The major players in the flower world are thinking about Valentine's Day long before consumers are. Here’s how the world’s biggest flower companies prepare for February 14.
“We begin planning designs for next year’s Valentine’s Day arrangements as soon as the holiday is over,” says Alfred Palomares, vice president, merchandising, 1-800-Flowers.com. “A comprehensive review is done immediately after Valentine’s Day ends and we utilize those learnings for the following year.”
Teleflora, which defines itself as a service organization rather than a florist, connects their orders with 13,000 local member florists throughout the United States and Canada and affiliate florists outside of North America. Still, the company designs exclusive Teleflora arrangements for special occasions. In terms of Valentine’s Day, they begin concepting designs 16 months prior to each holiday, meaning they started thinking about Valentine’s Day 2020 in August 2018. “Our partner florists are involved from the very beginning,” says Danielle Mason, vice president, consumer marketing, Teleflora. “All of our containers and floral arrangements are tested with the florists to ensure that the products will resonate with their customer base. The goal is to create a collection that appeals to both florists and consumers throughout the country.”
Palomares says Valentine’s Day is the second biggest floral holiday for 1-800-Flowers.com, with Mother’s Day being the first. For Valentine’s alone, the company expects to sell between 18 million and 18.5 million stems this year (of those he says 11 million are likely to be roses). To accommodate that surge in orders takes some pretty accurate planning. “We plan a year in advance what our floral needs will be for the Valentine’s Day season in order to provide the best value to our customers,” he says. “During this time, our flowers are flown in several times a week to ensure the freshest floral assortments are delivered to our florists and dispersed across our multiple distribution centers.”
