A bowl with a colourful mixture of flowers, a splendid bouquet, an elegant orchid – fresh natural produce is much appreciated by customers in supermarkets. Not that the floral design for Easter or the stout bouquet of garden roses were actually on the shopping list – it is the spontaneous idea and sense of joy which leads people to make a purchase on the spur of the moment, because they want to give themselves or others a present. Customers are seeing and experiencing more and more flowers and ornamental plants in their food stores and then want to buy them.
Flowers and plants – the food trade’s visiting card
Friedhelm Dornseifer is sure that in future supermarkets will have to offer their customers more convenience. The senior chef and president of Mittelständische Lebensmittel Filialbetriebe (MFL) at 17 outlets says: “In future people are not going to eat more than they do now, so we cannot simply sell them more products.” At his store in Gummersbach, newly designed in 2015, along with catering and high-price brands, convenience in particular plays a major role. “If we want to boost sales and range, we must add services to the products.” An important component in the Gummersbach range, along with in-house catering, a bakery, salad bar, fresh cuisine or a fish counter, is therefore an expert floral department in the checkout lobby, run by four florists. Junior chef Jörg Dornseifer, who was in charge of planning the store, has no doubt: “There is no better advertisement for us than a flower which still looks fresh after ten days.”
In the trade, there are an increasing number of best practices that support this analysis. For example, the Möbelhaus Nemann furniture store decided to introduce an increased choice and an enhanced shopping experience. The result: since 2014, customers can not only buy sofas, tables and shelf units but also stock up on flowers and plants in the new garden centre. “My business partner, Thomas Meyer-Pundsack, and I had this idea years ago”, says Clemens Nemann, “But we haven’t been able to put it into practice until now”. His summary after two years: “The garden centre has resulted in a significant increase in customer numbers. We now offer more and this has paid off.” To make life for customers as easy as possible, the way from the garden centre runs straight to the garden-furniture department of the furniture store.
Let flowers speak
That is precisely the opinion of his colleague and REWE retailer Hans-Otto May from Boppard, too. “Let flowers speak” has been his motto for 36 years.
When founding his very first supermarket, in association with a friend who was a florist, he developed ready-made bouquets as an additional branch of the business, which flourished from the word go and has not stopped growing. Over and above the usual REWE products, he offers flower arrangements, ready-made bouquets and decorative plants, closely tailored to seasonal demand, such as Christmas, Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day. Prior to Mother’s Day there is even an extra flower market with bed plants, “which sell like hot cakes, because in our tourist town of Boppard everyone is competing with floral decoration.”
When, beginning in 2007, Hans-Otto May with his daughter Jasmin Kunze-May decided to concentrate more on fair-trade products and stocked their range well with such produce, fair-trade flowers were part of the scheme from the start. They are the most important items in this segment, sales of which through second and third placement “are increasing at an incredible rate and would not be possible on the shelf.” Therefore May senior has no doubt: “If we have an opportunity, we shall expand that.” He sees plenty of potential still to come for flowers and plants. No slowdown, he says, is in sight. In future May will focus even more heavily on quality.
At REWE fair-trade roses have been on offer since 2007. “They have become increasingly popular ever since”, says Christiane Preisen, press officer for the West Region of the REWE Group. At REWE since 2015 there have also been special promotions in the shape of Christmas stars which, like the roses, now carry not only the fair-trade seal but also the Pro-Planet label, under which scheme the REWE Group supports social-welfare projects in the regions where the flowers and plants are produced.
Flowers fresh daily at discount store, too
On the discount-store side, Aldi South for Germany reports that all branches are supplied daily with fresh cut flowers. The range reflects the season – in spring, tulips; in autumn, sunflowers. The pot plants and decorative floral items are special offers. For Aldi South, company spokesman Matthias Kräling says the stores run cut-flower selections all year round, such as roses and seasonal varieties, such as English narcissi in spring or amaryllis in December. “In special offers which change weekly we supplement our floral range with pot plants and decorative plants for the flower-bed or balcony, plus various bulbs.” Both companies, Aldi North and Aldi South, now run hand-bound sprays in their sales outlets permanently and all year, and decorated pot plants for particular occasions.
At Lidl, along with single-variety bouquets of moss roses or chrysanthemums, the seasonal range of fresh flowers likewise includes florist’s bouquets. The 3,200 Lidl branches are supplied several times a week with fresh flowers and decorative plants. As Katharina Riske of the Lidl Germany press office explains, at the weekend the discount chain further supplements its range of fresh flowers with fair-trade certified roses. Ryske’s view: “When it comes to cut flowers, too, our aim is to continue growing constantly, to keep an eye on the latest trends, and to reflect these in our range.”
In Switzerland flowers are very important for the shopping experience
Among the biggest wholesale and retail companies in Switzerland is the Coop Co-operative. Their supermarkets run plants and flowers all year round and are supplied fresh daily. The supermarket places great emphasis on cut flowers and decorative room plants as gift items, plus seasonal exterior plants for the balcony. “Around 250 sales outlets have floral departments with a florist’s service”, says media spokeswoman Andrea Bergmann. To reflect customer needs, she says, the cooperative is planning to expand the range.
In the supermarkets of the Migros co-operative, the biggest retail company in Switzerland, the flower and plant range plays only a “marginal” role in turnover. Nevertheless, in this area too Migros focuses on freshness, high quality and the price-performance ratio, as media spokeswoman Christine Gaillet emphasises. “Our range of cut flowers and pot plants is very wide all year and features marked seasonal variations.” Flowers, she says, are “very important” for rounding off the shopping experience. “Either it is the first or the last department which the customer sees”, Gaillet continues. “Look at it in that way, and flowers and plants are the sales outlet’s visiting card when it comes to being fresh and up-to-date and suggesting a good service.”
Say hello or goodbye to customers with fresh produce?
As a rule, supermarkets welcome their customers into the entrance lobby with cut flowers, ready-made bouquets and flower-filled bowls. Then come herbs, fruit and vegetables, freshly baked bread and pastries. The discount stores, on the other hand, say goodbye to their customers with flowers on tables in the last stage before the conveyor belt and till, or on mobile goods stands in the sales area. A change can be seen here, though. In France Lidl is making efforts to bring a new concept of transformation to the supermarket. In Montauban in the south, in the Département Tarn-et-Garonne, flowers are a means of upgrading and visualisation which is changing Lidl into a full-range store. Together with fresh and regional produce, broad and easily comprehended in a light-flooded environment, they create an aura of seduction.
Change from discount to more full range through upgrade of fresh products
In Germany, too, there are examples of a change from less discount to more full range, which can be seen in an expanded, upgraded florist’s selection. Thus Edeka in Minden-Hanover is rolling out “NP+”, a classical local-supplier concept with a certain extra. The format at the Walchum store, on whose carpark a weekly market is held on Wednesdays, has been described by chairman of the management board Mark Rosenkranz as a “rationalised supermarket.” As with Lidl in France, here too great weight has been placed in manageability of overview and a higher-end presentation. The spotlight is on the range of fresh produce. Though there is no service counter, the selection of chilled products is unusually high and the range of fresh flowers and plants in the entrance lobby is strongly promoted.
To sum up: for the retail trade fresh flowers and decorative plants are ambassadors of fresh produce with considerable potential. In the shape of Floradecora a new order fair has been created in the centre of Europe for immediately available fresh flowers and decorative plants, which covers exactly this need for convenience and freshness in retail outlets – be they food shops, discount stores, garden centres, DIY stores, gift boutiques, furniture stores, restaurants or hotels. From 27 to 30 January 2017 in Frankfurt am Main retailers will be able to stock up with fresh decorative products concurrently with Christmasworld, Leading International Trade Fair for Seasonal Decoration and Festive Decoration from 27 to 31 January 2017.
Source: Messe Frankfurt
