For several years, Poland has been increasing the import of cut flowers and pot plants from the Netherlands. Polish retail chains are standing behind this positive trend.
Already several years ago, Polish retailers put first-cut flowers on their shelves and started to use their clients to buy flowers not only on special occasions but to bring them home, on the regular basis, simply together with other commodities. "This strategy works well as nowadays many Polish consumers are leaving grocery stores with a bunch of flowers in their hands.- stressed agricultural counselor Carolien Spaans in her introduction at the webinar organized by the AIPH and the Embassy for the Dutch producers of ornamental plants and flowers interested in the Polish market.
Mr. Robert Radkiewicz
Quality is the key
Both Becky Roberts and Brigitte Hagen stressed the importance of a strategy and an attractive look of a display playing a role in selling flowers in discounts and retail chains in Poland. Therefore Brigitte Hagen from Flower Factory decided to conduct a store check in Poland to learn the needs of the Polish clients. Based on interviews with over 250 clients from 5 different Polish retail chains she noticed that Polish clients require good quality flowers, more than anything else.
Discounts vs hypermarkets or a garden center
Both Polish guests of the webinar were convinced that there is space for flowers in the retail.
Mr. Szacoń informed that the majority of the purchase in Poland is being done in discount chains, which are responsible for over 70% of the total FMCG market in Poland. This category is still developing very dynamically and new stores are opening almost on the daily basis in Poland. Therefore also other countries are interested to sell their commodities via those chains in Poland.
The second option is hypermarkets which aren’t developing that well but are huge and need diversity on the shelves. In this case, the prepared offer can be wider with diverse price ranges. Hypermarkets are also interesting as there is no need to cooperate with the whole chain but to cover one network franchisee.
What connects a hypermarket with a garden center is one owner. And every owner has their vision of the center. Therefore what cannot be sold in one garden center will be sold in a second one. Also, the quality and diversity of the offered material play a huge role in a garden center as many of them have demanding and relatively well-educated clients who are looking for good quality and a nice range of new varieties of plants.
For more information:
Ministerie van Landbouw,
Natuur en Voedselkwaliteit
+31 (0)70 379 8911
www.agroberichtenbuitenland.nl