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Nicole Miller and business owner Pam Drake, O'Grady's Florist, Warrnambool
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Pam Drake and Indian Commonwealth Games boxer, Parvinder Singh
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SPORTSMEN and flowers - an unlikely mix, right?Well, maybe not, judging by the experiences of this year’s Commonwealth Games Athletes’ Village floristry team. For three weeks in March, Pam Drake and her staff worked almost around the clock at the village in Parkville, Melbourne, supplying fresh floral arrangements to some of the world’s fastest, strongest and most accurate competitors. It was a huge undertaking for the women from Warrnambool, about three hours’ drive south-west of the city, on Victoria’s Shipwreck Coast. It was also an undertaking that very nearly didn’t happen at all. Drake admits hers was not the first business chosen for the sought-after contract. “It was all done by tender through Interflora,?? she says. “We sat down and put together a submission, but ours wasn’t the one selected. We thought that was the end of it there and then. “The organising committee, M2006, went ahead and spent nearly 12 months working with a florist in Melbourne, but then he had to pull out and they were left back at square one. “We got a phone call from the M2006 office in November last year asking if we were still interested. “My husband and I jumped in the car the next morning and drove to Parkville to look at the site. That was on the Friday. On the following Tuesday morning we got the call to say ‘welcome to the team’.?? Agreeing to serve as the official florist in the village meant a major commitment for O’Grady’s. Not only would they be expected to provide a constant retail service to the athletes and visiting team officials but their contract also included responsibility for the village dining hall and even the private suite used by Queen Elizabeth II. “The catering firm wanted the hall to be themed with Australian natives,?? Drake says, “but we knew that by March there wouldn’t be much in flower for us to use. We decided to take away some of the native theme and add lemons and cumquats instead to keep the hot colours there. “We made up samples to photograph - all at our own cost - and thankfully once they saw them they agreed with what we’d done.?? Situated at the entrance to the village shopping and entertainment mall, the O’Grady’s team quickly found itself the centre of attention. “It was so nice to participate in the athletes’ everyday life in the village,?? Drake says. “There was no pretence because that was where they lived. We would see them going for ice-cream or to the post office. If they wanted to go to other places they had to walk right past us - it was like a passing parade. We had poll position.?? “Our shop was probably the most photographed thing in the entire village. Athletes would pop their heads in and take photos of each other with the flowers. “We had people coming in from Mauritius, Caribbean, Africa. A lot of the men knew what the flowers were.?? Among those drawn to the spectacular display was Indian boxer Parvinder Singh. “He was walking past and noticed our yellow roses,?? Drake says. “He told us his mother grew roses back home in India. From then on he came in every day and just hung out here. Sometimes he would even help behind the counter. When he left he gave me the gold turban from his uniform.?? Her close involvement with the visiting athletes also opened Drake’s eyes to the struggle faced by some to compete. “There were boxers who’d arrived in Melbourne without gloves, and one boy from Lesotho who wanted to sell his woven cane hat when the Games were over. I offered him $100 and he couldn’t believe it. That’s not a lot of money in Australia but to him it was an incredible amount. He kept bowing and bowing as he backed away out of the shop.?? The village experience also gave rise to some unusual requests. “A young triple-jumper from Antigua came in one afternoon. “He was very coy but asked about buying a flower because he’d just seen someone special. We talked about it and decided a red rose was too much so soon so we settled on orange. We put in some emu grass and wrapped it with a bow. It must have worked - the next night he came back in with the girl.?? Drake was working at a secondary college in Warrnambool when she bought the business in November 2002. “Originally one of my daughters was going to look after it but she fell pregnant and couldn’t manage it. I stayed on at the school until the end of 2004, co-ordinating work-experience students there during the day and doing the paperwork and bookwork for O’Grady’s at night. “When I took over, on the Friday night we literally gutted the shop. We painted the back wall burnt orange, the side walls bright yellow, the floor purple and all the fittings black. In fact, we’ve just chosen new corporate colours again recently: charred eggplant, valasse (cream) and asparagus twist. “Nicole (Miller) was already working here so she explained the systems and the pricing, which we then updated together to make it all more efficient and cost-effective. “Somehow we survived our first Christmas only a month later - we were really, really busy.?? A little more than 18 months ago Drake left the college to concentrate full-time on floristry. A former colleague, Lucille Regan, now helps out in the shop at particularly hectic times, such as during the Games. “It’s actually been a bit of a let-down coming back here after the Games,?? Regan says. “We all loved being there; we didn’t have any bad experiences with anybody in the village.?? The team’s Commonwealth Games involvement has had a noticeable effect on business in recent months, Drake says. “We had a small article in the local paper, the Warrnambool Standard, which seemed to catch people’s attention. “Just before Mother’s Day this year we had new business cards printed with flower-care instructions on the back. We put one in every arrangement or bunch of flowers sold, and from the Friday to the following Monday of Mother’s Day weekend we used a thousand. Lucille came in to strip flowers so the florists could keep on working. “We’ve looked back on the figures from last year and we’re a good 65% up on where we were then.?? To boost wedding sales, O’Grady’s hosts a bridal showcase in early June. “We hold it here in the store and make up bouquets, buttonholes, table centres - all wired and with fresh flowers,?? Drake says. “We have all the different rose colours displayed with their names underneath, and we make up showbags with goodies such as perfumes and vouchers for hotel discounts for any girls who book in on the night. “The season before last we did 53-plus weddings - more than one a week. Last year it was 48. We sometimes handle up to six or seven a weekend. It’s not easy, particularly when they’re all wired bouquets.?? O’Grady’s is one of five florists in Warrnambool, a regional centre with a population of about 30,000 residents. “When you work somewhere and it becomes boring and a drag it’s no fun. I like a challenge,?? Drake says. “We have a great team of girls here. Good service is what brings people back; we’re always looking to implement things as customer rewards.?? One of Drake’s most successful suggestions has been the introduction of O’Grady’s ‘bunch of the week’. “One of the things I wanted to try to achieve was a market for flowers sold as cut stems,?? she says. “Warrnambool needed that to combat the supermarkets. “Our freshness and quality are up on theirs but our price is comparable. “The ‘bunch of the week’ is bought through our wholesaler and offered every week for $10. We advertise at 8.45am every day on our local radio station. “Now people come in and don’t even want to know what the flower is - they just want the ‘bunch’. We even get kids coming in who’ve heard us on radio, and real estate agents who’ve signed a new listing or made a sale use it as well. “For $10 they can have something like a nice bunch of Asiatics wrapped with a bow. “Now we’ve introduced what we call our ‘frequent flower’ card - anyone who makes 10 purchases gets their 11th ‘bunch of the week’ for free. At least 85% of our cardholders are men. The week they get their free bunch they usually buy one as well and we put both together for them into one big bunch.?? Drake says the shop’s street-front location is a major plus as far as many male shoppers are concerned. “They can park out front, buy their flowers and go - they don’t have to walk through an arcade or anything carrying an armful of flowers.?? In addition to fresh flowers, O’Grady’s carries a carefully chosen range of associated gift lines. “We’re not trying to compete with the gift shops in town but we do keep a good selection of decorative items that complement flowers: bowls that can be used as vases, and candles,?? Drake says. Fresh stock is delivered from the National Flower Centre in Melbourne twice a week. “Because we’re so far from the city we can’t be at the market ourselves but we have someone there who buys on our behalf,?? Drake says. “Brent Stack of Glorious Roses at Lara (see separate article, page 6) came to Warrnambool 15 months ago with his ute and some tropicals to see whether the service was needed. “Now he will ring at 4.30am while he’s harvesting his own roses to ask what we need, and he buys everything else for us: lilies, greenery, Singapore orchids. On Tuesdays he sends them by truck and on Thursdays the deliveries come by train. “He knows his flowers so we can be confident we’ll get only quality stock. The roses are picked that day, and he can pre-phone orders to other growers to make sure we receive what we want. “It’s opened up opportunities for us that we never thought we’d have.?? |