After some challenging months with massively reduced sales for the floriculture sector, the market is now developing more favourably. The crisis has had a substantial impact, but the outlook is less sombre than earlier this year. As a result, the Flower Council of Holland (FCH) is able to increase the promotional budget for flowers and plants in Germany, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom again for the rest of 2020.
Royal FloraHolland sales forecast
The promotional budget is largely dependent on the sales at Royal FloraHolland, since a levy is paid on these sales. The Flower Council constantly monitors the expected sales in close consultation with Royal FloraHolland. The budget has been adjusted upwards on the basis of the most recent sales forecast.
“This is good news for the sector,” says Dennis van der Lubbe, Managing Director of FCH. “While we previously had to halve the promotional budget to 8 million euro because of the dramatic decline in sales, we can now increase it again by 6 million euro to give a total budget of 14 million euro. That makes it possible to still run some of the planned campaigns. Examples of this are ‘Thanks Plants’ in the autumn, the launch of ‘The Trend Collection’, various social media and content activities, and a campaign for garden plants in the Netherlands and Germany in collaboration with the Royal FloraHolland outdoor plant growers. The Shopper activation team is also busy talking to parties in the sector about persuading consumers to buy flowers and plants.”
The Flower Council of Holland has not been sitting still
“We’re very pleased that we can get back to work on the projects that we had already planned last year. Despite the period of uncertainty, the Flower Council has certainly not been sitting still. Hence we played a coordinating role in the eye-catching floriculture promotion ‘Working together to combat loneliness amongst the elderly’. We also rolled out the successful ‘Let Hope Bloom’ campaign in a very short space of time, to which consumers responded very positively.”
Fill the distance with beauty
FCH is currently developing the additional ‘Fill the distance with beauty’ campaign in conjunction with the sector. This campaign will encourage consumers in the core countries to buy more flowers, houseplants and garden plants. FCH has acted as a recruiter in this campaign by approaching parties, and is therefore the link between the participants. The proposition and the implementation of the campaign are being developed in close consultation and with a financial contribution from the participants and from FCH. Van der Lubbe says: “In other words, we’ve got plenty to do in 2020 and are ready to make a flying start in 2021. We’re going all out!”
Want to find out more?
For more information please contact Dennis van der Lubbe, Managing Director of the Flower Council of Holland, at d.van.der.lubbe@bloemenbureauholland.nl or +31 (0)174 72 7010.