Fragrance of profits
Opportunity India Desk
Sep 29, 2017 -
6 min read
Aiming to provide an absolute variety and service delivery for flower and gifting needs, the whole new idea of Floral Mall was conceptualised in 2011. Sharing the brand’s origin and success so far is Rajeev Agarwal, Proprietor and Owner, Floral Mall.
Abha Garyali( AG): Share with us the conception and growth of Floral Mall. How was the idea conceptualised?
Rajeev Agarwal (RA): Having established the company M/s R K Brothers over a decade ago. Presently, it has two retail outlets in Noida and Greater Noida region.
Although, both of our retail outlets are still doing absolutely fine, we were highly obsessed with the idea of starting our own brand with having pan India presence and delivering quality service with world class products in flowers and gifting industry. We also wanted to provide people an option to choose from an unmatched variety and service delivery for their flower and gifting needs. We conceptualised this whole idea by launching our brand – Floral Mall in 2011.
As an entrepreneur, I have been able to bring this company up to the desired level of standard within the flowers and gifting industry. The business outcomes and results so far have been so good and beyond anticipations.
AG: In which year did you start Floral Mall? When and why did you opt for the franchise route for its expansion?
RA: The company M/s R K Brothers was established over a decade ago in 2002. However, we have launched the brand Floral Mall in July 2011 only.
AG: What can you say about the success journey of the brand so far?
RA: The brand Floral Mall has completed its first successful year on June 2012. Though this period is not a long enough to enumerate any remarkable achievements, yet we can say that the whole operational part of the brand has been fully streamlined and the results so far are exceedingly fabulous! A considerable number of customers and corporate clients have chosen Floral Mall to be their flower and gifting caterer.
AG: What is the success mantra of Floral Mall? How is it different from the other florist brands?
RA: Our success mantra is to build an everlasting mutual trust with our customers. We treat each and every customer just like our family member and take very personal care and follow-ups while executing his/her order. We understand the value of a customer’s time and money. Thus, we believe in providing the best and unmatched services assuring the quality of product without any compromise. We regard our customer’s trust upon us as a synonym of our business. We believe that a business stands just nowhere without its customers’ satisfaction.
AG: What is your take on competition from other brands? How do you tackle this competition?
RA: The competition with other brands is a challenge not just for us rather for each and every business entity unless it has a monopoly over the market. In a situation where already there are some big players, maintaining and stabilising the pace of gradual success has never been easy for us. Our incessant endeavor to achieve outstanding level of customer satisfaction as well as our team’s innovative approach to meet the dynamic requirements of customers have helped us a lot to establish ourselves in the competitive market.
AG: Where do you see Floral Mall in the next five years? What are your future expansion plans?
RA: Our long term vision is to become a pioneer in flowers and gifting industry in domestic market. Five years down the line, through our incessant endeavor, we are looking forward to establishing a benchmark by meeting our customer’s end to end flower and gifting requirements by providing them one stop solution to all their flowers and gifting needs.
In order to attain the above vision in a gradual process and to expand its retail presence in India, Floral Mall is offering its franchisees with a commitment of every possible support to establish the business in a long term.
AG: What according to you is the scope for aspiring franchisees in this business?
RA: There is a great scope and tremendous growth opportunities in flower and gifting business. As per the industry’s trend, in past couple of years it has been observed that a considerable number of business investments have been made into the flowers and gifting segments. The demand in the domestic market for flowers has been growing, reportedly at 40 per cent per annum.
AG: How many franchisees do you have presently? What are your future expansion plans?
RA: As stated earlier, the brand Floral Mall has completed its first successful year recently in June 2012, so, we have decided to offer the franchise now. As of now, there is no franchise of Floral Mall except its two owned retail outlets. However, we are receiving a considerable number of enquiries regarding franchise and some potential investors have shown their interest too.
AG: What are the qualities and qualifications that you seek for in your franchisees? How much investment is required by aspiring franchisees?
RA: Following are the basic requisites that must be met for the purpose of becoming a registered franchisee of Floral Mall:
AG: What challenges do you foresee for your franchises? How can they overcome the challenges?
RA: It has been observed that the only challenge that a franchised outlet faces is how to increase the sale and business volume. In such situation, Floral Mall head office extends its full support to streamline the business operation at the franchised outlet and helps planning and executing the strategy to increase sale.
As a part of increasing business for its franchise, Floral Mall also allocates its online business/ e-commerce orders received for franchise’s delivery area.
Besides above, Floral Mall team helps in selecting the right location, plan the Interior, trained manpower, exclusive designs to its business partners. We also provide technical manpower (Mali) / floral artisans to run the shop and on the job training to our franchisee. Not only this, we also supply all the inventories/ merchandises needed to run the store including fresh flowers, accessories and gift items to the franchisees.
