Christmas tree growers find new customers at Floradecora

In January of this year, Messe Frankfurt launched its new market place for fresh flowers, plants and ready-made flower arrangements. Floradecora plays its part in helping the wholesale floristry sector acquire new target groups and enter new markets – above all from the broad, heterogeneous group of buyers at the concurrently held Christmasworld, the international trade fair for seasonal and festive decoration. Arbodania was amongst the first exhibitors to come on board. The Danish company is one of the leading growers and exporters of Christmas trees and decorative firs, specialising in the marketing of high quality Nordmann firs. Michael Schnor, the company’s Managing Director, had no qualms in signing up early for Floradecora, “because the concept, linking as it did with Christmasworld, appealed to us from the very beginning.” Christmas and fir trees go hand in hand, so that, in his view, no explanation is necessary.

He sees great potential advantages for his company at Floradecora, in comparison to other trade fairs, particularly in terms of the Christmas trade. His hopes of meeting new customers amongst international retailers and larger chains in the grocery and furniture sector have been fulfilled. “We got ten good, very promising contacts at Floradecora. If just two or three of them develop further, then that will count as success for us.” He already has an agreement under his belt, with a furniture chain, for an extensive trial in their shops. On the lookout for new Christmassy items, the chain’s buyers went straight from visiting Christmasworld to Floradecora, in order to have a browse around. “They didn’t come with the intention of buying trees,” explains Michael Schnor, “but we had something that interested them and were able to persuade them of the value of our products.” As the main reason, the boss of the traditional Danish company cites the fact buying Christmas trees is very much a matter of trust. We have been growing Nordmann fir for sixty years and have a lot of experience in producing uniformly high-quality products. We offer large retail companies, in particular, who have never so far had anything to do with selling Christmas trees, a whole package – from paperless ordering using IT, to optimised logistics and help with display – everything they need for successful selling.”

As far as the future of the Arbodania company is concerned, Michael Schnor sees two major challenges, which will need to be overcome: acquiring new customers and reaching out to the younger generation of 25-35 year-olds. “In principle, we can do both at Floradecora,” he adds very confidently. This is shown, as he points out, in the new contacts with buyers from grocery and furniture stores that he was able to make in January at Floradecora in Frankfurt. Not to mention the particular interest they have shown in “Arbodania’s Easy Tree – the little tree on a stand that you can quite simply put under your arm and take home with you.”

Arbodania has already signed up for 2018.

The 360° tour at floradecora.messefrankfurt.com/virtualtour through Floradecora 2017 provides further information about the portfolio of products on offer and details of contact persons.

Exhibitors have until 12 May 2017 to register for Floradecora 2018. Contact Martina Bullack if you have any further questions about taking part in the trade fair. Tel: +49 69 75 75-64 66, e-mail: floradecora@messefrankfurt.com.