Spring is traditionally when the flower industry starts blooming, but it’s no longer just Valentine’s and Mother’s Day that help boost sales in the category.
According to flower wholesalers, International Women’s Day is growing in popularity year on year, and sitting on 8 March – between the more traditional flower sales peaks – it is a welcome addition to the holiday calendar that can help to smooth out the peaks and troughs at the start of the year.
Paul Stevens, director at New Covent Garden Flower Market wholesaler SR Allen, explains: “We had Valentine’s Day and then half term, and then after that trade generally takes a serious step back. But we had a little bit of a bite last week in the run up to International Women’s Day, which seems to be getting busier every year.
“It’s a bit like Valentine’s Day in that people buy flowers on the day – so there is no real build up – but nevertheless we were a bit busier last week.”
Big, blooming flowers in pastel colours were the order of the day for Mother’s Day 2015 (15 March), says Stevens, who also notes there is greater demand for bouquets than there is at Valentine’s Day. “Valentine’s Day is predominantly roses, which is a very expensive single article. Generally, Mother’s Day flowers are a bit cheaper, with mixed flowers used to make bouquets,” he says. His business partner, Ken Seal, believes trade in the flower industry is picking up as Britain edges out of the recession and the general public start to loosen their purse strings. “Our year-end is at the beginning of October, and we’ve been up month on month since then because people are spending a bit more on flowers,” he says.
Zest Flowers director Graeme Diplock says the recent mild weather means flowers are coming on quickly in the key growing regions of Spalding and the Scilly Isles. “We normally do between two and a half to three times more in the run up to Mother’s Day,” says Diplock, who adds that this figure has fallen since the supermarkets entered the flower market.
“We just have to do different things to stand out. We now sell everything so our customers can get 90 per cent of what they need from us,” he says.
Diplock, whose company sources between 60 and 70 per cent of its flowers from the Netherlands with the remainder split across the UK and Colombia, is optimistic about the industry. “There aren’t more customers coming to the market, but I feel the customers we’ve got are getting busier, and confidence in the market is growing,” he says.
Outside the wholesale sector, online sales and marketing have an increasingly important role in the flower category. Jo Pearson, business unit director at supermarket supplier Butters Group, explains: “We are currently seeing online sales being driven by huge promotional activity, from money off to free cards and chocolates. Online marketing seems to be a continuous dripfeed of emails, sometimes three to four times a day from one leading brand.”
According to figures from analyst Rakuten Marketing, flower sales through tablets are up 70 per cent year on year during the Mother’s Day period, while 27 per cent of Mother’s Day sales are driven by shopping advice sites. Meanwhile, already looking ahead to next year, Pearson says there are growth opportunities for UK flower growers during 2016.
“Looking ahead to 2016, we have less than three weeks between Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, which will see many challenges added to the fact that International Mother’s Day is two days after the UK. This will drive up prices outside the UK, but in return may bring opportunity for British spring flower growers of tulips, hyacinths and daffodils,” she says.
