Flowers blooming
Exhaustive efforts to modify workplaces and adjust production to meet market demand has allowed a unique Wimmera business to keep a 53-strong workforce.
Cut-flower business Australian Wildflowers, which has farms at Mt Zero near Laharum, Mt Talbot and Lucindale in South Australia, is finding its feet again after all but coming to a standstill during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Business owner and managing director Jo Gardner said the award-winning business was regaining momentum with a renewed sense of purpose and direction.
“It pretty much all hit in February and we went down to one percent of sale revenue. We basically had zero trade for five weeks,” she said.
“At one stage during the shutdown it was only me and a couple of girls left making posies.
“I didn’t want anyone out of pocket and I was desperate to keep contact with buyers who were going through the same thing. It was important to keep communicating with them at the coalface.”
Australian Wildflowers, which started in 2013 with a handful of staff, provides flowers for domestic and export cut-flower markets.
The firm’s workforce had grown significantly, developing, growing, cutting, preparing, packing and selling a range of Australian and South African species.
Ms Gardner said circumstances had required a major operations reshuffle.
“I kept things on a small scale then the Jobkeeper scheme came in, which helped enormously, and sales started to increase again,” she said.
“Demand in the lead-up to Mother’s Day then went through the roof and based on our circumstances, we could only supply two of our 15 regular wholesalers.”
Redevelopment
Ms Gardner said while an export market had dried up during the pandemic, domestic demand for flowers was relatively consistent and allowed the business to adapt operations.
She said everything from market variability to rules surrounding social-distancing, travel and hygiene had led to considerable redevelopment and staff redeployment across all operations.
“It’s all back happening and ticking along – with everyone doing something different to what they did in the past. Importantly, everyone is back,” she said.
“It’s business as usual but with a change in focus and we’re again looking to the future.
“It is surprising how it’s all come together. It’s a scary thing when, as an employee, you’re told to go on annual leave and then be unsure if you will have a job to come back to.
“But I’m feeling more confident now and if we can come through this, we will have done really well.
“Florists are stocked up and we’ve stuck to a line that changed a few trading terms.
“Our customers are our strength and it is important we are providing them with a platform for sales.
“We’re seeing customers more as partners than as an avenue to making a profit. It’s a case of ‘let’s just hold our course’.
“Domestically, we remain cautious. There are some imports starting to come through. We’re not operating our export shed – with increased freight rates and the price of flowers effectively doubling, buyers aren’t as keen as they were – but we can get by with lowered production.”
Ms Gardner said a welcome crisis by-product was a closer relationship between management and staff.
“In coming back and doing what we had to do, there is now a greater feeling of being a team,” she said.
“Personally, there is more communication between myself and frontline workers. Having more direct involvement is a nice thing. I’m very proud of everyone.”