Flowers must have something when they are present in the most special, joyful and tragic moments of our lives. With a bouquet you apologize, you wish someone a quick recovery, you thank each other, you say goodbye to someone you will never see again, or you declare eternal love. Flowers must have something, too, when they are able to change the busy life of a top executive for the peaceful company of daisies, roses, lilies and orchids. And if not, ask Juan Pedro Moreno, who one day went from being the president and CEO of Accenture Spain, Portugal and Israel to founder of Floripondios, an online store of bouquets and floral decorations.

We talked to this businessman turned florist about the reasons for his radical change in life, innovation in the floral world and the difficulties and joys of a traditional profession converted into a symbol of sustainability and digital transformation.

This is how the seed of Floripondios was planted

– You left the presidency of a large international consulting firm and, shortly after, you launched Floripondios. How did the idea come about?

Floripondios is the daughter of the pandemic. There was a time during the lockdown when we were only allowed to go out for an hour a day and at most a kilometer away from our homes. At that time, I had made the decision that I was leaving a company to which I had dedicated 30 years of my life. He had risen to chairman of Accenture for the past five years, after 30 years of service.

Due to the pandemic and some changes in the world organization, I decided it was time to change and start doing other things in my life. At that moment, locked up at home, I started walking around my neighborhood, I saw a place that was for sale and I began to wonder what I could do there, what I could dedicate myself to. I had always intended to be an entrepreneur on my own, so I called the place, saw that the price was reasonable and that it was in a place that I liked, and I rented it.

Then, in a videoconference, some friends encouraged me and said: “Why don't you put a flower shop? We know some expert florist, with style, who still wants to join your project«. I didn't hesitate, I liked the idea, I met several friends who were also interested in creating a company and we decided to set up Floripondios. We brought a Spanish florist who was living in Paris, we set up a company and we moved forward.

– Who are part of that society?

The shareholders are Raúl Torquemada, Luisa Cano, wife of the exceo of BBVA and Teresa Álvarez, an old colleague. More than a florist, we want it to be a digital flower business. For this reason, recently, what we have done has been to incorporate into the capital a technological company from Barcelona called Nautilus, which is the one in charge of computer development, digital marketing and the entire digital business part.

The secret of the flowers

– What do flowers have to attract a top manager to this world?

I have always particularly liked having flowers at home. I have had them living in France for three years, I got used to seeing flowers in houses. It is curious because when someone enters a house and sees flowers, they wonder if something has happened.

On the other hand, the social environment of company managers has a part of sensitivity that is rarely seen. You have a lot of social events, events, dinners, etc. where, just as someone chooses a nice tie, also when you celebrate a dinner at home you try to differentiate yourself with the decoration. I think that almost all of us have that taste for doing different things and flowers are an important element there.

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The other issue is that when I saw this I thought of it more as a digital flower business than as a florist who sells online. What really attracted me was being able to somehow transform a very traditional sector and that has a lot to do with the ambition of the managers. Above all, those of us who have been in the world of technology consulting: the passion for the transformation of a sector that is still very traditional. Most florists are small businesses distributed throughout the cities, very SMEs, even self-employed.

The whole process of distributing flowers is very old. The flowers go to Amsterdam, they return to Spain and there is little tradition of subscribing to receive flowers. That is why we came up with the idea of ​​changing the way in which people in Spain related to the world of flowers. And this has a lot to do with the vocation of an executive to digitally transform a sector that has not been so to date.

Innovation in the floral world

– And in what ways can this world be digitally transformed?

We have innovated in three ways. The first is that we wanted to launch this concept of flowers by subscription. Just as you subscribe to a magazine or a newspaper, we think: «Hey, we are going to make sure that your house does not lack flowers. As often as you consider. We take care of taking them and changing them. You do not have to worry".

The second is that we have stylishly industrialized the world of flowers. Usually, people go to the flower shop and order a bouquet of flowers. What we have wanted to do with the incorporation of a creative has been to create small jewels. Small flower creations, that's what we really sell on our website. You do not ask for a bouquet to use or whatever you want, we have already industrialized and elaborated some creations of fresh bouquets, florist, surprise, of the week... They all have an artistic component. It has been a professional who has really designed very determined bouquets. He allows design, style and innovation to be brought to the world of creating the bouquet.

The third element of innovation is actually using digital techniques to communicate. In addition to ordering flowers online or subscribing, what we have done has been to incorporate a service called 'Tell him with'. So we have broken with the tradition of putting a little card on which the florist with his best handwriting says: 'Congratulations, mom'. What we have done is give you the opportunity to upload a song, a video or a message that you have recorded with your mobile to our website and we convert it into a QR code. When the person receives the bouquet, they do not find the florist's letter written on the card, but a personalized message from the person who sends it.

An art gallery… with flowers

– More than a flower shop, we are talking about an art gallery with flowers.

I like to define it as an online flower business, where we don't sell flowers, but creations. Floristry is an ephemeral art. Having a good artist who has his line and that his branches are recognized is something that is not very common in Spain. Yes it is in France. And that's what we're trying to do here. Thanks to this style of our florist, another of the activities that we carry out at Floripondios is to serve flower arrangements at events.

Sustainability

– We have talked about digitization, but how do you commit to sustainability?

It is a subject that in the world of flowers is very interesting. We have opted for sustainability in one of the few ways that can be done from a retail point of view. Since the flower markets began to be created in the Netherlands, the vast majority of the world's flowers travel to the Netherlands and are distributed from there. That is not sustainable at all. Growing flowers is tremendously sustainable, but what is not sustainable is putting them on a plane and taking them to Holland and then bringing them to Madrid, burning CO2 everywhere.

In this sense, retailers can not do anything. There is a whole element of sustainability to be developed in the wholesale market. And, at the retailer, the way you can influence is that there is no waste. That there are no flowers that die or remain stored in a refrigerator consuming a brutal amount of electricity. How have we combated that? In a very simple way: industrializing the way of making a bouquet of flowers. That is, our designer creates a bouquet and decides that what the bouquets are going to carry that week are lilies, calla lilies and carnations. You already buy thinking about what that is what you are going to use and what you are going to spend. He doesn't buy absolutely everything, waiting to see what the customer wants.

With this, shrinkage, waste and conservation density are greatly reduced. It contributes in a very positive way because it produces savings and helps sustainability because the level of waste is minimal.

Has the crisis of raw materials and transport reached florists?

– And what about the increase in the price of transport or raw materials? How have you noticed?

In a business like ours you can see the two legs of this crisis. It is true that there is a certain increase in the price of the products. In this case, above all, motivated by the rise in transport prices and also because it is a product that is very sensitive in its demand to the economic situation. If people get scared and believe that bad times are going to come and that products are going to get expensive, what they do is not consume it. Even more so if, as in our case, it is a perishable product.

Throughout the pandemic there has been an impressive effect on the flower market and that is that demand and sales have grown tremendously. People have spent a lot of time at home and have learned to want to live at home in a more comfortable and pleasant way.