They often end up unhappy because of the disconnection between the plan in their head, the contractor who implements the idea and the gardener who sold them the plants, he says.
Go Green’s trump was in offering this under one roof, so there is accountability, if the garden does not look like what you have in mind, he says.
In fact, landscaping has bloomed, and Go Green prides itself over gardens at the SBI Governor’s and the RBI Governor’s bungalow, besides other corporate projects. This 30 per cent of the business supports the remaining 70 per cent, he says, candidly. So could that lead to the small individual customer being replaced by big corporate landscape and gifting projects? “I have learnt every day, and it is the customer who has taught us,” says Soni, insisting that the small customer will not be left behind.
Transportation is 40 per cent of the cost, but “a rose is a rose”, and prices cannot be increased beyond a point, he says, countering observations of premium prices at the nursery.
Foot-falls
The initial five-odd years were investment intensive, Soni says, not quantifying it, since it involved land development costs. “But with nature, you have to be patient. It gives you much more than you expect and expects nothing in return,” he adds.
Go Green’s annual turnover is Rs 10 crore, says Soni, Managing Director. The company now has 200 staff, including botanists, plant pathologists, gardeners and landscape designers.
As products and services were added, Go Green caught up with Mumbai’s mall culture “looking for ready foot-falls and eye-balls,” he says.
It started with Home Town, where Soni had to get retail-honcho Kishore Biyani’s go-ahead. The green venture had three months to prove itself – which it did, by creating an environment-friendly entrance. The first outlet was up in Home Town. It has since spread to Hypercity, Big Bazaar, Nirmal Lifestyle and will arrive shortly at Shopper’s Stop.
On the shelf at the malls are, among other things, the “Gift of Earth” (an earthen base or glass bowl that holds several plants), convenient to place indoors, on table-tops. And they make for more lasting gifts than flower bouquets that last just a few days, he says.
Other green concepts include nature-dates, where students get an orientation on nature; birthday parties hosted at the nursery – where return gifts are plants. There’s “plant on vacation”, where your plants are looked after and re-potted, while you are away – so when you get back, you and your plants are fresh, he says.
With no marketing team, Go Green’s customer base ranges from drive-by visitors to serious green-thumbs, parents of children who visited the garden, who come back in an official capacity for a corporate gift or landscape project, he says.
The nursery now sustains itself, says 56-year-old Soni, who with his wife runs the nursery and advertising business. “For me, being in an agency means schedules and deadlines,” he says, and every once a week, he comes to the nursery “refuels oxygen”, and gets back.
Soni has offers to set up in Bangalore, and is exploring a venture in Pune. But that requires a partner on the same wavelength, “with a soft- corner for plants”, and then the economics, he says.
As business looks to grow beyond Mumbai, Soni is “thankful to the sardarji for planting the seed in my mind.” If he was not there, and was not adamant, it would have been a different story, says Soni, sitting in his nursery, as customers walk by, discussing and choosing plants to take back home.
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