Floral Industry FAQ
1. What is the size of the floral industry?
Following a major revision in 2009, the floriculture industry is estimated by the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis to be $35.2 billion at the retail level in 2011. This value includes sales of all floriculture products, including flowers, house and garden plants and related materials at all types of floral outlets, including retail florist shops, garden centers, supermarkets, mass marketers, online vendors and others.
SAF estimates that the fresh flower segment of the industry is about 40% of the total or about $14 billion.
2. How does flower and plant usage in the U.S. compare to other countries?
The Flower Council of Holland http://www2.flowercouncil.org/us/compiles per capita consumption of flowers, sometimes combined with plants for various countries. Another method is to divide the size of the U.S. floriculture industry by the current population. This yields a consumption figure, which includes all floral products, of $114 per person in the U.S., up from $106 in 2010.
3. What are the parts of the floral industry?
Historically, the model for the floral industry was a "traditional" marketing channel model - floral products moved from grower to floral wholesaler to retailer to consumer.
The traditional floral marketing model is changing. Some retail florists buy their flowers shipped directly from the flower and plant growers, bypassing wholesalers. Others divide their orders, buying some products from wholesalers and others direct from the farms. Many others still purchase most of their goods from traditional floral wholesalers.
Consumers too can now order their flowers directly from the growers and have them delivered to their doors. Some wholesalers have also begun to sell directly to consumers.
The once-predominant practice of buying local fresh flowers from local farms has given way to fresh flowers imported from overseas, mostly from South America.
See below.
Segment Sizes:
Number of domestic floriculture farms: 6,126
Number of wholesalers: 800
Number of retailers: 18,509
Additional sources of information:
County Business Patterns, U.S. Census Bureau. For counts of retail establishments in non-census years. [link]
U.S. Economic Census. Includes counts of various types of establishments, sales, personnel counts for U.S., state and local areas. Conducted every five years in years ending in 2 and 7.
USDA Floriculture Crops Summary. Annual survey of top-15 floriculture production states.
USDA Census of Agriculture, conducted every 5 years
4. Does SAF have materials to help me write a business plan to start a retail florist business?
In addition to the information above, industry sales and benchmarking data are available from Floral Management Magazine's monthly columns which can also be found in the Publications Section of the Web-site. [link]
Additional information is available in Floral Finance Magazine and from Floral Finance Business Services. SAF also has information on how to write a business plan and related other information.
The Retail Florist – by Behe/Pfahl/Hofmann – 5th edition, 1994 (Out of print)
The Profit Minded Florist – Floral Finance Business Services, 2000
Retailing Flowers Profitably – by Kenneth R. Royer 1-800-605-4651, 1998
Shop Layout and Design – SAF Information Packet
U.S. Small Business Administration
Floral Wire Services Web Sites:
For information on how to start a wholesale business, contact:
Wholesale Florist & Florist Suppiers Association (WF&FSA)
Additional information from Grower Associations:
OFA - An association of Floriculture Professionals
The Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers
California Cut Flower Commission
These web sites have links to additional organizations and resources.
See online book vendors, like Amazon.com or Borders.com for additional resources on starting a small business or floral business.
5. What are the latest trends in the floral industry?
This is too broad a question without stating some parameters. See SAF's Wednesday EBrief and Floral Trend Tracker magazine in the Periodicals
Section for trend information or contact the Research Information Department.
Try to make your questions as specific as possible, for instance, limiting your questions by floral industry segment (retail, wholesale or grower) and narrowing down your search terms.
6. I am thinking of buying or selling a retail florist business. How can I determine a fair price?
SAF's Research Information Department has a collection of articles on valuing a florist business available on request. We also have a list of consultants that can assist in valuing a business.
7. What is the industry standard for salaries for retail florists?
As a trade association, SAF is forbidden by law to mandate or suggest what industry salaries should be. This is considered price or wage fixing and is illegal.
However we do have a collection of the latest industry surveys covering this topic. Contact the Research Department.
8. What are the top floral holidays?
For cut flowers, Valentine's Day is the top holiday. Rankings of holidays and basic statistics are available on Aboutflowers.com.
SAF conducts national polling of consumers and surveys of retail florists following major floral holidays. Most of this information is available in this section under Statistics and Surveys.
9. Who is the typical flower buyer?
The most typical purchaser of fresh flowers is a middle aged woman in her forties or fifties, college-educated, employed full-time and earning over $75,000.
(Source: Ipsos FloralTrends Consumer Tracking Study) Profiles of consumers at Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day are in the Statistics and Surveys section.
Contact the Research Department of more information.
10. How many flowers are bought over the Internet?
Online flower sales are projected to hit $4.8 billion in 2012, according to Forrester Research. http://www.forrester.com/rb/research About 15 percent of sales at retail florists are from their Web sites. Another source reported about 12 percent of florists’ annual sales are conducted online.
11. Where do our flowers come from?
Most fresh flowers are imported from South America, mostly from Colombia (66%) and Ecuador (16%). More than 85 percent and as high as 98 percent of the most common fresh flowers are imported.
Value of cut flower imports: $847 million in 2010
Source: USDA/Foreign Agriculture Statistics
More than 85 percent of imported flowers come through Miami International Airport, but new points of entry are being developed.
The USDA publishes imported cut flower stem counts by country of origin every two weeks. http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/wa_fv281.txt
It also has a web site where custom queries can be developed based on the value of cut flower imports by country and year.
http://www.fas.usda.gov/gats/default.aspx