Bringing together like-minded members of the floral industry was the motivation behind a recent gathering where Premier Floral Distributors (PFD) joined wholesale and retail florists to discuss how to "survive" the challenges in today's industry. 

The three-day annual sales seminar, which took place at Seagroatt Floral Company in Albany, N.Y., in July, had teams of wholesalers and retail florists working together to discuss industry challenges like communications, transportation logistics and competition, in a "Survivor"-themed event.

"We're all trying to survive," says Katy Miller, PFD executive director and vice president of sales and marketing at Dillon Floral in Bloomsburg, Pa. "We're doing it by trying to be more successful and by training employees to be more successful. [At the event] people had a lot of fun while learning at the same time."

Surrounded by jungle decorations, and competing for Survivor giveaways, attendee teams were asked to discuss a number of different possible real-life industry situations.

Shelly Pritchett, general manager of Flowers Central in Daytona Beach, Fla., says the teams worked together to develop useable solutions that everyone was able to take home. She, herself, learned the importance of communication within Flower Central itself. She now puts out a daily information sheet for all employees letting them know what's going on within the company on that particular day, along with an inspirational quote.

"I felt the conference was tremendous," Pritchett says. "As a group, PFD is trying to pull wholesalers closer into the survival of the florist as well as the survival of the industry's independent wholesaler. Working together is a 'win win win' situation. The wholesaler wins, the florist wins and our customers win."

This was the first year PFD, a cooperative group of wholesalers who work together to source, promote and market floral products to their retail customer base, invited retail florists to the event. Miller says she's glad they did because it helped both wholesalers and florists develop a better appreciation for each group.

"It was extremely successful," Miller says.

--Kori Kamradt
kkamradt@safnow.org

 

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