Find a location
A message from Laurie Nesbitt, Florists Supply President
In May, we had sent a survey out to Florists Supply customers to gauge how the Canadian Floral Industry has been doing compared to Mother’s Day at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. You can view the complete results of that survey here. Close to 80% of respondents to our Mother’s Day survey enjoyed same or higher sales than in 2020 for Mother’s Day. More than a quarter of the respondents enjoyed increases of over 30% in sales.
Leading up to the holiday there were concerns about enough flowers being available in the market. Still 73% of respondents felt fresh flower availability did not restrict their sales.
Overall, respondents seemed to manage their inventory levels very well with 51% reporting being sold out and another 30% nearly sold out. Only 2% reported having lots of inventory leftover.
Approximately 70% of respondents reported having higher selling prices in 2021 versus 2020. The breakdown on those respondents was as follows:
- 20% increase in selling prices — 7%
- 15% to 20% increase in selling prices — 8%
- 10% to 15% increase in selling prices — 21%
- 5% to 10% increase in selling prices — 18%
- 0 to 5% increase in selling prices — 15%
Based on the above responses the most common increase in selling prices was between 5% to 15%.
When asked how Sales for the rest of the year versus 2020 would be, 49% felt sales would be better, 47% felt sales would be similar and only 4% felt sales would be worse.
Respondents were asked how Event sales would compare to 2020 for the rest of the year. Fifty-five percent felt Event sales would be similar, 32% felt Event sales would be better, and 13% felt Event sales would be worse.
In terms of the most pressing concerns the top four concerns were:
- 74% — rising product costs
- 47% — disruption in distribution channel
- 45% — lack of revenue from events
- 38% — rising operating costs
Florists Supply participated in the Wholesale Florist and Florist Supplier Association (WFFSA) Mother’s Day survey for wholesalers in the United States and Canada. A lot of the results from our Survey of our customers were mirrored by the results of the WFFSA survey. Fresh flower sales were up 88% amongst the wholesale respondents with two-thirds reporting sales up 20%. Wholesalers also managed inventory well with 50% reporting sold out, 29% nearly sold out, and 21% not nearly sold out.
The WFFSA survey respondents were more optimistic when asked about Sales Outlook for the remainder of the year — 89% felt sales would be up. The makeup of the WFFSA respondents would be largely US-based, so the larger percentage of optimism is likely a result of the US economy further along without restrictions and a return to normal events.
Thank you to all that responded to our survey. Grateful to see a large majority of our industry have a successful holiday.