Since the beginning of the year, the Flower Council of Holland (FCH), in association with the Flowers and Plants Association (F&PA), has been promoting the themes of personalisation and tranquillity as the latest trends in flower arrangement.
Under the strapline ‘Personal Notes’, the initiative aims to encourage customers to fashion their flower purchases into a unique gift tailored to the recipient, inspired by photographs or other keepsakes. “It’s an attempt to return to a calmer, slower pace of life - or at least an escape from the fast and furious way we live most of the time,” says Colleen Smith of the FCH.
Arrangements should be kept simple, she advises, and can be made more personal by adding special charms, or writing individual messages on the tissue paper wrapping, or even on the leaves or petals of the bouquet itself. In terms of appearance, Smith says muted pastel colours should dominate - various shades of pinks, yellows, whites, creams and browns. And all spring flowers, including tulips, roses, narcissi, ranunculus, astrantia and freesias, as well as frittillaria, lilies and others, can be used.
The FCH will also be running a series of design workshops across the UK throughout 2005. The workshops, entitled ‘The Colour of Money’, will be led by Dutch flower designer Joan Stam. They aim to introduce florists to the ways of using colour to profit from seasonal and cultural colour variations, and increase sales values in general.
In addition, the council will be continuing to support the ongoing ‘Friday is flower day’ and ‘More Theatre, More Impact, More Sales’ campaigns. With the idea of offering ‘more theatre’, florists are encouraged to invest in new marketing strategies and innovative styles of service which exceed practices offered by supermarkets.
Bryn Evans, co-owner of two florist shops in Buckinghamshire, called Flower Trend Ltd, has already benefited from adopting a theatrical approach. “We try to achieve a smiley, happy, hello atmosphere, coupled with a little bit of theatre,” he told Holland Flower magazine. “All floristry is done in front of the customer with some nice atmospheric music playing in the background. We have also organised ‘Funky Fridays’, where we put all trendy designs outside the shop, with loud music playing and inside we offer some wine and snacks.”
‘More Theatre’ was the theme of the FCH’s stand at this year’s Spring Florist Event (SFE 05), held last month in Birmingham. The stand was operated by a group of UK florists who had devised two concepts for displaying and selling flowers, ‘Bloom Bar’ and ‘Petal Talk’.
Bloom Bar was a chic, contemporary shop simulation, which presented racked flowers in a prototype display unit, making selection easy. The unit could be made mobile for use in-shop or outside. “We need to make our shops inviting and different,” Evans, the theme’s creator, explains. The commercial branding of Bloom Bar was equally promoted, with the product offerings extended from flowers to other gifts.
Petal Talk was inspired by the idea of bringing the ‘Victorian language of flowers’ up to date, according to Smith. “Cupboards hid flower offerings labelled with meanings, while the flower display showed flower stems labelled with meanings too,” she says. Meanwhile, the Dutch Fresh and Funky shop used shoeboxes, shelving units and a day bed to show how innovative displays can be evoked from inexpensive means.
The SFE has been running for 27 years and is organised by Basing Ltd, whose sister company, Wordhouse Publishing Group (WPG), publishes Florist & Wholesale Buyer magazine (FWB). This annual event provides a forum for florists, student florists, wholesalers and importers to showcase their products, source new products and discover new practises being implemented in the floriculture industry.
According to Caroline Marshall-Foster, managing editor of FWB, whose brother Marcus Foster is director of the exhibition, SFE is the biggest event in the florist calendar. This year, WPG sponsored a hospitality lounge at the exhibition, offering exhibitors the opportunity to entertain clients away from the hustle of the main arena.
Among the new products launched at the event was the Perfect Petal from Raitzen Technologies - a simple anchoring device for securing bouquets in transit.
As a passionate exponent of high quality flower design, in accordance with the message of the British Florist Association (BSA), Marshall-Foster champions bespoke retail, as opposed to boxed flowers. However, while she agrees that the major multiples have raised the profile of the flower sector as a whole, the bespoke sector is generally poor at self-promotion. To this end, for the last five years she has been planning the launch of an association for wholesalers, who are not strictly catered for by the BFA, in the hope of providing an opportunity for communication and the exchange of ideas within the industry.
“We are taking our example from the Society of American Florists,” says Marshall-Foster. “They are a lobbying and promotional body funded by all members of the industry, whose remit is “Bespoke is best”. There is a place for boxed offerings but some of them are frankly complete rubbish. And it is in the interest of all if there are more products of a higher value - better for the grower, importer and wholesaler, everybody.”
With venture capital group 3i’s recent £23 million purchase of Interflora, the florist trade has been granted even more attention than usual at this time. And while some florists resented the price of the takeover, a staggering 87 per cent voted in favour of the move which will result in windfalls of between £5,000 and £12,000 for the majority of Interflora’s 1,850 members.
Unlike its main rivals, Teleflorist and Flowergram, Interflora promotes itself as a trade association, working out of 58,000 florists worldwide and delivering to 140 countries. While, many of these member florists rely heavily on profits from their Interflora orders, the company’s market share has dwindled by approximately 75 per cent to around 27 per cent. And without the kind of substantial investment put up by 3i, being a trade association, Interflora would have struggled to borrow the necessary funds to modernise and expand in order to have a chance of staying afloat.
When she is not fighting the good fight for bouquets over boxes, Marshall- Foster is also responsible for the technical and creative side of a campaign to promote Colombian flowers in the UK. The campaign, entitled ‘Colombian flowers...worth every penny’ is the only promotion outside of the US promoting Colombian flowers aimed directly at florists, wholesalers and other buyers of flowers.
Originally designed to promote carnations, the campaign was set up four years ago, funded by the Flower Import Trade Association (FITA) with additional contributions from Asocoflores, the Colombian Association of Flower Exporters. It now promotes the wide varietal range, including roses, calla lilies and alstromeria, grown in Colombia, the world’s second largest producing nation, and the key importers and wholesalers who sell them.
The 12 UK importers who make up FITA are responsible for bringing 80 per cent of all Colombian flowers into the UK. FITA achieved the introduction of charter flights directly out of Bogota, in the Sabana de Bogota region where the majority of Colombian flowers are grown. And the organisation highlights the fact that imports, which have not come via the Dutch auction system, are guaranteed to be fresher, and longer-lasting.
The UK market for Colombian flowers is increasing steadily, with UK purchases of Colombian Carnations estimated to be worth in excess of US$26 million. As well as variety, quality, value for money, and swift delivery, the campaign highlights the social responsibility of supporting Colombian trade. “Not only does Colombia grow some of the best flowers in the world but every purchase of Colombian flowers could arguably help a child to read,” says Marshall-Foster. The production of flowers is part of a major programme of social development, seeking to help thousands of Colombian families improve their quality of life.
In association with Florverde, the audited environmental and social programme established by Asocoflores in 1996, the FITA campaign has established a strict code of practice to restrict pesticide use and water consumption, facilitate environment-friendly waste management, and induce a positive impact on the landscape. In addition, the ‘Cultivating peace in the Family’ programme supports working Colombian women, offering child and health care facilities.
According to Proexport, the Colombian Government Trade Bureau, Colombia, along with other Central and South American countries, has benefited from implementing stronger quality control and better marketing strategies. Colombia produces more than 50 per cent of the world’s heliconia varieties, 43 per cent of which are native to the country.
Tropical and Exotic Flowers (T&E) is one of the newest companies to export Colombian flowers to the UK. T&E’s sales director, Andres Lobo-Guerrero, says the location of the flowers has enabled his rapidly growing success. “Located here, in the middle of the Andes Mountains, in the midst of the coffee region, are the majority of the organized flower and foliage crops. Local land owners have inherited the discipline and marketing skills of the Colombian coffee era and have infused them with a savvy hold on global trends,” he says.
However, with uniquely spectacular beauty in their favour, the flowers almost sell themselves, he adds. “They are simply so different from anything people on the other side of the earth have ever seen, that they evoke a journey in the mind’s eye that takes anyone who looks at a tropical flower to a virtual paradise. It’s more than a flower, it’s a peace of sunny heaven that you can put in a vase.”
Increasing market share in the UK is a high priority for T&E, while Proexport is working heavily on the promotion of Colombia’s exotic flowers in general for 2005.
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