Permanent Botanicals Business Update

By Kara Cox -- Home Accents Today, 7/1/2006

"We've seen a lot of revolution in the technology of the flowers and foliage," said Tom Hoffman, vice president of Distinctive Designs. "It can make the premades look better or it can be an opportunity for people importing components to do better custom designs.

"We've seen the growth of home accent specialty stores that have a custom floral bent, they're essentially interior designers with a storefront," he said. "The designer has always been big on floral, you see them buying more premades as the product gets better. They had to do custom in the past because they weren't impressed by the designs. Now they're using more finished floral and the stem flowers on the better end are doing quite well. These designers and stores are very sophisticated to service the better residential market."

"There have always been high quality stems available which NDI has always searched for," said Mabry Cook, president of NDI. "They just continue to get better which is only going to improve our industry. There's no doubt that we've had steady growth with designers. When traditional retail wasn't growing as fast for a few years, the designer business was still coming in."

Kathy Albright, vice president of Atrium Foliage, is always trying to find ways to make life easier for the designer and retailer by color-matching her designs with accent furnishings that are popular and retailing well.

"I talk to my buyers, ask them to share their color swatches and I'm a voracious reader of shelter magazines," she said. "When I'm looking at a container or a stem I see a piece of furniture."

Technology also is changing the way the permanent botanical industry is doing business. Permanent botanical purchases are often the last piece retailers add to their merchandise plan so they need instant visuals and easy access to information when timelines are tight.

"If you have a Web site, guys don't even want a catalog any more," Hoffman said. "I've also heard people say they won't buy from a showroom that doesn't scan their orders. Buyers have so many markets to cover they don't want to hang around waiting on handwritten orders."

Cook agrees, saying NDI looks at its Web site as a multi-faceted tool. "We want to service our existing and potential customers, but we also have a consumer-friendly Web site that can lead them to where to buy our products," he said. "It's a good tool for our sales reps but it has to be more than that, it's a marketing tool that's user-friendly and fun to use interactively."

While most vendors agree being customer-focused is the key to success, Albright sees technology creating opportunities for permanent botanical vendors to offer better, faster service to retailers who require quick answers.

"We work with a lot of designers and retailers who are on assignment and e-mailing photos of what they need, she said. "We can e-mail back suggestions of products. It's all about what we can do to make their lives easier. We often e-mail visuals of the things people buy at market so they can go ahead and put together their looks before the order even gets there. We're not selling permanent botanicals, we're selling solutions to problems."

Laurie Burke

Tom Hoffman

Mabry Cook

Kathy Albright

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