Having got through the Christmas season, the flower division at Agrexco UK is preparing to launch itself into the extremely hectic period from now until April.
"We have barely had time to draw breath," says Yehuda Reichman, flower division manager for Agrexco UK. "Generally we have a quiet few weeks at the beginning of the new year, but 2004 has been totally different. We've been inundated with orders, particularly for lily longhi, gerbera and solidago and are happy to say that we have been able to service the increased demand from our customers. The Christmas season itself was very successful for us with major lines including the lily longhi that appears to be a perennial favourite with our customers, trachellium and all varieties of leucodendrun."
Programmes are well in place for the first main event - Valentine's Day. Reichman says: "Roses as ever are the number one flower for February 14, and our long stem varieties such as Jaguar and Mercedes will certainly not disappoint our customers. We have new varieties of gypsophila - Dana and Inbal that perfectly complement either a hand tie or a more formal bouquet," he adds. "We are also starting to sell pink gypsophila - a line that we see going from strength to strength as consumers become as familiar to it as they are to the white."
Following on from this is Mother's Day, the most important and busiest period in any florist's diary.
"The range within our aqua line is ever increasing with the addition of more and more lines particularly for Valentine's and Mother's Day," says Reichman. "Whereas roses are still held to be the key flower in February, for Mother's Day we will have a range of blooms and fillers to suit every pocket - for many children this is the first time they will have considered buying flowers, we need to encourage and educate tomorrow's customers."
Agrexco also exhibited at The Spring Florist Event, held at the ICC in Birmingham. The abundant show of both pink and white gysophila, lisianthus, anemones, kangeroo paw, gerbera and all varieties of roses displayed with greenery, attracted visitors to the stand, and provided Reichman with the ideal forum to meet many of his customers face to face. He says: "We had some very good meetings - unfortunately we do not generally get enough time to 'socialise' in our normal working week, so taking time out like this is very constructive.
"2004 certainly promises to be a good year for us, not only have we had a busy start, but we are also dealing with anemones - a line that we have not worked for three years. We will have supplies until the end of March - again great for Mother's Day, the perfect small posy."
Agrexco also brought out a new catalogue at the start of the year showing flower and foliage varieties and availability by month. To obtain further catalogue details, contact Yehuda Reichman 020 8756 4220.
ASPECT OFFERS VALENTINE’S DAY ANSWER
THOUSANDS OF men across the UK by now have turned to the internet in a last minute panic as they remember to order a floral gift for their loved one. The future happiness of many couples will depend on the ability of online flower sites such as Interflora.co.uk to cope with the huge surge in demand.
Aspect Group, the IT services company that specialises in web applications for business, estimates that a staggering 80 per cent of commercial internet and intranet sites have never been sufficiently tested to determine how effectively websites cope with spikes in public interest.
Aspect Group has worked with Interflora.co.uk to ensure the site can cope with the heightened demand from UK romeos. Ben Freeborn, e-channels manager of Interflora.co.uk said: "It is obviously crucial to our business that we are able to cope with the surge in demand that our site experiences in the build up to Valentine's Day. We have worked with Aspect Group to ensure there is little risk of business downtime."
Aspect Group ceo Roy Abrams said: "Commercial and transactional websites are taking a huge risk by not adequately testing their ability to cope with spikes in visitor numbers. If downtime occurs companies may never recover from the lost revenue opportunities and the loss of customer's faith in their ability to deliver."
Aspect Group has worked with some of the UK's leading business to business and consumer sites to ensure minimal downtime due to increased demand.
"Our procedures are designed to test all elements of the website's ability to work well under pressure," Abrams said. "We take the time to understand the business and don't just hammer the home page with hits, like some testing procedures."
Further information is available by visiting www.aspectgroup.co.uk. Flowers can be ordered online at www.interflora.co.uk
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