CHENNAI: Everyone in my neighbourhood thinks that I’m just a jobless mechanical engineer who goes around the city wasting time,” says Pavan Kumar (21), founder, PKR Greens and Consultants. When their monthly turnover jumped from Rs 2,000 to Rs 1.5 – 2 lakh in just nine months, his relatives were surprised to see him distributing plants as souvenirs at an event. “PKR was my dream project right from my college days. So first I started a garden of my own. And it just went on from there,” says the entrepreneur who struck gold with ‘plant sapling delivery’.
Narrating the journey of his new-found entrepreneur life he says, “I worked with Renault Nissan for three months as a trainee but that was when they were cutting down employees. So I quit,” he says. Boredom led him to post a few ‘For Sale’ signs for his extra plants. “Then someone saw the post and wanted plants as give-away gifts for his son’s birthday.” That was his first client. PKR was started in September 2016 with just Rs 200 as investment. Now PKR has grown to take on crowd investing platforms for bigger projects.
“The first two to four months were really dry. We were new and had no exposure or connections,” he says. Pavan delivered the plants while his team took orders, designed, and searched for innovative ideas. “I used to carry two jute bags, each with 50 plants, and travel by bus. Since most of our clients were in the outskirts, it was really difficult,” he recalls adding Google Maps was his best friend then!
They got more customers through word of mouth and supportive memes. “Facebook pages like Chennai Memes, Chennai Pasangada and Chennai Shopping were a big help. Also, a review from one our clients gained us instant popularity. I’m forever grateful to her,” he adds. Their ultimate goal is to create a platform where plants can be delivered just like food from restaurants. They added terrace gardening to their services when a customer suggested and also because of Pavan’s team mate who suffered from food poisoning. They decided to set up a terrace garden consisting mainly of vegetables for him. That was the start of something that gave them more popularity.
Their ideas for future projects include bio gas and, aquatic and urban farming. They want to help the farmers by exposing them to new ideas such as Hydroponics (using a liquid nutrient solution as growing medium and essential minerals to sustain plant growth) and Aeroponics (growing plants in an airy or misty environment without soil). “Most of the big corporate seed companies, sell hybrid seeds to the farmers, whose yields cannot be reproduced. This makes them directly dependant on the sellers. So to stop it, inspired by the Seed Diversity Festival,
we decided to preserve our traditional seeds and opt for open pollinated seeds.” But since it’s a start up that gives very less profit, they would need more funding to at least give out 100 saplings a month. So he saves up a little amount to fund for it himself. And so far they have gone to more than 60 schools to create awareness through workshops and speeches.
“Though we have poor funding, we strive to do as much as we can to this environment and society. We also educate people on the How’s and what’s of gardening.” And today they get three orders per day for gift plants and three to four for terrace gardens. Their price range, still unchanged from the Rs 20-40 for plants, includes delivery and Rs 1,800 for terrace gardening. “Unlike others we don’t charge taxes for plants,” he chuckles.
Journey so far...
PKR Greens was launched in September 2016 on a Rs 200 investment.
Their turnover then was Rs 2,000 a month
Nine months down their turnover now is Rs 1.5 - 2 lakh
They charge Rs 20-40 for saplings and Rs 1,800 for terrace gardening