Florist News

Hi guys!

I have a quick question about the dreaded wastage!

Does anyone know what a typical percentage of wastage is for florists?

I'm trying to see if my level is normal or not, hate throwing things away!

mel

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mel

Sorry don't know whats 'typical'...can only make the smart-ass comment and say if you buy 40 roses and throw 15 away..thats too much!! What I'm saying is FOR ME its obvious...the less ending up in my bin(or on my coffee table!hardly ever throw it away!) the better!! I think maybe its a logical thing that you need to work out, buy less and more often if its an option...means less waste.

Anyone else?

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~success is a lousy teacher...it seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose~

Yeah, remember the saying "to bin is a sin". My policy is it better not be more than 5% or a very good reason, or heads roll.

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If we had been meant to eat all our greens all our teeth would have been in the front

thats hard to answer, I recon less than 10%

Remember my tutor at college always telling us how much of a florists profit was on the floor...sure it was 15% she said.

Mine is nowhere near that, quite lucky that I have hardly any.

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www.AmandasFlorist.co.uk

We bring our creations to life.

When we had finished our class we had to tidy up but were not allowed to lift rubbish until tudor had gone through it she would gather a wire flower heads etc from our rubbish 'That's 10p of profit you have just thrown away and that's 20p profit etc etc' we soon learnt to go through everything after that.

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That's great that you are taught that, I do that in my shop - if I see something on the floor I pick it up and anounce the RETAIL price of it, and I point out that that is where the profit is going.

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Send Flowers Rockingham www.rockinghamcityflorist.com
Rockingham Florist flowers delivered www.hangingbasketflorist.com.au

Gemma hates it but I ALWAYS scoop up her bits at a photoshoot and growl. There was a florist I knew who actually made salable designs up from the bits her designers dropped and said that if they didn't do the same they'd be fined the cost of anything that was usable. May be tough but it got them sorted.

As an aside be careful of excessive waste. The VAT people know how much should be waste (circa 3 - 5% if memory serves me right without delving through files) and have been known to fine people who claim excessive waste in an attempt to hide sales.

C

The shop where I had my first saturday job made little baskets out of broken stems of wasted bits. They called them happy baskets because the flowers were happy they weren't in the bin

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Sarah Creating Bespoke Wedding Flowers Cheshire

Trouble is you can't just look at wastage on it's own. Every thing you do is related and everything points to your bottom line. It's how all of those things work together, much like players in a football team that can make the difference between profit or loss.

As an example, say you spend 300.00 on stock, double your money and have no waste. Your return is 600.00. Pay the vatman and you're left with 511.00. Pay for stock and you've got 211.00 left

another day, you spend 500.00 on stock, you dump 10% of it. You double your money on 450.00 = 900.00. You pay the vat and you're left with 766.00. Pay for your stock and you've got 266.00 left.

So on that occasion, you've had a load more waste but your bottom line is better off. Or is it? If you've had to increase staff hours to cope with the extra work, you may be worse off. If you're delivering stuff at a technical loss, you'll also be worse off.

On the other hand, if you have staff with time on their hands and you're trying to build up trade, it may be what you need to boost interest in your shop.
The comparison assumes that you don't lower your prices in order to sell more. You just create more of an impact with your display and go for the impulse buys.

If only it where that simple eh?

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