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Thursday, May 26, 2011

Ramakrishna Karuturi, world's largest producer of rose buds

WEF Entrepreneurship report 2011 includes some non-IT firms, Kuruturi Global is one of the them. 
Karuturi, a mechanical engineer with MBA from the US, founded the company in 1995 as a 100% export-oriented unit in Bangalore.In 1999, he set up an internet auction portal by the name Rose Bazaar.com to derive benefits of weeding out intermediaries through the use of the Internet. The same year, he set up a second production facility for roses near Bangalore taking the total size of his rose farms to 10 hectares. Roses for Valentines Day in 1998 earned him his first million. There was an order to supply 22 tons of roses to Europe, and the Air France flight that was to ship it, got cancelled. There was no flight to the destination after that. he bought up the entire stock that was lying there on the tarmac at a a throwaway price as the sellers were desperate to get rid of it,  drove a truck all the way to Chennai, and finally after some haggling, got all the stuff in a Lufthansa flight. That consignment netted him his first million.in 2003, he took a call. In 2003, he decided to kickstart the next acres of farms in Ethiopia, later acquired Dutch firm Sher Agencies for $69 million. 


As per WEF report, Kuruturi's revenues from Indian operation expanded from $7 million in 2006 to $11 million by 2010, where as revenues from international operation rose from $3 billion to $110 billion for the corresponding period.


This is success with smell of roses.

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