Why FCH MUST survive into the next decade
This week the future of the Flower Council of Holland is in the balance and a decision reached as to whether it can continue into 2024 and beyond.
And I really hope the people with the voting and financial power make the right choice and keep it going – albeit perhaps with a more defined agenda.
Because to lose it completely would not just be disastrous but a very sad and scary indictment on the industry.
Yup I totally get that Royal Flora Holland were finding the levy collection tricky in terms of fairness (although maybe they need to look at their business model too!) and nope I don’t agree with everything Flower Council have done.
To me some of the ideas have been just barking mad whilst the disregard for the independent florist in the last few years has been shameful given how important a role they play in the buying chain.
However, truth is the whole industry NEEDS what FCH can and has done … in fact probably needs it now more than ever.
Because after the heady days of Covid, when it seemed the world couldn’t get enough flowers, now, with a global recession (or economic downturn if you don’t like the R word) we are facing some seriously tough times and I am not sure it is going to get better any time soon.
OK, UK Mother’s Day was good and Valentine’s better than expected (Christmas was still a bit wishy washy for my liking) but whether it’s enough to keep everyone going though the other 49 weeks of the year is questionable in my book.
Which is why, rather than cutting consumer facing promotion and dumping all the accrued knowledge that Flower Council has (as one who has worked with them from year dot they should look back at their history for some seriously brilliant ideas that could easily be revamped – happy to help if needed!!) the whole industry needs to do more and work together under one banner.
Not just with generic consumer promotion (although please can we make it less cutting edge and more back to basics) BUT – and perhaps even more importantly – by making sure that the businesses at the front line, the people who are actually selling to consumers, are given every single bit of help they can get to be the very best they can. Which isn’t just flinging pretty pictures up on social media but being far more interactive with wholesalers/shops/studios et al.
It will need a brave person to relaunch FCH into the body it could and should be for 2024 and beyond but in an already split, divided, and totally disconnected industry, where infighting and ‘politics’ stop people seeing the bigger picture, please, please don’t let FCH – the only truly independent and non-partisan body there is - wither and die.
Because it wouldn’t just be a great shame to waste all the good it has and could do; it would also be a dreadful message to the industry that it can’t – or perhaps it is won’t - find a way of collectively working together.
Instead, we would see our sector yet further split and diluted and lose decades of hard-earned knowledge. We’ve all seen what politics and gamesmanship have done in other industries – let the flower and plant sector show how it could be done and benefit everyone.
