3 Startups that are Disrupting the Flower Biz — And Helping Farmers, Too Add New Topic
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eaglelink.
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- December 17, 2016 at 5:18 pm #15429
3 Startups that are Disrupting the Flower Biz — And Helping Farmers, Too
By Andrew Amelinckx on December 16, 2016.When Ben Dobbe, a fourth-generation flower grower from California, decided to get into the exploding e-commerce flower market, he knew he needed a partner. He saw a market opportunity to greatly increase his business but preferred to focus on what he does best: growing flowers. He turned to The Bouqs Company, a Venice Beach-based startup that has streamlined the online flower business by connecting flower farmers directly to consumers.
“I decided to go with Bouqs because they were an up-and-coming company and I saw the growth potential. I didn’t want to do my own e-commerce type thing,” Dobbe tells Modern Farmer in a phone interview. “I wanted to go [in] with someone who has already gotten their feet wet with it.”
Bouq and other companies like Petal By Pedal and Farmgirl Flowers are part of a new crop of startups aiming to change the traditional flower market. The companies share a belief in sustainability and the importance of taking care of the growers who produce their product.
“That’s a fairly long supply chain that often means the farmer and the consumer are getting the short end of the stick—ahem, stem”
Dobbe’s family business, Holland America Flowers, began working with Bouqs around Mother’s Day 2014 (it’s the second biggest holiday of the year after Christmas/Hanukkah for the flower industry). Bouqs is a venture-backed, online flower retailer that handles the flower orders and designs, while the flower farmers—like Holland America Flowers—put together the bouquets and ship them to the consumer. Holland American Flowers employs about 140 workers on two farms, one in Arroyo Grande California, the other in Woodland, Washington. Dobbe says that in the last two years of working with Bouqs, they’ve seen “exponential growth.”
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http://modernfarmer.com/2016/12/3-startups-disrupting-flower-biz-helping-farmers/December 17, 2016 at 5:25 pm #15430Seems like the startups with seed money are only as good as the $ that keeps coming in. I’m glad to see this happening going against the big boys like FTD and 800 Flowers.
December 25, 2016 at 1:51 am #15460Big kudos to those start ups, this industry needs a revolution in the way the product moves from the farmer to the end consumer. here at Eagle-Link Flowers we are trying a B@B approach for small flower farms to reach bigger markets
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