Aldi has handed a new five-year contract to its longstanding supplier JZ Flowers.
The Hull-based business has supplied flowers to Aldi’s stores across the UK and Ireland for almost a quarter of a century, and the new contract will see the Zwemstra family-owned firm supply more than 200 million bunches of flowers over the next five years.
JZ Flowers employs 400 staff at sites in Newport, near Hull, Spalding in Lincolnshire,and Naas in Ireland. It began supplying fresh flowers to a handful of Aldi stores in 1995 and the relationship evolved to supply all 892stores in the UK and Ireland.
Jelle Zwemstra, founder of JZ Flowers, said: “Thanks to the relationship with Aldi during the last 25 years, we have substantially grown our business, invested in new production facilities and taken on more staff. This contract provides us with long-term security and gives us the confidence to continue investing in the business.”
Aldi is the third-largest retailer of fresh flowers in the UK and the largest in Ireland. Its range includes mixed bouquets, seasonal flowers and extensive key ranges at Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day.
Julie Ashfield, joint managing director of corporate buying at Aldi UK, said: “Our approach when working with suppliers is to build a genuine partnership based on trust and fairness. The relationship we have with JZ Flowers is a good example of this in practice and we look forward to working with them for many more years to come.”
