Richard Fernandes, CEO and co-founder of Marginpar, shares the following story of hope about the Marginpar group and their actions when COVID-19 entered the stage.
Kariki meets Marginpar
Richard: "We grow flowers in Africa for Europe, the Middle East and Asia. I started Kariki in 2002, growing niche flowers under licence from Marginpar on the slopes of Mount Kenya. It was successful, so we expanded and spread geographically into Ethiopia. Later it became apparent that we needed economies of scale and had to consolidate. So, we decided to merge our businesses." The Kariki group and Marginpar became one and are now called the Marginpar Group.
Marginpar meets Kariki
"Marginpar started in the 1980s, but it really gathered momentum in the 1990s when it was licensing growers in Zimbabwe, primarily for two flower varieties: Hypericum and Eryngium. Then, at the turn of the century, the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe started to collapse and Marginpar’s Dutch owner, Rob Koning, realised that he needed to move closer to the equator. Rob became my co-founder of the Marginpar Group in its current form."
A big bouquet
"We specialise in unique flowers and we have over 100 different varieties in our basket. Marginpar has eight farms in Kenya and three in Ethiopia, all together covering 360 hectares of land. We also have licenced growers in Tanzania and Zimbabwe, which adds another 100 hectares.