Michael Larsen holding the Gloria Q-IRose at the Nordic Flower Expo 2015 in Sweden. He grows around 50,000 potted roses on a weekly basis, in a 11,000 square meter sized greenhouse in Denmark. Their main export market is Scandinavia to which they sell through Danish exporters.
Higher Valentine's Day sales
Larsen is not sure about the reason for the lower sales, but assumes that the current financial situation in Russia is still playing a role. "Russia used to be a fairly good market for us, but after the crisis hit the country, our exports decreased drastically." And again this year, their exports to this country declined. "I think the country is experiencing difficult times now and that is reflected in their buying behavior. They want to purchase the product last minute, but we could not wait for that. We therefore decide to put more on the market this Valentine's Day." And this strategy paid off. Despite the decrease in sales for Women's Day, their Valentine's sales were about 40 percent higher compared to last year. Moreover, the prices for Women's Day remained the same compared to last year, and the prices for Valentine's Day were a bit higher.
Busy with UK Mother's Day
Currently, Larsen is busy with shipping out potted roses for the next holiday: Mother's Day in the UK, which is celebrated on Sunday March 26. "Last weekend we shipped the first potted roses to the UK." It is a profitable holiday for this Danish grower, but only for one color. "For Mother's Day, this market only wants pink roses."
Biggest holiday about to come
However, the most important holiday for Elvira Rose is still about to come." After Easter, on Sunday May 14 Mother's Day will be celebrated in many other European countries and then we will ship a lot of roses to Germany and Denmark."
For more information
Elvira Rose
Michael Larsen
E-mail: michael@brolykke.dk
www.brolykke.dk