The Hindu Business Line : Garden mall

A shopping plaza for your gardening needs... that's Jagtap Gardencenter in Pune. "We envisioned this as a one-stop shop for all gardening needs. You can spend hours browsing amongst the various plants and you might not buy anything at the end of it," says its owner, Devendra Jagtap.

Started as a small nursery by his father, Ramrao S. Jagtap, the place has grown to record a turnover of Rs 1.5 crore last year. Besides the garden centre, the place offers landscaping services too. The company plans to expand nationwide soon.

"We see the lack of greenery as an opportunity. There is also a great potential for export," says Jagtap. There are different sections for indoor plants, semi-indoor plants, climbers, shrubs, bonsai, cactus and roses, and a separate section for seeds, fertilisers and gardening implements. One can also find trendy plant holders and other accessories.

It is an ideal place to take kids for an outing. Not only will they learn about different kinds of plants and flowers, but also develop interest in learning more. In fact, the garden centre recently introduced pitcher plants (insect eating plants), which the children learn about in schools.

The shop attendants are well informed and they can not only name the different plant varieties but also advise you on the amount of sunlight and water each plant needs.

"We mostly recruit graduates in Botany and Horticulture. They undergo a three-month training. We have a three-to-six months' hands-on training programme, which covers everything from plant knowledge to systems training and sales training. We have over 50 employees," says Jagtap.

Jagtap Gardencenter also has a bar coding system. "The bar coding is part of our mini ERP program. We need to have better information about our business. We benchmark our operations against a standard retail operation. Although it is a struggle to get the system vendors to understand our requirements, we are already seeing a lot of benefits," says Jagtap.

Asked how he got the idea of transforming his small nursery into a mall for plants, Jagtap says, "It was during my management programme that I thought of this business plan. So instead of opting for a corporate job, I decided to join the business in 1998."