WYNDMOOR — An independent florist with more than eight decades in business is embracing change.
Robertson's Flowers , with three area locations, has changed tack to respond to increased competition and to find new sources of revenue. What hasn’t changed is people’s response to its product, flower arrangements and related products.
“Flowers are part of your life at birth, marriage, the birth of a child, a funeral,” said Flip Ferry, fourth-generation president and CEO of Robertson’s Flowers, which is based in Wyndmoor and has retail stores in Chestnut Hill and Bryn Mawr. “You can’t imagine what it means when you send flowers. I’ve done many deliveries over the years. When you walk up on a delivery, nothing brings a look like that. Your face is just going to brighten.”
Robertson’s was founded in 1927 by George Robertson, Ferry’s great-grandfather. He was a Chestnut Hill landscaper and worked on large estates. In the early days, the company’s retail business launched with Ferry’s grandmother selling flowers from buckets, standing on the 8400 block of Germantown Avenue in Chestnut Hill.
“They had a knack for it. They would do anything. They lived for customer service, and they were part of customers’ lives,” said Ferry.
Today, the company is owned by Ferry and his cousin, Sandy Robertson MacEachern. It has a staff of 70, including 55 full-time employees. Most are based at the Wyndmoor headquarters, which is on three acres and includes a call center, administrative offices, large workrooms housing the flower arrangers, big walk-in coolers to preserve the flowers and a series of greenhouses for growing flowers and plants.
It’s a highly competitive business. Robertson’s has survived more than eight decades, including the major industry shakeout of the past few years. Nonetheless, the industry is still highly fragmented: There are about 16,500 to 17,000 florists nationwide, down from 26,000 in the early 1990s, according to the Society of American Florists, an industry trade group based in Alexandria, Va.
“There are about 10,000 that are not in business anymore,” said Peter Moran, a spokesman for the trade association. “Places like Robertson’s have gotten stronger because of their economy of scale, as others got out of it.”
In addition to challenges with the economy and trying to establish a strong Web presence, most florists face competition from a number of industries and retail specialities.
“We compete with everybody: Decorators, retailers, Harry & David,” Ferry said, adding that big-box stores and supermarkets have grabbed much of the market for “impulse” purchases.
“It’s very seasonal, holiday driven,” Ferry said. “There’s a saying in the business: You make money four months of the year. You lose money four months of the year. You break even four months of the year.”
The holiday season, from Thanksgiving to New Year’s, makes up 20 percent to 25 percent of sales on a given year. Funerals are 10 percent to 15 percent of sales. Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day, by comparison, make up 8 percent and 4 percent of sales, respectively.
Much like a supermarket or restaurant, Robertson’s deals with perishable goods. Nearly everything is used in flower arrangements, but some 10 percent of the flowers are thrown out. About 15 percent of sales come from long-lasting plants like orchids. Another 15 percent of sales are devoted to items that are in no danger of being affected by frost or freeze, such as home decor, candles and vases.
While many of the flowers used to come from the Netherlands or California, today much of the product comes from South America, which offers good growing conditions and cheap labor.
Robertson’s mostly sells on the retail side, and has abandoned efforts to supply other retailers, including supermarkets.
“They drive the price so hard, I’m not sure it would make sense for us,” Ferry said. “Supermarkets want to chop it, drop it and slap a price on it.”
He said consumers’ buying patterns have changed as well, citing the trend of funeral homes offering the option of donating money to a charity “in lieu of flowers.” It’s become a bit of a sore point in the industry.
“‘In lieu of flowers’ is a huge bone of contention among florists,” Ferry said.
On the retail side, Robertson’s has stores on Germantown Avenue in Chestnut Hill and on Lancaster Avenue in Bryn Mawr.
Like the original business run by George Robertson, customer service remains a huge focus.
“We’re about relationships. I don’t want a customer one time, I want a customer for life,” Ferry said.
Ferry cites an example of a call they got one day for a rush order.
“A customer was getting ready for a visit from the governor. They called at 1 p.m. and need the flowers by 9 p.m. We started right away by calling suppliers. We shifted everyone to the job, pulled everyone together. We were done by 6:30,” he said.
“That’s what I love about what we do. Some people’s answer is, ‘We don’t have that’ or ‘We can’t do that,’” he said. “Well, you can get it. I hate the word no.”
In coming years, Ferry sees the company offering more services. It already sells Christmas trees, but Ferry said it expects to build its business of decorating the trees as well. It hopes to do more corporate and hotel work, but also add to its wedding-related work.
In recent months, Robertson’s has also devoted resources to its website.
“We relied too much on word of mouth. We need to go younger. We needed something vibrant,” Ferry said.
He said he was struck by an informal survey done by one of his younger employees. She asked five customers, would you rather go by your best friend’s recommendation or with the company that had the most user-friendly website? All five said they’d order on the best website.
“That hit me in the face,” Ferry said.
He made the change, investing in the website.