The farm.
Connectaflor supplies worldwide
Esmeralda Farms has gone through some difficult times, as explained by Clarisse Ullrich, Esmeralda Farms's president in an article on FloralDaily earlier this year. After closing down the Holland distribution center in August of 2016 (when their Ethiopian farm was burned down by rebels), they were forced to handle all their international sales directly from their farm in Ecuador. After a couple of months, it was decided that having Connectaflor become the distributor for the Esmeralda brand worldwide was the best option. Rather than creating two different programs for the US market and the rest of the world market, it made more sense to streamline all the sales through one global distributor. Connectaflor was already responsible for over 80% of Esmeralda Farm’s production between Ecuador and Colombia, but with this change, they’re now able to have one program for the global market.
Esmeralda Farms and Connectaflor exhibiting at a show.
Transparency and consistency
Connectaflor has taken two of their most seasoned sales veterans with over 30 years in combined experience selling the Esmeralda brand to handle these new European and international markets. Mark Dubner, VP of Sales for Connectaflor mentions how they plan on implementing a new structure in promoting the Esmeralda brand that will assure their customers transparency and consistency. "One of the ways we do things a little differently, and it has always been our way here in the US, is that we deal with transparency in pricing, giving advantages to customers that place year round commitments and offer different pricing tiers based on the volumes they buy", says Dubner. This is different from a market driven by pricing strategy that many importers are used to. "And on top of that, because it is very transparent, everybody knows what they can get if they give a commitment and buy certain volumes and this creates consistency", he adds.
Consolidation - Sup
plying importers and wholesalers out of HollandThere were some major challenges when all the European sales were suddenly forced to take place out of Quito. "Some European importers and wholesalers were left without a way to carry the Esmeralda brand since they were accustomed to purchasing only out of Holland and were not running their own consolidation out of Quito", says Daniel Travieso Farm Sales Manager at Connectaflor. "We had to find a solution to be able to supply all these European importers and wholesalers again. We decided to work with the Dutch freight forwarder IP Handlers. Now, we’re running a consolidation out of Quito to Holland twice a week and customers can choose whether to buy the flowers out of Quito (FOB Quito) or out of the Netherlands (FOB CIF Holland)."
Future plans
For Connectaflor, there are still plans in the pipeline, but the first and most important one is to gain the confidence of the clients that have carried the Esmeralda brand for years. "We are still learning the market and introducing ourselves to the customers that have been purchasing the Esmeralda brand for years now. They always purchased Esmeralda flowers due to the quality of product. It’s our job to make sure they get not only the best flowers in the world, but also the best customer service", says Travieso. Besides that, Connectaflor will continue to invest in promoting the brand and how it can be purchased on an international scale. In order to do so, they are planning to attend different international shows throughout the year. “We’re confident that the international market can grow and absorb closer to 35% of our total production.”
For more information
Connectaflor
Daniel Travieso
Email: danielt@connectaflor.com
www.connectaflor.com