Losses at Freddie’s Flowers balloon after it unsuccessfully tries to expand overseas
Losses at Freddie’s Flowers have exploded after it unsuccessfully tried to expand overseas.
The flower subscription service put money into launching trials in the Netherlands and California, but dropped its efforts to focus on the UK and Germany instead.
The company posted a loss of £18.8 million for the year to August 2022, according to accounts filed with Companies House, despite a 15 percent increase in revenue to more than £55 million.
The loss was almost four times the £4.8 million worth of red ink reported in 2021.
Founded in 2014 by entrepreneur Freddie Garland, Freddie’s Flowers was one of the so-called “lockdown winners” after its subscriber numbers surged during the pandemic.
Growing pains: Freddie Garland’s flower business has posted a loss of £18.8 million
The £25 a week DIY bouquet deal, which buyers arrange themselves, became an affordable luxury for many stuck at home and was also a popular gift when social distancing meant many couldn’t celebrate birthdays or other events in person.
The company rushed to hire and raised millions from investors to ramp up the business.
The accounts show that Freddie’s Flowers nearly doubled its payroll to an average of about 480 staff in the year to August.
But last summer it was reported that it would cut jobs and consider restructuring as sales plummeted during the cost-of-living crisis.
Garland, 35, started the business in a garden shed in his parents’ backyard after quitting his job at organic food group Abel & Cole.
His parents are both florists and he says he “practically grew up in their flower shop in Pimlico.”