Headlines

Peru Gets Permanent Duty-Free Status

The Senate yesterday approved the U.S./Peru Free Trade Agreement (FTA), sending the measure to the President for his signature.   

Flowers exported from Peru to the United States currently enter the U.S. duty-free under the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA).  The ATPA has to be renewed periodically, but the President's signature on the U.S./Peru FTA grants permanent duty-free status to flowers from Peru.

Other pending trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea will not be considered by Congress this year.

Peru imported about $256,000 in nursery and greenhouse products from the U.S. in 2006 compared to $1.3 million by Colombia. 

The U.S. imported approximately $3.8 million in cut flowers from Peru in 2006, up from $2.3 million in 2001 and about the same value as in 2005. In 2006 these imports accounted for less than one percent of the $596.8 million in cut flowers imported from South America, mostly from Colombia ($448.6 million) and Ecuador ($141.4 million).

In a news conference Dec. 4, President Bush urged approval of the Colombian measure saying, "If the Congress does not pass the free-trade agreement with Colombia, it will be a destabilizing moment."

He explained that U.S. support for a Colombian trade agreement will help counter the influence of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The ATPA is set to expire on February 29, 2008. If a trade agreement with Colombia is not signed by then, or if the ATPA is not extended, importers of record will have to pay duties on flowers coming into the United States from Colombia. The situation is similar for flowers from Ecuador. The primary difference, however, is that there is no trade agreement currently pending or being negotiated between the United States and Ecuador.

--Drew Gruenburg
dgruenburg@safnow.org

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Award Established in Name of Industry Leader

Judy Mears accepts the inaugural 2007 Dave Mears Distinguished Service award on behalf of late husband Dave, with (left to right) IFD president Taylor Vriens, of Ensign Wholesale Florist in Salt Lake City; Kelly Parson, stepson of Dave Mears, of Mears Floral Products;  and Ron Bertrand, IFD’s Perishable Marketing Manager.

International Floral Distributors (IFD) announced this fall that it has established an award in honor Dave Mears, AAF, one of its founders and key leaders who passed away Jan. 17, 2007.

"After his death, the board felt that this was the best way to honor his contributions to IFD," says Jeff Lanman, executive director of IFD.

The inaugural 2007 IFD Dave Mears Distinguished Service Award was presented to Dave Mears posthumously on Oct. 24 and accepted by his family at a special awards dinner in Oxnard, Calif. "The ceremony was very emotional," says Lanman, who adds that an audio-visual presentation illustrating Mears' leadership throughout all parts of his life followed the award presentation.

The award is not annual, but will be given "when someone meets the criteria that Dave's leadership set ... whose efforts have contributed significantly to the welfare and progress of IFD, its members and the floral industry" Lanman says.

"I think its very gratifying to see that [Mears'] contributions are being recognized and perpetuated in years to come," says Red Kennicott, AAF, of Kennicott Brothers Co. in Chicago, who describes Mears as "someone who always had great enthusiasm for the industry and anything that would advance the industry."

Mears, owner of Mears Floral Products in Springfield, Mo., was a former SAF board member, as well as the youngest ever president of the Wholesale Florist & Florist Supplier Association. He also was chairman of the National PromoFlor Council, a national industry promotion effort.

Read more about Mears' contributions to the floral industry.

--Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org

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Sympathy Flowers Get a Leg Up

The benefits of sympathy flowers got attention recently in an article on FuneralWire.com. "Flowers are a tremendous gift," said the article's author, Kim Stacey, to E-Brief editors. "This article was from the heart."

In the article, "Avoiding Confusion," Stacey, who also has a funeral services marketing business, began by discussing the phrase "in lieu of." "This is, by its very nature, exclusionary, limiting people's sympathy choices to only one thing: the donation instead of the flowers," Stacey writes.

She goes on to discuss the value of sympathy flowers. "It is my strong opinion that flowers are a tangible means of showing concern, affection and sympathy for the bereaved," says Stacey, who trained as an anthropologist and has studied death rituals around the world. "Traditions speak," she told E-Brief editors. "Flowers have long been a part of the process of grieving, going back to ancient Egypt and even beyond."

In the article, she also cites SAF's "The Role of Flowers in the Bereavement Process" 1990 study, jointly funded by the American Floral Endowment and the Society of American Florists Information Committee, stating that "more than half of the bereaved surveyed strongly agree that flowers were a critical component of the funeral ritual that helped them deal with their grief."

In addition, Stacey refers to SAF member H. Clay Atchison III's, president of McAdams Floral in Victoria, Texas, Web site, www.inlieuofflowers.info, as a source. (Floral Management reported on this Web site in its August issue).

--Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org

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SAF Member, James Earl Durio, Dies

SAF member, past American Floral Endowment board member and lifelong florist James Earl Durio died Nov. 20, 2007. He was owner of Durio's Flower Shop and Jim Durio Florist, Inc., in Opelousas, La., and a longtime member, director and president of the Louisiana State Florists Association.

Bill Gouldin, president of Strange's Florists, Greenhouses and Garden Centers in Richmond, has known Jim Durio since the late 1970s, when Durio was a mentor to the Young Owner Managers (YOM) of FTD. "When I came into the industry, I soon realized that Jim was about the most knowledgeable guy on everything going on in the industry. He was well respected all over the industry — and very opinionated," Gouldin says, chuckling. "But whether or not you agreed with him, you still liked him and respected him."

Durio was founder, first president and, for many years, chairman of the board of Louisiana Wholesale Florists, Inc., in Lafayette and Baton Rouge. He served as district representative, director, president and chairman of the board of Florists Transworld Delivery (FTD), and as a director and president of Interflora. He also was a member of the board of the Southeastern Florists Association and several other professional organizations. A wake and mass were held Nov. 21, at Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church in Opelousas.

--Kate Penn
kpenn@safnow.org

 
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Newsmakers

Rio Roses Reaches Out

In an effort to get its brand name out to more consumers, while at the same time working to have more of an impact on communities, Rio Roses, headquartered in Miami, has begun sponsoring numerous celebrity and charitable events.

Mike Miller, director of marketing for Rio Roses, says in the past Rio Roses hasn't done much in the public relations department, and when he joined the marketing team in January, he set out  to change that.

"Our main goal is to be the first recognizable brand in roses," Miller says. "We're doing this by getting the word out to consumers."

One way to do this, according to Miller, is to sponsor events with "great" causes. In September, Rio Roses supplied the Salvation Army Celebrity Golf Event, held in Ranchos, Calif., with arranged centerpiece bouquets for the winning teams, take-away bouquets for the other attendees and a year of roses for the "Closest to the Pin" winner. 

Rio Roses also supplied similar prizes for the Oscar De La Hoya Celebrity Golf Classic, held in Burbank, Calif., in October, and provided arrangements for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Miami, along with a 3-foot pink rose ribbon for the stage and a pink rose for each Survivor.

"It's all about branding, we want people to remember us," Miller says. "Underlying all of this, are great causes."

--Kori Kamradt
kkamradt@safnow.org

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Life at Work

Stressed Out!

It's that time of year. You're busily working trying to get those orders filled, installments done, and event work blocked out, while choreographing your own holiday season — gift lists, meal plans and calming your mother-in-law down about holiday dinner plans. It's the life of a florist, and you've come to accept it — but the American Psychological Association (APA) warns the mental juggle could have an affect on your health as well as your work.

According to the APA's "Stress in America" survey, work and money are the two biggest causes of stress, and 77 percent of those surveyed experienced stress-related physical symptoms including fatigue, headache and upset stomach. Seventy-three percent reported psychological symptoms including irritability or anger, feeling nervous and lack of energy.

Americans realize they are stressed, as nearly one-in-five of those surveyed reported they have experienced high levels of stress 15 more days a month. However, instead of seeking psychotherapy and other healthy cures, such as exercise, many are managing stress through smoking, drinking and eating unhealthy foods.

Check out these useful hints for managing stress — and share them with employees — before it takes an emotional or physical toll. A few examples:

• Find healthy ways to handle stress, such as meditation or exercising. 
• Take care of yourself by eating right and getting enough sleep. 
• Reach out for support from family and friends, or even a psychologist.

For more ideas on how to minimize your employees' stress levels during the hectic holiday schedule, refer to Personnel Space in the December issue of Floral Management.

--Kori Kamradt
kkamradt@safnow.org

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Wasting the Workday Away

When the boss is away, the employees will play, according to new research that examines the connection between poor employee performance and poor management.

“Poor supervision by managers is the leading contributor to workers’ poor productivity,” according to a recent issue of Workforce Management, and employees in the United States waste about “70 days a year, resulting in a combined economic loss of about $658 billion.”

But the U.S. doesn’t reign supreme in the “do-nothing-at-work” category — workers in France waste about 73 days a year, according to Proudfoot Consulting of London.

So, how is an employer to combat this non-productivity issue? By being better managers, says the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, which suggests the following tips:

• Communicate clear performance standards and expectations to employees.
• Provide regular and frequent feedback on performance.
• Reward and recognize good performance, informally and formally.
• Make full use of the probationary period for new employees.

Read more about employee-employer communication and how that relates to on-the-job happiness and success in the July 11 issue of E-Brief.

Studies Connect Workplace Eating to Employee Health

Looking for simple ways to pamper your staff during the holiday rush? Setting out a tray of Christmas cookies may do more harm than good.

According to several new reports, work environments can significantly affect how employees eat — and how much their waistlines increase. In fact, 75 percent of workers admit to "unhealthy snacking at least once a week at work, and 27 percent do so three or more times a week," according to a 2007 phone survey for Nationwide Better Health, as reported by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) in Alexandria, Va.

Unhealthy eating habits on the job can be detrimental to overall worker health, Youfa Wang, M.D., said to SHRM. Wang was the lead author of a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health study that found that 66 percent of U.S. adults were obese in 2003-2004.

"Obesity is a public health crisis," Wang said. "If the rate of obesity and overweight continues at this pace, by 2015, 75 percent of adults and nearly 24 percent of U.S. children and adolescents will be overweight or obese."

The picture isn't entirely bleak: By modeling and encouraging healthy lifestyles, employers can play a key role in decreasing the country's obesity rate — and, at the same time, improving workers' health and job satisfaction, said Neil Gordon, M.D., Nationwide's chief medical and science officer. And, that's good news for everyone, especially employers: Healthy employees are less likely to miss work for health-related reasons.

"Companies can provide resources that encourage their employees to eat well, stay active and, in short, live the best life possible," Gordon said. "These resources could not only help reduce health care spending for both employees and employers, but they could also help improve productivity."

What do you think? Can small-business owners really make a difference in how employees eat and exercise? Or, is that a task for big business only? Have you encouraged your employees to get healthy? E-mail your story to ebrief@safnow.org.

--Mary Westbrook
mwestbrook@safnow.org

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Trends and Tips

Cyber Monday or Cyber Weekend?

Phoenix Flower Shops promoted their Cyber Weekend sale via e-mail.

Hoping to either meet or exceed the success of the business’s Cyber Monday promotion from the previous year, Phoenix Flower Shops sent out an e-mail to customers promoting its 2-day “Cyber Weekend Savings” online sale, on the Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving.

Phoenix Flower Shops’ Ken Young, AAF, says "the 15 percent off" e-mail promotion was less successful than the shops’ one-day sale in 2006. Young suspects customers didn’t open it until they got to work on Monday, and the sale was mostly over by that point. “We were trying to sneak in between Black Friday and Cyber Monday ... to catch people early,” he says. Next time around, he says, he’ll try the promotion as a Saturday, Sunday and Monday sale.

Lackluster success doesn’t stop the shop from sending e-mails. Young says the company will send out an e-mail every five days, on average, through the end of the season.

But they’re not always about pushing specials. On Monday of this week, an e-mail from the shop highlighted the history of the mistletoe — a soft-sell approach that drives recipients to the Web site through various links — and is less likely to get picked up by a spam filter than a straight sales promotion.

Read more about e-mail marketing in Floral Management magazine.

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Mark Your Calendar

SAF Congressional Reception Expanded with Top Design Demos

SAF's Congressional Reception is a popular event on Capitol Hill.

The word is out ... SAF's popular Congressional Reception returns to the Cannon Caucus Room as the delightful closing event of Congressional Action Days, February 25-26 in Washington, D.C. Veterans will find something new this time. In addition to the jaw-dropping floral displays decorating the room, our legislative guests will have a chance to see some of the country's top floral designers create unique arrangements for local charities. Expect your legislators to be awed and appreciative — especially if you're there to greet them after stopping by their offices earlier in the day. It's a great time to reinforce the value and importance of our industry. 

Don't miss this chance to be a part of democracy in action — even if you've never lobbied before. SAF makes it easy — before you hit the Hill we prepare you with expert training, talking points, handouts, strategy sessions and plenty of practice time with your state delegation. If you're new we'll even team you up with a pro.
 
Click here for more information and to register securely online today! 

Hurry!  Register by Dec. 15 and YOU COULD WIN A FREE REGISTRATION!

--Shelley Estersohn
sestersohn@safnow.org

 
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On The Horizon

• Deadline for SAF Awards nominations and PFCI and AAF applications: Feb. 1, 2008.
• SAF's Congressional Action Days: Feb. 25-26, 2008, in Washington, D.C. Register online.
• SAF's Pest Management Conference: Feb. 28-March 1, 2008, in Atlanta. Register online.
• SAF Palm Beach 2008: Sept. 17-20, 2008, at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Fla.
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Regular Features

All I Want for Christmas is ...

Inquiring minds (i.e. E-Brief editors) want to know: what is on your holiday wish list for your business? A new gadget or product to help increase efficiency? More time to start a really creative e-mail marketing campaign? A super-powered rose that smells nice AND can do your accounting? Send us your business-related wishes to vmachir@safnow.org and we'll print the best ones in E-Brief. As an added incentive, everyone who writes in by Dec. 19 and includes their company's name and mailing address in their e-mail will receive a FREE copy of SAF's "The Marketing Edge" to help power up their marketing campaigns in the New Year. Now, get wishing!

--Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org

 
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Product Spotlight: The Valentine's Day Playbook

Create a winning holiday game plan with SAF's Valentine's Day Playbook: A Retail Florists' Guide to a Winning Valentine's Day. This manual, which is a useful strategizing tool for any floral holiday, includes task lists, buying guides, delivery strategies, recruiting tips, and much more. To order, click here, scroll down the page and click on How-to Marketing Kits.

Added bonus: Place your order over the phone and mention your coupon in the back of SAF's 2007-2008 Resource Guide to receive free shipping (on orders totaling $50 or less)

Member price: $14.95
Non-member price: $24.95 

--Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org

 
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Talk on the Forums

One florist is looking for a company that will imprint cello wrap with his business' logo. Any ideas?

Also on the forums:
Frequent buyer programs

New employee floral training

Start your own discussion.

--Vanessa Machir
vmachir@gmail.com

 
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Gift Cards Not Big Business for Florists

About 78 percent of florists responding to the previous week's e-poll said that selling gift cards or certificates is not a significant part of their business during the holiday season. About 13 percent said they don't sell gift cards, and 9 percent said that gift cards or certificates are a significant part of their holiday business.

--Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org

 
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Extra Sales Staff

Retail florists hired an extra 32,000 employees over the Christmas holidays in 2006, according to SAF's post-Christmas online survey. Just over half (55 percent) of the retailers indicated they hired extra staff for the holidays. Those florists usually hired one or two extra staff, as shown in the graph. However, some (12 percent) hired six or more. On average, florists who supplemented their staffs hired 2.7 employees each.

Extra Holiday Employees

Source: SAF 2006 Post-Christmas Online Survey of retail florists. Based on 358 responses (response rate 9 percent).

--Ira Silvergleit
isilvergleit@safnow.org

 
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