SAF Wednesday E-Brief - 05/23/2007 (Plain Text Version)
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Florida Wholesaler Shines in News Story
When a reporter from the Orlando Sentinel called Jim Van Namen, a general manager of Carlstedt's Wholesale Florist, for a Mother's Day story, the veteran wholesaler didn't shy away from tough topics. In fact, he brought them up. "At the end of the interview, she asked me if there was anything else I wanted to add," he says. "I brought up the holiday price increase issue because I wanted to explain the situation correctly and factually. I've been around for a long time, and I've seen the question handled poorly before." (Van Namen's family owns Vans, a chain of wholesale floral distribution centers in the Midwest, and he began working part-time in the industry at age 12.) In the story, which ran on the front page of the newspaper's business section just before Mother's Day, Van Namen explained holiday price increases as a function of many factors. "There are several reasons," he said, "one of them being the cost of fuel and transportation ..... Another one is that the growers ... when the demand is not there, have to sell their flowers for a loss. And what they're doing is they are trying to average their prices for the year. So it fluctuates. Another reason is very, very basic supply and demand." Response to the story has been positive, says Van Namen, who had about a day to prepare for the phone interview. "I had no idea how many people read the Sentinel," he says. "I even got a call from two of my competitors, who actually thanked me for getting the message across."
-- Mary Westbrook
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