Ferns N Petals: Valentines Day Sales Outlook | NDTV Profit - video Dailymotion

NDTV Profit

#FernsNPetals sold 6.5 lakh roses this #RoseDay - its highest ever.   MD Vikaas Gutgutia shares how the company is clocking higher sales this Valentine's week.   For the latest news and updates, visit: https://ndtvprofit.com

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00:00 Hello and welcome. World famous singer and songwriter John Lennon and Paul McCartney

00:06 have told us that money can't buy you love. Well, that may be. Yet, this thing called

00:12 love has turned into serious business for gifting companies. It puts a substantial amount

00:17 of money into the tilts of retailers as you and I celebrate Valentine's Day on February

00:23 14th. To decode this business of Valentine's Day, I am joined by Vikas Gudgutia, the founder

00:29 and MD of Ferns and Petals, one of the leading gifting companies. Thank you Vikas for taking

00:35 the time. Thank you for having me over. So you started as a florist some three decades

00:40 ago and then now you sell everything, every gift items ranging from cakes to personalized

00:46 gifting as well as jewelry all under one roof. Tell us what consumers are buying this year

00:53 and what's been their most favorite gifting item? I think the consumerism and the taste

00:59 of people keep changing over the years and when we started as a florist today we have

01:04 30,000 odd products on our site which as you said which encompasses almost anything and

01:10 everything. But yes, flower does remain one of our strong percentage gifting option. Then

01:18 of course for the cake, chocolates, plants, personalized is you know becoming big for

01:23 us because people want some thoughtfulness to be you know part of the gifting they're

01:29 doing. So and now AI is playing its role, we are doing virtual gifting, maybe a celebrity

01:37 can come and sing a song for you or maybe give you a birthday message. So there's a

01:41 lot on the cards. Alright, so what is the kind of sales surge are you expecting on V-Day

01:49 as well as you know this is not just about V-Day, it's about a week. So tell us. Yeah,

01:54 I think Valentine's Day is festival of love and the festival is celebrated for the whole

02:00 week and for us it's the biggest occasion and we normally clock 30-40% you know increase

02:09 in our sales normally you know on a year to year basis but Valentine's Day is like a jackpot.

02:15 I mean we probably will be doing 100% more this year. So 100% growth over the previous

02:21 year? Yes. Is that on a low base or is it on a high base? No, of course it's a lot of

02:27 variety, lot of hard work has gone into it. Okay, but it's on a high base like last year

02:33 also demand was equally good you are saying? You see, demand is increasing every day and

02:38 with the variety and now awareness also helps a lot. Now Valentine's Day being a week long

02:45 festival is probably more prevalent now than it was earlier. So if you put all these factors

02:51 together I think it's working for us. Great and also you know I know for a fact that on

02:57 Rose Day you did sell some 5 lakh roses. I mean that's like a substantial number. Yeah,

03:05 that was a big surprise for us as well. And that's only the online part of it? Only the

03:10 online part. And then if you add the offline that number would be? That number will be

03:15 maybe 25% more. Okay. So close to 6-6.5 lakh roses in a day. Alright and is that same momentum

03:24 continuing? Yes, I think Rose Day was big for us then the Chocolate Day and the Proposal

03:29 Day and all that. So all that adds but I think today is the day, 13th when people order for

03:36 Valentine's tomorrow. So this is going to be the biggest day for us. Okay and in terms

03:41 of sales I would also like to know what is the average budget of a consumer and where

03:49 do they spend this? See average budget is around say 1500 bucks. Okay. 1500 rupees

03:57 is the average ticket size. Some may be 500, some can be 2000, some can be 3000 and they

04:02 spend mostly on you know flowers, chocolates. They like to personalize their gifts, they

04:11 want to put their names on the gift. So it's basically I think Valentine is also about

04:17 experiential gifting. People also gift experiences, people also gift something which is you know

04:23 which is a surprise. So all put together I think but yes roses and chocolates and flowers.

04:32 Right. Absolutely. You did mention that you know Valentine's Day celebration keeps changing

04:38 with new generations. So in terms of innovation, you partly mentioned about the AI part of

04:44 it but if you could slightly describe a little bit more on that. See AI helps you customize

04:49 and choose a gift which is more appropriate for the person you are sending for. So that's

04:54 a tool which makes your gift more precise. That's one thing and I am sure in the coming

05:00 times we'll have many such options and facilities where people can have the ease of gifting.

05:06 So people are focusing or maybe rather preferring AI based gifting items. I think we are living

05:12 in a digital world and I think digitally we need support for everything else you know

05:17 everything we start googling and you know. So we are living in that world where everything

05:20 is digital around us. So this is another tool with us. Got it. Just to speak about the macro,

05:29 we know that there is you know increased prices and that's impacting the wallets of a common

05:35 man. Everything, prices of everything has gone up substantially. Do you think that is

05:40 a concern and is there a potential impact of that increasing prices on the sales?

05:49 Inflation does matter, whatever is said and done. Inflation does matter. Increasing the

05:53 price does affect price sensitive wallets. But I have realized one thing in that you

05:59 know when it comes to emotions, you know the price takes a big seat you know. It's the

06:04 emotion which becomes more. So you know in normal cases it's your head which rules your

06:10 heart. On such occasions it's your heart which rules your head. So that's the difference.

06:16 Right. Absolutely. So that means that you know sales are not going to impact if that

06:22 is what I am going to assume from what you said. Yeah I can say so in Valentine's Day

06:25 once in a year and for such occasion couple of hundred here and there doesn't matter.

06:31 Okay. And speaking about the online versus offline. So we have seen this quick commerce

06:37 in fact you know we can just order in about 10 minutes that's what the companies promise.

06:42 So how is that benefiting your sales and also? We are also part of the delivery system because

06:48 we work as their back end. But I personally feel that yes it's convenient, it's 10 minutes.

06:55 But 10 minutes is product not experience. Okay. What we believe in is that you know

07:02 gifting has to be an experience and that requires some time. So for us the earliest

07:07 gifting is 2 hours. Okay. It gives us enough prep time and delivery time to make it look

07:13 more emotional, more thoughtful. What other gifting platform or the quick commerce platforms

07:20 are doing, they are delivering product you know. Okay. But does that mean that you will

07:24 not kind of take advantage of quick commerce, you will stick to your own portal? No I think

07:29 we are doing already doing that. And of course as a company, as a florist, as a cake manufacturing

07:36 company we want to be part of this new generation 10 minute delivery system. But I think both

07:42 will coexist. Okay. And on the city specific trends I would like to know how are the metros

07:49 faring and also the tier 2, what kind of demand you are seeing from the city? See metros are

07:54 always the biggest you know market for us. It's always between Mumbai and Delhi. Sometimes

07:59 Delhi is ahead, sometimes Mumbai. So they are the 2 top cities. Followed by of course

08:04 Bangalore scores very highly and a city like Patna you know which has the maximum number

08:12 of cakes being ordered. So I think city wise and what is interesting is the upcoming cities

08:20 which are going to be future metros like Jaipur, Surat, Pune you know they are the cities to

08:27 watch for. That's where we see and want to focus more to increase our you know sales.

08:33 That's where I think the growth possibilities are much higher. Okay. Could you share some

08:38 trends on this tier 2 cities as on what percentage of sales coming from this particular? See

08:45 tier 2 cities still has an inspirational value, aspirational value. That they want to do what

08:51 metros are doing. They want to be up there. But I don't think it's become habit as yet.

08:59 So I think maybe in years time or 2 years time it becomes habit. I think tier 2 is where

09:05 the cake is. Okay and the potential markets you did mention about Jaipur and… Cities

09:12 like Jaipur, Lucknow, Surat, you know Pune, Ahmedabad which are rapidly growing big cities.

09:20 Okay and you do deliver to this pin codes. We deliver to 99% pin codes in this country.

09:27 Okay that's significant. Almost every nook and corner of the country is covered by us.

09:32 From Ladakh to Kanyakumari anywhere. Got it. And in terms of your footprint, your offline

09:38 footprint are you looking to expand? We are expanding already. It's just that we have

09:43 kind of realigned our expansion. We are expanding to almost 50-60 outlets a year. We took a

09:51 pause 2 years back because we wanted to redesign and you know make our shops look more new

09:58 generation and updated. So we kind of redid all our shops which were existing. Now we

10:05 are expanding again. So we are at 350 shops right now and we will be adding almost 1 a

10:10 week now. 1 store a week. Yeah. That's what we are looking at in the coming financial

10:16 year. And what would be your revenue target in terms of your maybe 2-3 years down the

10:23 line what are you targeting? I think the immediate target is you know to hit 1000 crore which

10:28 is a magical figure and we are not very far from it. So how much is it at the moment?

10:33 I think this year we should be closing at around 800. So maybe year after that or maybe

10:42 next to next year. We should be looking at 1000 crores and then of course every company's

10:47 dream is to have an IPO. So that's the time we go public. Oh that's interesting. So when

10:53 can we expect like what is the thought you know when do you look at IPO? I do not have

10:58 a jet timeline in mind but yes maybe in 2 years time. In 2 years time. Absolutely. Alright.

11:07 In terms of the you know industry demand I would say I think as per 2023 ASSOCHM report

11:14 the Valentine's Day market in India is estimated at around 25,000 crore. So what is at what

11:22 rate is the industry growing? Is there a number in mind? Maybe 3-4%. 3-4%? 3-4%? Year on year.

11:30 I think what is happening is that people have started living you know away from each other

11:38 you know because of business, because of jobs and everything and gift and something is you

11:43 know it keeps your relation alive. So I think the trend of gifting is continuing to increase

11:49 and in the coming time it becomes even bigger than 3-4%. I will not be surprised. Okay and

11:55 what it is for Ferns and Petals? For your company? Ferns and Petals we are growing at

11:59 almost 40% year on year. 40% year on year. So we are eating up lot of unorganized gifting

12:07 market which kind of come to us because of convenience. Okay but there is also a lot

12:12 of competition in the organized space as well. See competition is everywhere and I always

12:17 feel that competition brings out the best in you. So I think competition but if I look

12:23 at any other industry, gifting is still not so crowded. Okay, alright I think that's well

12:32 and wishing you all the very best and looking forward to a very happy Valentine's Day. Thank

12:37 you so much.

12:37 [Music]

Ferns N Petals: Valentines Day Sales Outlook | NDTV Profit

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