The artists behind ‘Petals n Blooms’
AN aunt and niece duo with a talent for their art and a mind for business, Christine Volau and Josephine Tongia-Seruvatu started making flower arrangements for friends and family long before they thought to open their store, Petals n Blooms at the Flee Market in Suva.
Both ladies, have been career women prior to opening their own business, the two perfectly complement each other’s roles and skills. Ms Tongia-Seruvata, with a financial field background, handles the store’s accounts and purchases and creates arrangements with artificial flowers while her aunt, Ms Volau, is the creative mind behind the fresh flower arrangements and tends to get carried away with her passion for her art, the result of their combined roles being stunning arrangements that wow their clientele.
“We started from home with family. We used to do it for free for family, and then we went serious during COVID. The funny thing is we never got any orders for funerals. Just for people who were sick. So our biggest order that boosted us during the time was Westpac’s for Kanalevu Kitchen. I think it was 150 bouquets to do that we delivered to Kanalevu Kitchen and it went together with their care packs. It was delivered to all the staff from Tailevu all the way to Lami,” said co-owner and younger of the artsy ladies, Ms Tongia-Seruvata.
Her aunt, the ideator behind Petals n Blooms Ms Volau said: “For me, I was interested in gardening and flowers, and the passion grew from there. So the flower arrangements were only for close people, because I had a full-time job then. I used to work for the government. I retired from there last year so it became my retirement plan as well for us to do this. And Josephine and I, we got together to do this because we had the same interest in flowers. So since we’re family we thought; why not?”
The ladies joke and tease as they weave their wares, truly enjoying their craft. “So whatever skills that we had from the workforce we were in, we brought it and adopted it into our business. So what we do, we just maximise on what we already have. She [Josephine] makes sure the books are clean. Me, I don’t really care about the books. When it comes to craft, I can overspend and all so then we’ll have an argument there,” Ms Volau said, with Ms Tongia-Seruvata laughing along in agreement.
The fresh flowers for the bouquets and wreaths are sourced from local growers, most being small-scale growers in Suva, with two commercial sellers in Nadi. Occasionally having to purchase from sellers at the market to supplement a larger order, Ms Volau has befriended the market sellers and educated them on proper harvest and preparation techniques to ensure the flowers are up to standard.
The women agreed that it saddened them to have to reject backyard growers with damaged flowers but they had to maintain their standards to sustain the reputation they’d built for their brand. As a result, educating growers became part of the job and the businesswomen consider this a win-win situation since duty on the import of fresh flowers is quite high. While it would be possible to import the flowers and account for the price with a reasonable markup for the finished products, this would alienate much of their target market.
“Our target market is the mid-range clients, the average person that works and likes good stuff but will not pay an arm and a leg. We do have some highroller clients too, a few, and thanks to technology we’ve attracted international clients as well. But our target is the mid-range.”
Petals n Blooms has an admirable business model that benefits not only both seller and buyer, but is a perfect example of small businesses becoming a support network and community for each other. The duo’s people skills and business mindset allow high-quality product to reach customers without a need to break the bank.