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Grower Direct - A Floral Franchise
A Floral Franchise |
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Written by Amanda Ryder
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Eighteen years ago, Grower Direct started its operation
with just a few leftover buckets of wholesale flowers. Today the Grower
Direct franchise has 70 florist shops located across Canada and has
accomplished a feat that at one point seemed impossible in the florist
industry.
The company has successfully franchised florist shops from British Columbia to New Brunswick and has become the largest retail florist chain, not in only Canada, but also in the world. In Alberta, where Grower Direct is based, you can find a Grower Direct location in nearly every city and customers instantly recognize the familiar green logo.
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| Angela’s Grower Direct in Edmonton is one of 70 Grower Direct franchisees located across Canada. |
So what’s the key to their success? The franchise capitalizes on the concept of providing its customers with affordable flowers directly from the grower.
The roots of Grower Direct date back to 1986 when Skip Kerr founded the company. While working at his wholesale flower business, Kerr found he had excess flowers at the end of each week and he started selling them to the public every Friday and Saturday. Soon, the weekend business became bigger than the wholesale one and Kerr took notice. This led him to open up the first Grower Direct in Edmonton using the same concept. The public could walk into the shop, pick whatever flowers they wanted directly out of the bucket and pay a wholesale price. The store consisted of a giant walk-in cooler and Kerr says it lacked “the fancy look of a florist.” He eventually set up a table with shears and a ruler so customers could create their own arrangements. Using this simple concept, he says the shop moved a tremendous amount of volume in the first year alone.
The idea of franchising Grower Direct came up when a customer named Bill Hustler urged Kerr to build on the shops success and franchise other locations. “I thought he was crazy,” says Kerr but as more flowers sold he was soon convinced. Grower Direct began franchising in 1989 and it took off from there. Grower Direct CEO Doug Monroe recalls one time period when five franchises sold in one week. “The concept was so different at the time. You could buy flowers at a reasonable cost and this was when roses were running from $49.95 to $96 a dozen,” says Kerr. Grower Direct on the other hand was offering roses at a price as low as $9.99 a dozen and was moving so much product that at one point, they were the biggest single importer of roses in Canada. In order to better serve the franchise locations, the company began its own internal wire service called Floraworld where franchisees could place a wire order that could in turn be dealt with by a Grower Direct in another city or province. Florist shops were also given an FTD membership when they joined the franchise.
As the business evolved and expanded, 18 years later the core idea behind Grower Direct remains the same. The shops specialize in bulk fresh cut flowers, some plants and limited giftware. Grower Direct purchases flowers directly from growers in South America. They’ve established a standing order with flower growers because they control so many stores and this ensures they pay a fixed price throughout the year for a specific amount of product. The product is picked from a farm in Colombia or Ecuador and then shipped to Grower Direct’s warehouse facility in Miami. This direct approach between grower and retailer has helped to eliminate the rotation of imported product at an offsite warehouse and ensures that retailers get the product as quickly as possible. “The first time a product sees rotation is at the retailer and that’s a major strength of Grower Direct,” says Monroe. Throughout the entire shipping process Grower Direct stresses the importance of managing the cold chain and keeping flowers cold so they’ll last longer for the customer.
And the company tries not to take itself too seriously. Customers have come to know Grower Direct by the clown that can often be found handing out flowers in front of the flower shops. It’s something Kerr included at his first location in order to draw in consumers and he still encourages his franchisees to do the same. “It’s a cost effective way to bring people into the stores. When the clown’s working the street, business is better,” says Kerr.
The franchise locations receive training and support from the Grower Direct head office. Kerr keeps his franchisees trained through a library of video training CDs, a monthly audio newsletter and seminars held four times a year. The training CDs not only train the owners of the shop but can also double as training tools for new employees. The company is now trying to expand on the cash and carry concept by providing all the franchisees with training from AIFD designer Deborah De La Flor.
When asked what advice he would offer other florists, Kerr says florists have to become the fresh cut flower experts in their community. “They need to offer price, quality and service – pick any two and do it well.” He says in the past Grower Direct has always focused on quality and price. In the future, Kerr says they are looking to tackle service by incorporating more design into the franchise and putting more emphasis on the customer.
A Veteran Franchisee
On Feb. 1, 1996, Richard Pratt opened the doors of his floral shop to the public. For florists, this date marks the beginning of long hours and hard work to prepare for one of the busiest holidays of the year, Valentine’s Day. However, Pratt, being new to the flower industry, wasn’t quite prepared for the havoc that would hit his shop in just a few short weeks.
Luckily, Pratt had the support and assistance he needed those first few weeks from the Grower Direct head office. Pratt’s Grower Direct shop in Sarnia, Ont., is one of the three franchises in the province. Prior to opening his store, Pratt and his wife Joan both had extensive background with franchises in the retail industry. He says being a part of Grower Direct helped him come up to speed on the industry quickly. Any time he had a problem with the shop, he could call up head office for a solution or dial fellow franchisees.
Like all Grower Direct locations, Pratt’s 1,000-square-foot store (most locations are between this and 1,200-square-foot) features the walk-in cooler, which takes up 25 per cent of his building. “We used to have to explain the concept because people were hesitant to walk in the cooler, but now people march right in,” says Pratt. He says his customers are a mix of people who either prefer to help themselves to the flowers or would rather have something designed by one of the four employees on staff.
His location carries a mix of fresh cut flowers, most of which are received from the company order. Pratt says he will also use local growers when he requires a certain flower or gets a large order. On average, the shop goes through a couple thousand roses a week.
When it comes to advertising, Grower Direct supports the franchisees with national advertising but Pratt also does his own. “I’m responsible for the name in this part of the country so I do print media in many different forms,” he says referring to the fact that most Grower Direct locations can be found in Western Canada. Pratt doesn’t have a website yet but plans to launch one by the end of the year. One of his biggest promotional days is Grower Direct’s Friendship Day, held every August. At his location, Pratt gives away a dozen roses to each customer in exchange for a canned item for the food bank. The idea behind the day is that recipients keep a rose for themselves and give away the others to friends. Pratt estimates he gives away thousands of roses each Friendship Day and says the event is “something the community really appreciates.”
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