"Se
veral years ago, we introduced the trade mark: Roses with a Name," says Muhr. This idea originated from two reasons. "Firstly, many of their customers asked for the names of the roses which we supplied. Secondly, we noticed a lack of knowledge from the end-user regarding the treatment of the rose, once bought." Therefore, APH started to add tags on every rose, including a name and guidelines of how to treat the rose. 
After introducing the trade mark, the results were noticeable. "In the beginning, it all went a bit slowly, but after some advertisement, we received some positive feedback from our customers." They were all very pleased with the trade mark and it even increased their sales; the bunches with the trade marks sold better than the bunches without a trade mark" Muhr says.
All the roses of APH are imported from Fairtrade certified farms in East Africa. "There is no option for a farm to deliver to us if they are not planning on becoming Fairtrade certified" he says. It enables us to make all bunches Fairtrade and meet the demand of the florists who are increasingly requesting Fairtrade flowers.
"However, just marketing your roses with Fairtrade will not do the job" says Muhr. Therefore, they extended the 'Roses With Names' trade mark with the 'Florists Selection' a couple of years ago. "In the Florists Selection, we only include a selected line of the biggest and most in demand varieties." Together with the flowers they provide florists with brochures which they can give to their customers, the end-user. This brochure tells the end-user that the flowers in his bouquet originate from Fairtrade certified farms. "We only launched this trade mark a couple of years ago and it is already very successful."
For more information
APH
Christian Muhr
Email: christian@aph.se
www.aph.se