Joy Gill

What’s your name and where do you come from?
My name is Joy Gill, I come from Birmingham and have been a florist for all my working life. Our company, Flower Centre, which I run jointly with my partner, Steve Hallard, has been trading for 21 years.

Where is your company based, and why?
We are located in the third busiest shopping area outside of Birmingham city centre and have around 250,000 people living within a 4 mile radius of our shop, all of very varied income brackets and ethnic backgrounds. Because of this, we see ourselves very much as a ‘flower centre’, a place to purchase flowers whatever the event, occasion or budget.

How long has the company been trading?
Our shop opens at 7.30am to make the most of the early morning commuter trade, this also enables our first van load of deliveries to be on the road at 8.00 if needs be for any early funerals, We also put out the ‘front’ a daily changing display of bunched flowers, impulse buys and plants – the word ‘Arkwright’ springs to mind!  We are very much a retail shop; we have two dedicated sales assistants plus a florist in the shop everyday. The impulse and ready to go gift ideas in our shop and on the front, cover all spectrums from beautifully gift wrapped plants or box of chocolates at £4.99, right up to a metre high lily vase design at £100.00 from our Interflora Signature collection.

What time do you start work and why?
As well as office and sales staff we have between 4 – 8 florists in the workrooms who will be making up pre-ordered designs which have come to us via the telephone, internet, Interflora and the shop for a wide range of events and occasions, both corporate and personal.

What does your typical day involve?
So my typical day along with Steve and our two managers Mandy & Su, is to organise – staff rotas, buying lists, marketing, advertising, website management, pay roll, accounts, retail sales strategy and the general smooth running of a very busy shop.

Are there any misconceptions of your job role by the public?
The general public thinks that working with flowers is a lovely, stress free job. Working with flowers is indeed fabulous – the changing seasons, new varieties and colour combinations never fail to excite, but stress free is it not!  We work to deadlines for events, we have a perishable product and trading patterns are never the same from one day to the next, so we have to be very flexible in our approach. Running, cycling and yoga help with the stress levels!

Does your job require specific skills and qualifications to do it properly?
To be a successful florist requires many skills. You need to be able to communicate at all levels, work to budgets and deadlines and have an artistic eye to be able to produce designs that will sell and please the recipient.  There are examinations in floristry, I have the Society of Floristry National Diploma, the highest award for floristry in this country, but I feel that exams can only enhance natural talents and abilities.

What is the best part of your job?
The best part of the job is the amount of ‘thank yous’ you get for helping someone out in a difficult situation, or making someone’s day or producing designs that make heads turn, but my favourite part is seeing the shop set up looking fabulous and then selling it all. I love retailing the best.

Our biggest success as a retailer was to be awarded last year the very prestigious title of ‘Interflora Flower Shop of the Year’. This was the culmination of a huge team effort in which all our retailing, marketing and selling skills were tested by independent judges.

What does the future hold for your sector?
The future is bright for forward and lateral thinking florists, sales of flowers are growing and while the multiples are tending to muscle in, they are only exposing the values of having flowers and plants in the home. As a specialist retailer, we need to be one step ahead, our shop needs to be inviting and our designs different and individually designed, but we also need to take on and embrace the vast change in communications.

How does F&PA membership benefit you most?
Flower and Plant Association membership brings many benefits, a huge resource of information, targeting advertising campaigns that we can build on and recommendations. We recently designed and provided the flowers for a photoshoot in Birmingham that will appear in the Christmas issue of Homes & Gardens with full credits to us.

Joy Gill of Flower Centre

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