INTERVIEW By Sabina Reiner
Q & A FOR MORE:
www.teleflora.com
Q: Please tell me a bit about your company. When Teleflora started and how it serves their custom- ers?
A: Teleflora has been around since the 1930s. It was first conceived as a “wire-service” for retail florists, of- fering a wide range of services. A number of years ago, the company opened its cut-flower division for their florist members as an added value service
3 4 FloralNews
www.SelectaCutFlowers.com
with Jorge Alonso, from Teleflora Teleflora Grower Relations Manager discusses new trends, challenges, and opportunities in the floral industry.
Teleflora is a floral wire service company which brokers orders to local florists for delivery. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Teleflora has over 18,000 member flo- rists throughout the U.S. and Canada, with an additional 20,000 affiliated florists outside North America. The com- pany has 3,000 employees worldwide in 20 countries, and it is the largest privately held floral wire service company in the world.
– that division is called Stems & Bunches, and its mis- sion/value-proposition is to supply the freshest high- quality flowers at the best prices to our shops.
Q: Do you work closely with cut flowers farms or do you own farms?
A: We don’t own farms, and that is one of the main reasons why we work extremely closely with the growers we deal with. We refer to those growers as “grower-partners,” understanding that in the end, they are the ones responsible for delivering our val- ue proposition to our customers.
Q: Which are the most popular cut flowers on the markets you serve? Which are the most profitable cut flowers for your business?
A: Teleflora has a large network of florists in the U.S., and the consumption and preferences across the board go from A to Z. However, our product strategy focuses on what I like to call the “staples”: Roses, Al-
Jorge Alonso
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