Dole Fresh Flowers Closes Farms in South America

Dole Fresh Flowers (DFF), a division of Dole Food Company, announced Oct. 12 it will lay off more than a third of its workforce in Ecuador and Colombia to "restructure" its flower division and "focus on delivering more desirable varieties of flowers to market."

The affected farms "have the lowest productivity and highest costs in the Dole Fresh Flowers division," says Marty Ordman, vice president of marketing and communications for Dole Food Company. "We are not able to discuss specific varieties at this time, but generally speaking, Dole Fresh Flowers will stop offering certain flowers or varieties of low-quality flowers, with the focus being on correcting varietal and color mix of certain products."

DFF, the largest producer of cut flowers in Latin America, plans to close its Ecuadorian operations entirely and close two farms in Colombia, according to the Miami Herald. In all, 3,463 farm employees and 50 employees from the company's Miami headquarters are expected to be laid off. Qualified workers will receive severance pay, according to the Herald.

"We do not have any current plans to open new farms or move production to other locations," Ordman says. "Dole is prepared to keep the farms impacted by this announcement in fallow, in anticipation of market corrections and new opportunities in floral. We have explored selling the farms, but no buyers have emerged who were willing to pay the right price. We will continue to look at this option."

The cuts are expected to improve annual cash flow by $35 million, according to the Herald, which also reported that DFF "had $5.1 million in losses before interest and taxes on $171 million in revenue in 2005, just 3 percent of the company's $5.9 billion revenue."

"The fresh flower business is highly fragmented and competitive," John Amaya, DFF's president, said via a press release on Oct. 12. "Industry oversupply has driven prices down, creating a significant pressure on growers to improve performance. Latin American growers are also facing new competition from emerging markets in Africa and Asia."

Look for ongoing coverage in future issues of E-Brief and in Floral Management magazine.

--Mary Ann Barton
mbarton@safnow.org
--Mary Westbrook
Mary.westbrook@gmail.com

 
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Floral Marketing Coalition Takes Next Step

A floral industry promotion order is one small step closer to reality this week after a coalition of industry organizations agreed on the broad outline of a funding mechanism as well as the next steps.

A resolution passed unanimously by the Floral Marketing Funding Initiative Coalition Steering Committee on October 12 stated that the Commodity Promotion, Research and Information Act of 1996 is the "best and most practical mechanism available" for mandated funding of a national floral marketing program, according to a press release from the coalition. A successful program, the coalition agreed, would focus on fresh cut flowers and cut greens but would not preclude other segments of the industry from establishing similar programs. 

In addition, the coalition agreed the most practical way of generating marketing funds would be to assess importers of record and domestic growers. While agreeing to that assessment mechanism, the coalition acknowledged that importers of record and domestic growers will "need to be reasonably assured" that all or part of their investment into the program could be passed through the supply chain.

As to the next steps, the coalition agreed that the details of a floral promotion order should be determined by a development committee made up of representatives of businesses that will be assessed - domestic growers and importers of record. Mike Mellano Sr. of Mellano and Company in San Luis Rey, Calif., and Gustavo Moreno of Multiflora Inc. in Miami have been appointed chairmen of a development committee to look at details such as timing, assessment levels and what will be assessed. This committee is expected to meet before the end of the year.

The findings of the committee will be used to write the actual promotion order, which will then be presented to the industry as a whole for comments.  A program would only go into effect after a positive "yes" vote by all domestic producers and importers of record.

This effort was launched last March when, under the leadership of the coalition’s president Charles F. Kremp 3rd, AAF, of Kremp Florist in Philadelphia, the coalition was formed and charged with exploring ways to generate marketing dollars for the floral industry.  Kremp, and the coalition’s chairman, Red Kennicott, AAF, of Kennicott Brothers in Chicago, and its treasurer, Clay Sieck of Sieck Wholesale in Baltimore, have made an exhaustive study of all available options. Click here to read more. 

"Thirty to $50 million annually is the targeted amount that needs to be raised (to be effective)," says Kremp. The money would be used to create marketing campaigns aimed at encouraging consumers to buy more flowers more often, he offered.  
    
Development of the actual campaigns would be the responsibility of an industry board with oversight from the USDA to ensure the program is "fair and broad," says Kremp.   

--Kate Penn
kpenn@safnow.org

 
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First & Main and Others Rethink Negative Floral Spin

SAF has had several recent victories over negative floral advertisements.

First & Main
After responding in July to a negative floral reference in an advertisement placed by teddy bear wholesalers First & Main, SAF received an apology from the company's founders. Click here to read more. Last week, Mary Lee Evans, AAF, AIFD, PFCI of Le'Vans Flowers in Tulsa, Okla., faxed SAF a new advertisement from First & Main: " Teddy Bears go Great With Flowers."

Lowe's/Pella Windows
Beth Zbasnik of Village Florist in Malvern, Ohio, reported a Lowe's/Pella Windows commercial that featured two contractors sneering at a flower given to them in appreciation.  After SAF contacted Lowe's, vice-president of Advertising for Lowe's Companies, Pete Woods, responded, saying, "I'm sorry if that [commercial] was misinterpreted. We will certainly be more sensitive to the issue you raised." SAF also contacted Pella Windows, and at press time, has not received a response.

Crabtree & Evelyn
Kathy Kocianic of Creations Florists & Gift in Hickory, N.C., spotted a local Crabtree & Evelyn advertisement that read "Instead of Flowers."  After receiving SAF's letter regarding the ad, Michelle Simard of Crabtree & Evelyn responded.  "We're very sorry...We know it won't happen again," she said.

Incredibly Edible Delights
SAF also contacted Incredibly Edible Delights about an ad that read, "Don't send Flowers." Company representative Dan Rickhoff responded via e-mail to SAF, saying that disparaging floral gifts was not his intent. Florence Tourolle of Johannes Flowers in Carpinteria, Calif., faxed SAF a copy of a new Incredibly Edible ad, which is free of negative floral references. 

Alert SAF to harmful floral publicity by faxing articles and ads to 703-836-8705 or e-mail jstromann@safnow.org.

-- Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org

 
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New Harvard Research: Flowers Enhance Feelings of Compassion

Nancy Etcoff, Ph.D., waits on the set in Boston yesterday morning for her next interview during the satellite television and radio tour.

Consumers from Fresno, Calif., to Huntsville, Ala., woke up yesterday morning to fresh news: Harvard University research reveals that people feel more compassionate toward others, have less worry and anxiety and feel less depressed when fresh cut flowers are present in the home.

Called the "Home Ecology of Flowers," the Harvard research is a result of a collective effort and strategic alliance by SAF and the Flower Promotion Organization (FPO). The SAF/FPO Alliance is publicizing the Home Ecology findings through a public relations campaign designed to place the floral message in the context of everyday news stories. Using the study's lead researcher as spokeswoman, the Home Ecology public relations campaign launched Tuesday with a satellite TV and radio tour in 15 cities nationwide, including Memphis, Tenn.; Tyler, Tex.; Kansas City; New Orleans; Fresno, Calif.; Eugene, Ore., and Toledo, Ohio.

In these interviews broadcast via satellite from a Boston studio, Nancy Etcoff, Ph.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, said: "We know that flowers make people happy when they receive them. What we didn't know is that spending a few days with flowers in the home can affect a wide variety of feelings - from compassion to worry." Etcoff added, "What was particularly surprising was the carryover effect -- people who had flowers in their home also reported feeling more energetic and enthusiastic at work too."
 
The SAF/FPO Home Ecology campaign also includes the distribution of a press kit to print media, targeted pitching to national consumer magazines, and coverage on SAF's consumer Web site, www.aboutflowers.com, and the FPO site, www.flowerpossibilities.com.

SAF members can capitalize on the research and generate publicity by sending local media a Home Ecology press release.  Click here for customizable sample press releases.

More Home Ecology promotional tools are coming soon. FPO is developing retail collateral materials that will be available later this fall. In addition, SAF's 2007 local marketing kit will feature materials, advice and ideas to help members promote the research.

--Jenny Stromann
jstromann@safnow.org

 
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Floral Management Marketer of the Year

Skip Shipman (second from right) is named Floral Management's 2006 Marketer of the Year, during the Kick Off Breakfast at SAF Naples 2006, Sept. 28, in Naples, Fla. Award sponsor Dwight Larimer, DESIGN MASTER color tool, Inc. (right) presented him with a $5,000 check in front of a captivated audience of about 400 convention attendees. Also pictured: Brent Duskin, of VPN Florist Network, and Floral Management Editor in Chief Kate Penn. See the full story of their campaign in the October issue of Floral Management.

-- Kate Penn
kpenn@safnow.org

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Portland Art Show Highlights Floral Design

An art show in Portland, Ore., that puts floral design on display drew a crowd of more than 450 earlier this month. The Floral Design Institute hosted its fourth Floral Design as Art exhibition on Oct. 5 at the Institute's new Creative Center, which opened in January 2005.

David Kesler, AIFD, and Leanne Kesler, AIFD, created the event in 2005 "to elevate the image of floral design and floral designers and to create a greater public awareness of floral design as an art form," David says. "We strive to have this exhibit viewed as an art show in which every designer-artist is a winner."

One of the show's hallmark events is a design compeition, which, this year, showcased the work of 15 designers who were invited to compete based on design descriptions and sketches they submitted a month before the show to a six-member jury.

Participating designers work without a set theme and come from myriad backgrounds, from experienced professional floral designers to hobbyists and artists from other disciplines. This year, Charles Schomaker, the senior designer at Flowers by Dorcas in Portland, took home the Juror's Choice award. Olga Voronov, a graduate of the Art School of Russia in Moscow and the Floral Design Institute, won the People's Choice award, which is determined by the votes of exhibition attendees.

The show itself is held twice a year in conjunction with First Thursday, a citywide program where art galleries open for special evening shows and exhibitions. The Keslers' first program in June 2005 drew about 200 people, compared to the Oct. 5 show's 450-plus, an increase that Kesler credits to the quality of the exhibition, the designs and promotion - the couple does not advertise the show, which is free to the public, but they do promote it on their Web site and through press releases, David says.

"Portland has a wonderful arts community," he says, "We see guests who repeat and make a point of getting the date of the next show when they leave." 

 Click here for design and event photos.

--Mary Westbrook
mary.westbrook@gmail.com

 
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China Eyes Export Flower Industry

The Chinese government is throwing its weight behind the country's cut-flower industry, hoping to increase export demand and provide jobs to underemployed sections of the country in the process, according to a recent story in The New York Times.

"Our plan is to become the biggest flower producer and exporter in Asia in 10 to 15 years," Li Gang, deputy chief of the Flower Association, a provincial government agency, said to the newspaper.

Much of the govenment's energy is going toward the poverty-stricken Yunnan Province, situated far from the coast, where workers earn "as little as $25 a month (to) clip roses from huge greenhouses, take them to vast sheds to remove any thorns by hand, and wrap them in paper and plastic for shipment," according to the story.  To show its support for the industry, which is focused primarily on export roses because of the flowers' high value per pound, the government is extending inland infrastructure with roads, bridges and international airports and offering interest-free loans for greenhouse construction.

"Certainly they are the sleeping giant," said Doeke Faber, chairman of the Association of Flower Auctions in the Netherlands and president of the International Association of Horticultural Producers, to the Times. "They have excellent climate and very cheap labor."

Still, Chinese growers face significant challenges, including a shortage of refrigerated storage areas and trucks and the expense of flying the flowers to faraway markets. The country also faces opposition from within the international floral industry: While China produces flowers of all grades, premium rose varieties are scarce due to disagreements with breeders over royalty payments to breeders. Some industry members also claim that Chinese government subsidies violate international trade rules and that inexpensive flowers from China could flood the market and decrease wholesale prices.

"One of the big dangers in China is overproduction, so this is something that definitely needs to be controlled," Luc Driessen, the managing director for China at Van Den Bos, a Dutch flower bulb company, said to the Times.

How changes in China's floral industry will affect the U.S. industry is unclear, says SAF President Bob Luthultz, AAF.

"China is certainly a current topic not only in world economics, but also within our industry," he says. "It seems like China flower production is generally thought of as a threat to other world producers -- Colombia, Ecuador, USA, etc. --  but some folks who have traveled and studied this dynamic have introduced another theory, that perhaps China's consumption will dominate, and the China market might actually become an opportunity for other growers, as China's internal demand may more than offset early production."

--Mary Westbrook
Mary.westbrook@gmail.com

 
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Workers Want their MP3

Nearly one-third of workers use an iPod, MP3 player or similar personal music device to listen to tunes while on the job, according to a recent workplace story conducted by Harris Interactive, a global reasearch firm. Of those, about 80 percent feel that doing so improves their job satisfaction and productivity.

"More than 40 million people worldwide own iPods, so it's not surprising to find that nearly one-third of adults listen to these or similar devices while they work," says Nancy Halverson of Spherion Corporation, the recruitment and staffing firm that funded the survey. "However, when the majority of those who listen also claim it improves their job satisfaction and productivity, employers ought to take note."

Other highlights from the survey include:

• Ten percent of adults who use personal music devices while working spend more than 50 percent of their time tuned in.
  
• Ninety percent of 18- to 24-year-old and 89 percent of 30- to 39-year- old workers claim that listening to personal music device improves their job satisfaction and/or productivity.
  
• Almost half of 25- to 29-year-old adults listen to music on a personal music device while working - more than any other age group. Only 22 percent of 50- to 64-year-olds listen while working.

Still, not everyone thinks the abundance of music players in the workplace is a good thing. In a Colorado Springs Business Journal story unrelated to the Harris survey, writer Joan Johnson points out that older workers sometimes assume younger workers are less productive while listening to music. On the other hand, younger workers "expect that their jobs aren't the only things they are going to be concentrating on during the workday," Johnson writes. "They often text-message their friends and search the Web, with the thought that 'if I'm getting the job done then why shouldn't I be able to do that?'"

"Work ethic is a relative term," Robert Wendover, managing director of the Center for Generational Studies, said to Johnson. "Everyone has a different picture of what it is. Younger workers, they have a work ethic, it is just a different ethic."

Do you let workers listen to personal music devices on the job? Find out what your peers are doing by taking this week's E-Poll. Have a story you'd like to share on this topic? Click here to e-mail Kate Penn.

--Mary Westbrook
mary.westbrook@gmail.com

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Ohio Paper Plugs Flowers

Positive publicity alert! The Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal published a story Oct. 7 suggesting flowers as the perfect gift for a significant other. The author of "Say it with Flowers," Kim Hone-McMahan, writes of floral gifts:  "Not only will it make you a hero...but you'll also be helping with the decorating." She also suggests that readers contact a florist and pre-pay for several months' of arrangements for a significant other.

--Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org

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Product Spotlight: FloraTrac

Want to know how your business measures up to the competition? Try FloraTrac, SAF's new market share reporting system. Shortly after filling out an online form, users can see month-to-month and year-to-year comparisons of their businesses against operations with similar revenues or geographic locations, as well as against the industry as a whole. *

Enrollment and reports are free for members until Jan. 1, 2007, so register today! Member fee (after Jan.1): $99 annually.  To enroll, visit www.safnow.org and click on the FloraTrac logo under "E-Tools"

* All FloraTrac participants

-- Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org

 
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Discussion on Safnow.org: Recycling Cooler Filters

On SAF's discussion forum, members are talking about the possibility of recycling the ethylene filters that are used in coolers. One member wonders whether ethylene filters can simply be washed out and re-used for a long period of time, because the filter medium is a mineral that doesn't wear out.

Another member offers an easy way to judge filter productivity: if a cooler's filter uses potassium permanganate for ethylene gas absorption, then the mineral should be a purple color. When the mineral turns rust- colored, throw the filter away for good.
Want to read more? Click here.

Other issues being discussed this week:
Proper temperature for storing cut flowers
Design labor cost worksheets

Or, start your own discussion at www.safnow.org

-- Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org

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Celebrate Your Boss...Or Not?

Nearly 54 percent of readers who responded to last week's e-poll say they do not promote National Bosses Day (Oct. 16), while more than 46 percent say they do promote it.

-- Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org

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Florists Offering Specials for Sweetest Day, 2006

--Ira Silvergleit
isilvergleit@safnow.org

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