Members of the Flowers Canada Retail Government Affairs
committee are keeping a close eye on the Americans. To be more precise
they are watching the progress and development of the Floral Marketing
Funding Initiative Coalition. Veteran florist Charles Krump III, owner
of Kremp Florist, which operates two stores and one greenhouse range in
the Philadelphia area, has spearheaded the coalition.
Kremp was charged with the task of exploring all avenues to develop a funding mechanism to support any marketing activity. The decision of whether it would be an industry-wide campaign including cut flowers and potted plants would be made after the funding model was determined. No other marketing board has successfully pulled off an industry-wide marketing program, but many successful product campaigns come to mind – milk, butter, beef, eggs.
When faced with the objection that the industry suffers from low margins and can’t afford to contribute more Kremp replied, “There are only two ways for those businesses to go – ride things out as they go out of business or make a positive effort to make things better.”
At its meeting Nov. 20 and 21, the Development Committee of the Floral Marketing Funding Initiative Coalition reached consensus on the issues necessary for writing a promotion order. The committee, made up of major domestic producers and importers, agreed that adoption of a program rests solely on the acceptability of the traditional and mass-market channels of distribution for passing along any assessment. The main issues are as follows:
An assessment of 2 per cent on cut flowers and cut greens at the domestic producer and importer level.
Before any program would be initiated, a positive vote of domestic producers and importers would be needed. Their dollar volume would weight each business’s vote and a majority of the volume voting would be necessary for passage.
The initial vote would be before the program would be implemented and a referendum would be scheduled four years later. The initial board would be made up of six domestic producers and six importers.
A diminimus level was set at $100,000. This means any importer or domestic grower whose volume is less than $100,000 would be exempt from paying any assessment. The board would have no authority to increase the assessment and all the money must be used for promotion.
Other issues such as committees and their make-up would be handled in bylaws that would be written after the program is established.
For more information, please contact Charles Kremp,
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or 215-285-8080.
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