Mother's Day gift baskets, food demand boost sales for flower retailer
1-800-Flowers.com sees demand for delivered food, gift baskets outpace growth of its flowers
1-800-Flowers.com CEO Chris McCann on making Mother's Day special amid <br>the coronavirus crisis.
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Despite industry-wide challenges local florists have faced because of coronavirus related closures and difficulty sourcing flowers from wholesalers, 1-800-Flowers.com is optimistic as it gears up for Mother's Day Sunday, one of its busiest delivery days of the year.
The New York-based online floral and gifts service had a 5.4 percent increase in revenue, the company announced in its first-quarter earnings report last week, bringing the consumer floral revenue to $152.6 million. However, the business is getting a major boost from its food and gift baskets, 1-800-Flowers.com CEO Chris McCann told FOX Business.
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"This extraordinary demand that we've been seeing in our gourmet food e-commerce divisions [has been] really since this crisis hit and as people were forced into this level of isolation," McCann Tuesday.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FLWS | 1 800 FLOWERS COM | 3.49 | -0.11 | -3.06% |
Indeed, the company, which also owns gift basket and food producer, Harry & David, saw a 27 percent increase from sales of its gourmet food baskets bringing revenue up to $95.9 million, outpacing the growth of its flowers.
The increased demand for delivery has prompted the company to ramp up health and safety measures as many others have done by implementing non-contact dropoffs and providing staffers with personal protective equipment in addition to increased sanitation efforts.
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"We organized a preparedness and response team to make sure we're doing everything possible to protect our customers and associates," McCann said.