At first we went only to trade shows and sold direct to the florist. To make the business grow, we had to get out and demonstrate a new concept, to try and change old methods on construction โ the mechanics such as, wiring the flowers for wedding bouquets to using bouquet holders using flowers on natural stems in a more natural design. The wired bouquet took in total approximately 2 hours, the hol
ders approximately 30 minutes. We exhibited at trade shows and associations and visited colleges and wholesalers. Soon the wholesalers wanted the products we and took the decision to sell only to the wholesalers. In 1995 Val Spicer were offered the opportunity to purchase a foam making business which included the formula, plant and machinery. Val Spicer Designs were well acquainted with this brand as they had been bulk buying the foam for many years as a component part for some of the Val Spicer Designs products. In 1996 they purchased the business and transferred the plant and machinery to Devon. This was an extremely big risk for the Val Spicer Designs partnership to take on as they were a small family firm with no experience of working with chemicals. In 1996 when we started making floral foam the process started again to let the customers know there was an alternative in the market place. Over the last 10 years we have worked hard building a range of foam products. More recently the introduction of the Val Spicer Design collection offer many different shapes which we know were regularly made by florists
Historically, up to the 1980โฒs special shapes were made up with a frame rather like a sculpture armature using wire netting, reels of string, wire dowels and infilled with sphagnum moss. Later design boards were made. These were cleaner to use but harder to cut out into a specific shape. The ability to draw and cut out a template was necessary and it was also time consuming. Now with 3d shapes and a host of totally new products coming on stream We look forward to helping florists in the future.
