The garden center also has a restaurant. That's how it works in the West, says the owner

He started the business with his parents in a cottage right after the revolution. He temporarily exchanged his study of electrical engineering at CTU for growing flowers. Today, Filip Klíma has a Garden Center in Jindřichov Hradec - the largest in the region, and his wholesaler supplies similar centers, hardware stores, drugstores and other stores throughout the Czech Republic.

The garden center with a total area of ​​7,500 square meters opened 14 days ago. Offers decorations, flowers, plants, flower pots, tools and gardening supplies. The building cost a total of 60 million crowns. It replaced the old center that was in Hradec opposite the cemetery for 21 years.

“We offer customers a comprehensive experience. They can shop here, admire our demonstration garden. They will see what flowers and trees look like when they are big, and of course they can have refreshments here. We have not only drinks, but also food. The family can easily spend a few hours here," described Klíma, who, according to him, owes his success mainly to the imaginative and skilled people around him.

You are open for two weeks. How satisfied are you with the interest of people so far?Very, on weekends the parking lot for 130 cars was always almost full. We conceived the grand opening as an attempt to set a record for the number of people cutting the ribbon. It worked, we had 550 people here. We wanted it to be more than just an act for a select few. In addition, we gave people straws, which are such a symbol of us. We gave a thousand of them.

You opened at the beginning of autumn. It's after the season, isn't it? Wouldn't spring be better?When you open in the spring, you are guaranteed to start making money quickly. But it's also a risk, because spring is crazy and every problem multiplies. And you cannot avoid problems with such a large object. This way we have time to fine-tune various details. Plus, we've been recruiting a lot of people who have to grind. If we went straight into the season, it could be chaos. This way we will be 100% ready for spring.

How much did the entire investment cost?The original budget was 55 million. But in the end, because of the roundabout we had to build, it was about 60 million. Originally, there was supposed to be an ordinary branch, but they didn't allow us to do that. So now I'm one of the few private owners of a ringer.

Is that plane that sits in the middle of it yours too?Yes, that's the bumblebee we bought three years ago. I am an amateur pilot and once I heard that a company that sprayed fields went bankrupt. There were about 30 bumblebees for sale in Mariánské Lázně at the airport. So I went out there and bought it for 20 thousand. Shipping cost 21 thousand. Now we dusted it, painted it and put it on our ring. Sometimes I have such crazy ideas.

An unconventional element in your center is also a restaurant. How does it go together with a garden center?It's a proven concept in the West. For the past ten years, we have intensively visited garden centers abroad and absorbed ideas. In Holland or England, every major center has its restaurant. And not some buffet, but a full-fledged restaurant at the level. We went the Czech way and did something between a restaurant and a buffet. This type of catering is a little lacking in Hradec. If you want to eat somewhere quickly, you'll kill an hour anyway. So I believe that our restaurant will also attract people who don't go shopping for things in the garden. So far we are giving out about 130 lunches a day, which is not bad.

Although you are now a wholesaler of gardening goods, you are originally a trained electrical engineer. How did you get into the world of flowers?My parents are chemists, but they had a hobby of growing flowers. When I was in the third year of college, the revolution came. We immediately received an offer from a Dutchman to grow flowers for him and export seeds to them. I thought it was an interesting opportunity, so I jumped at it, I interrupted CTU and went digging in the dirt in the field and growing flowers here, just outside Hradec, where we had a cottage. In the 90s, when everyone was transporting flowers from Holland here, we were exporting seeds there. So the flowers that came to us from Holland were partly from our seeds. Then when we hired some staff, I went back to school to finish it.

But have you never studied electrical engineering?Basically no. I started looking around for what I could do. I couldn't think of anything better than opening a garden center. I scouted out one place where we built a wooden shed and a foil shed and sold gardening supplies. That was 1994. Within two years, we decided to go wholesale.

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But that's a completely different business, isn't it?It was a logical step for us. We did retail and bought directly from manufacturers, not resellers. So I decided to use these contacts and start binding other garden centers, drugstores and garden supply stores. Over time, it became a major business. He does 90 percent of our business. We now have nine thousand items in stock. They are things of various sizes, basically all gardening tools - rakes, spades, flower pots and everything needed. We deliver to horticulture, hardware stores, flower shops all over the Czech Republic. 25 trucks leave us daily. We have a second warehouse in Valašské Meziříčí, from where we supply Moravia and part of Slovakia. We mainly have goods of Czech production, but also from the Netherlands, England, Germany. However, the garden center is much more visible, it is our showcase.

Why did you decide to build a new one?Yes, it's like icing on the cake. But I think that the new building will strengthen this business a lot. There will definitely be better deals here than at that old little garden centre. The original store was small, it almost fell on our heads. When it rained, you had to run there with buckets. It made no sense to invest more money in it. Customers forgave us a lot, it was such a small regional store.

Now you have 7,500 square meters. It's probably not just for the district anymore, is it?Definitely not. We need to expand our clientele. We need to attract customers here from a much wider area. If you look, if you don't count the direction to Budějovice, the nearest larger center is in Jihlava. So the catchment area is big here. In addition, they are close to the border, so the Austrian clientele is welcome. In addition, we are an area where a lot of cottagers from Prague go, it could also be interesting for them.

What does your own garden look like?Probably like any electrician. I mostly limit myself to mowing the grass and occasionally mowing. I wouldn't brag about her at all.