Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and
Speaker 1: Tim Stenavic on Bloomberg Radio. As you know, Mike, you
Speaker 1: know Valentine's Days next week. Bet you're right now. Well,
Speaker 1: that day, along with Mother's Day, are two of the
Speaker 1: biggest for the flower industry, which is why we wanted
Speaker 1: to check in once again with Christina stanbl founder and
Speaker 1: CEO farm Girl Flowers. She joins us in our Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Interactive Broker studio based on the West Coast, but here
Speaker 1: in New York. So great to have you here. How
Speaker 1: are you. I'm good. Thanks for having me back. It's
Speaker 1: it's great to be in person this time. It's so great.
Speaker 1: I mean, we've talked to you like throughout the pandemic. Um,
Speaker 1: how does the world feel. Does it feel like we
Speaker 1: are over the pandemic? Compass your world sort of? I
Speaker 1: mean I feel that there's residual effects that are still like,
Speaker 1: you know, impacting supply chain and transportation and things like that.
Speaker 1: But really I think we're holding onto, you know, getting
Speaker 1: as much money as you possibly can in those areas,
Speaker 1: and you know, costs, you know, costners have not come
Speaker 1: down yet. Um, so I think that will normally next
Speaker 1: twelve months come down at all a little bit, but
Speaker 1: definitely not where we were hoping to see the um.
Speaker 1: So I think that this this next year is going
Speaker 1: to be really transformative that way and kind of normalize
Speaker 1: a little bit more sun. Like J Powell, that's what's maybe. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well he was saying, maybe it's wishful things, you know, Christine,
Speaker 1: It's funny. I'm here. I'm a father, husband, father of
Speaker 1: three girls, so I've got certain occasions where I buy
Speaker 1: flowers right once when I get in trouble. Obviously you
Speaker 1: know which. So we we're reading those cards. The other
Speaker 1: is Valentine's Day and the other was you know those
Speaker 1: daddy daughter dances that all got canceled during the pandemic.
Speaker 1: So I missed your visitor in the pandemic days. How
Speaker 1: bad was it? Did you lose a lot of suppliers?
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like the flower industry especially must
Speaker 1: have been really hard hit. Yeah it was. We actually benefited, though,
Speaker 1: I have to say, and I felt a little smarmy
Speaker 1: even saying that early on. I mean the gifting segment
Speaker 1: in general, and we were definitely in that that space
Speaker 1: really benefit from the pandemic. Because everybody were sending gifts
Speaker 1: and that have been in person, but that flowers, Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you. But what that did was it created you know,
Speaker 1: we all had to build infrastructures that we couldn't support
Speaker 1: later on. So you know, we you know, turned off
Speaker 1: marketing and you know, for ten and a half months,
Speaker 1: we just turned it off and we still did a growth,
Speaker 1: you know, and and then one came and I always said,
Speaker 1: oh no, when vaccines become readily available, I don't know
Speaker 1: what's going to happen. I know something big is going
Speaker 1: to happen, but I don't know how big it's going
Speaker 1: to be. And we just built this infrastructure, you know,
Speaker 1: that we couldn't support any longer. And so then we
Speaker 1: had to rethink everything and be like, oh, you know,
Speaker 1: now we have to right size the business, which is
Speaker 1: like the dreaded word right And so then we had
Speaker 1: to do that. And then you know, last year everybody thought, Okay,
Speaker 1: it's over, and it's like I can't wait till it's
Speaker 1: finally going to be over. Nope, not over, huh nope.
Speaker 1: So then you know, we have like transportation costs that
Speaker 1: are like you know, all the ancillary fees on top
Speaker 1: of ancillary fees on top of anceller fees, and we
Speaker 1: have like containers that can't get there, and you know,
Speaker 1: flowers they can't get there on time, and flowers and
Speaker 1: number one thing you have to get them there quickly,
Speaker 1: and so not be able to get them there quickly.
Speaker 1: You know, we had one month where like over half
Speaker 1: of our orders weren't delivered on time and it resulted
Speaker 1: in like five and a half million dollars of losses.
Speaker 1: And I mean things like that was just constant. And
Speaker 1: so this year we're like, you know, now we're in
Speaker 1: a down economy and I'm like, oh my gosh, this
Speaker 1: this ever going to really end. I don't know how
Speaker 1: it feel to own a business that's great. Everybody should
Speaker 1: do it well, I'll say, as when you're a husband
Speaker 1: in trouble, those delays are no good. You need it
Speaker 1: like you need it like yesterday for that because did
Speaker 1: you go back to some of the inflationary pressures. Because
Speaker 1: this is something we talked with um, a person in
Speaker 1: the trucking industry. We're trying to really get a good feel.
Speaker 1: We've talked with chefs and while things have come down,
Speaker 1: they do talk a lot about labor costs still are
Speaker 1: pretty high. Um, you said they've come down a little bit,
Speaker 1: but it's still your supply chain. It's still kind of expensive. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, we're at the size of a company that
Speaker 1: we don't have the buying power that a lot of
Speaker 1: large companies have, and so I'm sure that they're they're
Speaker 1: seeing it come down much quicker than companies, you know,
Speaker 1: the medium size small medium companies are just really you know,
Speaker 1: the last ones to see those savings because we can't
Speaker 1: go and say we have you know, two hundred million
Speaker 1: dollars of buying power, you know, and go to the
Speaker 1: transmiracition companies that way. But so it's coming, but then
Speaker 1: it's also being offset by higher labor costs and things
Speaker 1: like that. So it's just, you know, we want to
Speaker 1: be able to to show our customers and have our
Speaker 1: customers realize these savings. And every time we think we're
Speaker 1: going to be able to lower our prices again, it's not.
Speaker 1: Then it's just you know, we're dipping into our margins again.
Speaker 1: Can you find all the workers you need and want? No?
Speaker 1: Absolutely not. So. Um, you know, we've been very creative
Speaker 1: about how we do that, you know, with partnerships, with farms,
Speaker 1: um that are drop shipping for us and things like that. Um,
Speaker 1: it's just, you know, it's really hard. Wage level employee,
Speaker 1: you know, labor is really hard in the United States
Speaker 1: right now. Does it feel like we're at the beginning
Speaker 1: of a down economy and you mentioned, you know, you're
Speaker 1: prepping for down economy? Is it's starting to feel like
Speaker 1: that for you for it's felt that way for a
Speaker 1: while now. I think we've you know, I definitely think
Speaker 1: that we've been there for a while and nobody wants
Speaker 1: to actually call us spade a spade because demand is less. Yeah,
Speaker 1: demand is far less. Demand is far less. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, we're discretionary. I mean, like it, flowers our
Speaker 1: not a necessity. Um, even you know, food seems even
Speaker 1: food in the gifting space, chocolate stuff like that feel
Speaker 1: like more of a necessity even than flowers. Um. I
Speaker 1: kind of agree with that, you know, on the sweets
Speaker 1: and things. But um, you know, we're just you know,
Speaker 1: we benefited at times where you know where it was
Speaker 1: you know, gifts were sent a lot, and then when
Speaker 1: you know, the economy goes down, people kind of tighten
Speaker 1: their belts a bit, and things like flowers don't seem
Speaker 1: as much of a necessity. And the great thing is
Speaker 1: where bootstrapped company and we spend lists all alone. Yes, absolutely,
Speaker 1: and so you know we'll get through it. I'm a
Speaker 1: d percent sure we'll get through it. Unlike some companies
Speaker 1: that you know, I'm really feeling for that are reliant
Speaker 1: on raising capital right now and money is really expensive
Speaker 1: and things like that. You know, we've always done this,
Speaker 1: done it this way, and so we'll get through it.
Speaker 1: It's but it's gonna be tough. It's gonna be another
Speaker 1: tough year. Well, in terms of the growth plans, what
Speaker 1: do you do? Do you put things on hold? Um?
Speaker 1: We really change our focus. So and I started this early,
Speaker 1: and I'm really glad that I did. UM and it
Speaker 1: panned out when it was it doesn't UM, but you know,
Speaker 1: we really I switched our focus from growth to profitability
Speaker 1: and so and I did that seeing what was coming
Speaker 1: ahead of us. Are you not profitable? Before? We always
Speaker 1: had to be profitable to a point that the thing
Speaker 1: that I said is the only way that we're like
Speaker 1: Amazon is that we ran as close to zero as
Speaker 1: possible and then reinvest the profits back into the company.
Speaker 1: So there were many times were like one percent profit
Speaker 1: and things like that. Um, there's a lot of sleepless
Speaker 1: nights before payroll for me in the last twelve years. UM,
Speaker 1: So we really focused on having more of a cushion
Speaker 1: and I'm glad we did that. And so we really
Speaker 1: we we did things that actually cut our revenue and
Speaker 1: we knew would cut our revenue, but it made us
Speaker 1: financially just healthier as a company. And so that's we're
Speaker 1: you know, going through this with that mentality of we're
Speaker 1: not growth at all costs. We are really maintaining a healthy, um,
Speaker 1: you know, a healthy stance and where we want to be. Well,
Speaker 1: I have to say what I love about you. And
Speaker 1: we have some flowers and I think our producer Aerilhead
Speaker 1: took a picture for those who are watching on YouTube
Speaker 1: and on our streaming service. Um, it's just organic and
Speaker 1: it's just beautiful. Uh, twenty seconds left Valentine's Day. We
Speaker 1: can still order, yes, absolutely might get your order. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: get your orders. Are still we're still taking orders right now,
Speaker 1: so go to farm real Flowers dot com to placers now.
Speaker 1: We love flowers. Um, Christina, thank you so much, good luck,
Speaker 1: look forward to catching up with you. In the future.
Speaker 1: Christina Stumble, founder and CEO of farm Girl Flowers. You
Speaker 1: can find them on Twitter at farm girl Flowers. And
Speaker 1: you are listening to Bloomberg Business Week Karl Masser along
Speaker 1: with Mike Reagan, and this is Bloomberg Radio.