Quality, Consistency & Empowered Staff, Red Land Roses Celebrates 25th Anniversary
BY STEVEN MULANDA
Red Lands Roses, a flower farm based in Ruiru, Kenya is driven by quality, consistency and loyalty to its customers, be-sides passionately empowering their personnel. For 25 years the farm has been in existence their achievements in cultivating roses is well demonstrated by the kind words their employees heap about the farm
Rose Nasambu joined the farm 8 years ago and works in the Quality Control Department she praises the farm for the ever increasing production of flowers assuring them there is work for them on a daily basis. “Moreover, the increased production has led to us earning overtime and increased remuneration enabling us to take good care of ourselves and our families. The quality of the flowers we tend to is great. We are always humbled seeing client’s board planes from overseas just to come and have an experience of how we care for the flowers. On this 25th birthday we wish the company more progress and many years of survival,” says Rose.
When asked to rate, Mathew Ndungu of the Maintenance Department rates the company very highly primarily be-cause they are provided with protective gears which are essential considering the nature of their job. They are provid-ed with hearing aids, safety boots, and helmets among others. “This Company is not just keen on making profit, but besides giving us our daily bread provided us a nurse and a doctor for our health matters. We enjoy snacks that are provided by the company at the canteen where microwaves are installed to enable us warm food. We are proud of Red Lands Roses,” he says.
Dorcas Gathura the company’s head of Sales and Marketing had an exclusive chat with Hortfresh Journal about their achievements for the last 25 years, the building blocks, the philosophy that oils the company and what the future holds for Red Lands Roses.
Q. Congratulations on your twenty fifth anniversary, it is quite a land mark achievement. Red Lands Roses is well known name in Kenya and beyond, describe to us the Company’s achievements for the last 25 years?
Sustainability and ethical trade in the flower supply chain is not just about managing and making enormous sales, it’s about protecting the most vulnerable people in the production chain who are the workers, who drive the real work on daily basis. One of our greatest achievements is our staff. Our farm employs over 500 permanent employees with a high percentage being made up of people who started at the farm right at the beginning. This means that we have developed a team of experts in the growing of roses. The health and safety of these staff is the farm’s priority.
Red Lands Roses seeks out the most innovative varieties; takes them through rigorous tests at the farm and with our clients before we can launch it into the market officially. Our farm is renowned for its unique Spray and Garden Roses.
One of the key factors that have contributed greatly to the farm’s growth is the focus on quality. This is one of our core values. Each role at the farm has an inbuilt quality control measure which ensures that the final product that our clients receive has been checked for quality issues not once or twice but severally. Only roses of the best quality are exported from Red Lands Roses. The altitude of 1800m and the proximity to the equator are ideal conditions for the cultivation of roses. We specialize in growing and exporting Garden Spray and T- Hybrid roses of the highest quality.
At Red Lands Roses we are proud to produce this unique flower, giving it all its glory by offering a wide assortment of close to 200 varieties.
Red Lands Directors
Q. What do you consider as the biggest investments and asset for the company in terms of innovation?
We invested in a solar project that powers the farm during the day. We have reaped huge benefits, saving an approx-imate of Ksh 2.2 million in power bills while reducing in carbon footprint, in a classic example of how renewable energy is becoming growers’ saving grace at a time when electricity costs soar to extremes. The solar panels have a yearly production of 369.7 megawatts. The estimate cost of the project was Ksh 33 million and it has been designed using a hybrid process that interfaces the Kenya Power grid and diesel generators; the plant supplies a portion of the electrici-ty necessary for the pumps used to irrigate the plantings, as well as the refrigeration systems.
We also practice 100% soilless cultivation /hydroponic system with full recycling of water, preventing rejects of phos-phates and nitrates from seeping into ground water. The substrate is volcanic material which is dug out from close to the farm, washed and sterilized.
Q. Red Lands Roses has developed a robust CSRs for the last 25 years, share to us some of the projects you are involved in?
Red Lands Roses sponsors a Day Care Centre for children in Ruiru. Staff at Red Lands Roses can leave their children at the Day Care Centre when they are at work. The children are taken care off, fed and allowed to play under the super-vision of trained nannies until their parents are done with work and can pick them up. This allows the parents to work peacefully knowing their children are well cared for in their absence.
Red Lands Roses supports a group of Maasai women who are anti FGM. The women create some beautiful art work which they sell to take their girls to school. At Red Lands Roses, we purchase their art and offer them to our clients during special events and exhibitions. More than 30 teenage girls are able to continue going to school instead of being married of.
We provide medical cover for all employee, one spouse and 2 of their children. In addition, through the school fees program, Red Lands Roses pays school fees for 2 children per employee.
Q.How have you coped with COVID-19 situation?
As a farm, this was one of the toughest periods we had to endure. The Covid 19 situation rendered exports impossible and crippled the business. We had to restructure our staff’s working hours to ensure that all staff worked at least half a week and consequently still had a source of income despite the pandemic.
At the farm, we introduced hand washing points at the gate, disinfection points at the entrance of every building and a Covid-19 holding tent for anyone who would be found with higher-than-normal temperature. All offices are disinfect-ed in the morning and evening. This is the case to date. All staff at the farm were provided with masks for themselves and their immediate family members.
Q. What are some of the challenges you have experienced with the export market?
The major challenge has always been the lack of competitive freight capacity for our clients in Europe, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Australia. When the freight is as expensive as it is now, the purchase ability of our client is reduced considerably.
Q.What is the current situation in the industry?
The situation is currently better than it was same time last year. However, challenges with freight capacity limit our business’ potential as we cannot supply to our clients as much as they would like.
Q. Going forward, where do you envision Red Lands Roses and how is the future of the flower industry in Kenya?
We would like to expand the farm but this is greatly dependent on the freight situation in the country. We are in sev-eral discussions with the relevant stakeholders to see if we can have improved freight capacity and more competitive rates.
Kenya is the best country in the world to grow roses. The weather here is perfect for the quality of flowers and the people are knowledgeable and committed.
