In Feb 2007, six months into my first job, engrossed still in the head winds of my college life, went around looking(rather googling) for a reliable florist in Bangalore who could deliver flowers on time. I came across flowerxpress.in, and the UI looked cute and pleasantly surprising, first impressions kindled my curiosity about the people behind flowerxpress.in. Instead of ordering for flowers, I ended up digging the web for people who run flowerxpress.in; discovered karuturi Networks Limited(KNL). KNL was engaged in businesses from being an ISP,harvesting cut roses to pickling of gherkins, IT to agriculture seemed a long shot to hit. Later the realization occured KNL pioneered the online auction for cut roses in India with rozebazaar.com to weed out intermediaries through technology. Even to this day Indian farmers suffer at the hands of middle man, there is a huge parity between the farm gate prices and final consumer prices.
Today KNL, remorphed itself as KGL to reflect its global business ambitions and international standing. With acquistion across kenya, Ethiopia, KGL is the largest producer of cut roses in the world at a run rate of 550 million stems/annum. The bigger story is KGL's agricultural ambitions, KGL has 7,65,000 acres of prime agricultural land on a 99 year lease in Gambela and other regions of Ethiopia. KGL claims it has the potential to meet 5% of the world food demand. In one of the recent UN reports on Food and Agriculture, KGL is listed as one among the 28 transnational agri corporation who will have major impact on the food supply chain going ahead. In the report KGL shares space with the agricultural giants like cargill etc.
My recommendation: KGL is a bet worth taking, if you win, you win big!
If you lose, you lose small! I would call it affordable risk!
P.S: Eventually in the summer of 2007, i ended up purchasing KGL stocks instead of flowers.
P.S.S: Recently in April 2010, i finally ordered flowers from KGL(flowerxpress.in) and which was promptly delivered to my satisfaction.
