Zerritta: Say it with flowers

Zerritta Flowers celebrates 35 years in the business.

KARACHI:

Zerritta Flowers has been importing flowers from various countries and delivering them to client’s doorsteps for several years. Even after being in the business for more than three decades, the demand for their flowers continues to grow.

Zerritta Flowers celebrated its 35^th anniversary on Sunday evening with the opening of another outlet near Naheed Supermarket in Bahadurabad. Present at the inauguration was Shahnaz Saigal, the founder of Zerritta Flowers. She revealed that she had bought the shop from a Parsi lady named Zarin Dubash in 1976. Dubash, who was migrating to the US, didn’t want to leave the shop to just anyone and wanted someone who was passionate about flowers to take over her business.

Saigal took charge of the first store which was based at Karachi’s Inter Continental Hotel (now Pearl Continental Hotel). Her inspiration of starting her own flower business came when she, “visited Japan in 1974 and saw people involved in the art of making flowers (Ikebana).” Saigal added that, “What I saw in Pakistan was the ‘mali-style’ concept of flower decoration and this made me start my own flower business.”

Initially, Saigal grew tuberoses and tulips in Islamabad. But then she decided to get an Interflora membership as the intensive course provided her with the authority to “supply flowers worldwide”. Today, Zerritta Flowers, besides selling local flowers, are importing most of their flowers from Saudi Arabia and Netherlands, whereas their orchid supply comes from Thailand.

Around 11 years ago, Saigal decided to take a back seat and passed on the torch to her daughter-in-law, Saira Saigal. Besides selling flowers, Saira has also introduced cake and gift deliveries to meet the requirements of her customers. She has a 16-member team to her credit and proudly states: “I am glad we are the trend setters in this business. We have never compromised on quality and aim to bring something new to our flower arrangements.”



Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th, 2011.