Covid success story: Car care guy goes bust now he's making a million baht a month selling fancy plants

[webfact]

Picture: Daily News

 

Daily News reported that the Covid pandemic has spelled doom and gloom for many but not everyone has lost their businesses and jobs.

 

One who has bucked the trend is Uthit Sawaengpong and his wife Laknara who live in Phangnga in southern Thailand. 

 

Reporters met him at his former VIP Car Care center now transformed into Suan Raewtawan.

 

Picture: Daily News

 

Uthit's car care and detailing business went bust so he turned to selling fancy plants including the much sought after Fancy Leaf Caladium and banana trees with colorful leaves.

 

His onsite and online business is now raking in a million baht a month and he was recently named as the third highest earning trader in this market in the country. 

 

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[phetphet]

That bandwagon will soon be jumped on.

[worgeordie]

Now it's in the open , expect he is going to get

a lot more competition .

regards worgeordie

[itsari]

Gross turnover can not be termed as "making "as the headline suggests . 

If he net 150,000 baht a month from the 1 million baht turnover he could be considered to be doing well .

Lots of money involved with rare plants . 

I bought some rare plant seeds online . Sadly I see no result so far after 2 weeks of planting .

Some time away before I will have the need  of buying a cash counting machine .

When is the best time to plant seeds in Northern Thailand ??

 

[Saanim]

32 minutes ago, webfact said:

His onsite and online business is now raking in a million baht a month and he was recently named as the third highest earning trader in this market in the country. 

It's true. People like it. And the prices are not so low. 

[hotchilli]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

His onsite and online business is now raking in a million baht a month and he was recently named as the third highest earning trader in this market in the country. 

Someone who had the sense to re-model.

[AgMech Cowboy]

2 hours ago, phetphet said:

That bandwagon will soon be jumped on.

True. I was just thinking about telling the wife.

[rwill]

For some reason caladiums, and calacasia to a lesser degree, have become very popular lately.  The more red on them the more expensive they are.  

I see people selling them all over the place now.

[Alanmel]

this is ridiculous, a guy near us in Krabi almost killed himself trying to get some of these plants from a cliff face. and i see people (trying to) sell them at ridiculous prices , as in the photos above. they are just plants, and everywhere down here in the south (on the side of the road etc) as well as the coloured banana trees. my wife brought a baby banana tree online for 200baht (about 10cm tall) and it died in 2 weeks. so i went down the road and dug some up that were 1M tall and are still doing really well. but i couldn't be assed dealing with people online to sell them. 

[CLW]

Believe 1/10 of what he's telling and it might be right. Thais always like to brag about business numbers and money.

Also with that extraordinary high price you have to find a buyer for these rare plants first.

[Knocker33]

4 hours ago, phetphet said:

That bandwagon will soon be jumped on.

It already has .Plant stall everywhere near me. All selling the same variety

[billd766]

4 hours ago, worgeordie said:

Now it's in the open , expect he is going to get

a lot more competition .

regards worgeordie

Quite a few other people will jump onto the trend, then the prices will drop and the later newcomers will go bust and start crying to the government for financial help. IMHO if you start a business and are making money, don't even talk to the TV or the press except to tell them times are hard nowadays just to break even.

[PETERTHEEATER]

4 hours ago, itsari said:

Gross turnover can not be termed as "making "as the headline suggests . 

If he net 150,000 baht a month from the 1 million baht turnover he could be considered to be doing well .

Lots of money involved with rare plants . 

I bought some rare plant seeds online . Sadly I see no result so far after 2 weeks of planting .

Some time away before I will have the need  of buying a cash counting machine .

When is the best time to plant seeds in Northern Thailand ??

 

Whenever she's receptive.

[itsari]

2 minutes ago, PETERTHEEATER said:

Whenever she's receptive.

You are way off the post on a guy making money selling rare plants .

Your humour is not appreciated .

Hopefully your seeds are not distributed any time soon 

[soalbundy]

4 hours ago, AgMech Cowboy said:

True. I was just thinking about telling the wife.

Mine has already started apparently, I was wondering why she kept bringing young plants home, she has cornered part of the garden for herself now, all very exotic looking.....the plants, the wife not so much.

[Saanim]

It's not a big deal, it just needs a daily care... 

[Golden Triangle]

I don't really understand the excitement or whatever you want to call it, variegated plants have been used in the UK for donkeys years, there is bog all special about them.

[Acharn]

15 hours ago, CLW said:

Believe 1/10 of what he's telling and it might be right. Thais always like to brag about business numbers and money.

Also with that extraordinary high price you have to find a buyer for these rare plants first.

My (Thai) niece has been buying this type of plant recently, but only priced at ฿50-100. She seems to envision eventually selling them, and they're a good fit for her existing business, a small building materials company, but I think she has realistic expectations. She'd have a dozen or so plants for sale displayed in front of her shop and probably could expect a profit of a couple thousand baht a month, at best. At least she isn't sinking ridiculous amounts of cash in the project -- yet.