When it comes to getting a good value on top quality product delivered efficiently to retail flower shops, Santiago Cock-Rada is adamant: Wholesalers do it best.
The statement shouldn’t come as a surprise. After all, Cock-Rada, the general manager of Liberty Blooms, is president of the Wholesale Florist & Florist Supplier Association. In that role, Cock-Rada, the group’s first Colombian president, is charged with supporting and promoting wholesalers — but his passionate argument for the segment goes far beyond talking points and stump speeches. When growers and retailers work alongside wholesalers, he says, the industry, and ultimately consumers, benefit.
“We as an industry, have much to gain by allowing the importers and wholesalers to do their job of pooling large volumes to expedite and simplify the flow of products through the industry’s logistical bottleneck as opposed to the retailers painstakingly taking the time to perform small scale procurement functions on their own,” he said. “The greater efficiencies that we can achieve will not only translate into meaningful lower costs but, more importantly, our flowers will last longer.”
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Society of American Florists
