For National Floral Supply, the wholesale flower business is blooming, and the company will soon relocate its headquarters and distribution center from Orange to a larger space in Milford.President and Managing Partner Andrew Hamer said the century-old company that he bought in November 2020 has outgrown its current 10,000-square-foot leased space in Orange.He bought a […]
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For National Floral Supply, the wholesale flower business is blooming, and the company will soon relocate its headquarters and distribution center from Orange to a larger space in Milford.
President and Managing Partner Andrew Hamer said the century-old company that he bought in November 2020 has outgrown its current 10,000-square-foot leased space in Orange.
He bought a 2.25-acre property containing a 12,700-square-foot building at 497 Bic Drive in Milford in June for $1.4 million, along with two undeveloped parcels at 0 Shelland St., giving National Floral a total of roughly seven acres.
The Milford Planning and Zoning Commission recently approved plans for renovating and expanding the existing building on Bic Drive, including a new 4,200-square-foot cooler for flowers.
Hamer is hoping to complete the expansion and move by June.
The undeveloped lots will be used to grow flowers in the summer.
National Floral imports from flower-growing regions throughout the world, including South and Central America and Holland.
Much of the imports pass through a partner business, Stellar Farms in Miami, Fla.
National Floral Supply, formerly National Wholesale Florist, is one of the largest wholesale floral distributors in Connecticut, selling to floral shops, grocery stores, event planners and designers throughout the state and into eastern New York.
The floral industry was considered essential during COVID-related shutdowns, but many events requiring flowers like weddings were put on hold.
Once weddings and events were allowed, “The year coming out of COVID was explosive,” Hamer said.
Customers remained loyal, he said, because National Floral stayed open during COVID.
“Now, we’ve almost doubled the size of the business in three years,” Hamer said. “We have outgrown the facility we’re in, it’s very old and we needed to upgrade.”
He and his staff of roughly 30 employees will relocate to the new Milford headquarters.
Milford Director of Economic and Community Development Julie Nash said she’s “thrilled to have National Floral Supply here in Milford. They are bringing life and beauty to a once-vacant building. They are committed and excited to be part of the Milford community and we welcome them.”
Attorney Amy E. Souchuns told members of the Planning and Zoning Commission that this floral operation has been in Connecticut for close to 100 years, with 30 employees and minimal traffic impact.
“The importance of this application is that it brings a new and thriving business to Milford with possibility for expansion,” she said.
The application received a favorable review from the town engineer and police department for traffic flow.
The Milford site was attractive because it’s close to Interstate 95, while not going too far out of the Orange/Milford area, according to Hamer.
The move would have minimal traffic impacts, with roughly 10 small vans mostly exiting the property each morning with flowers for distribution.
Hamer said the floral industry is thriving, with few signs of wilting.
“The backlog of COVID-delayed weddings and events has slowed down a bit, but it still remains strong. Overall consumption is up, and I think it will stay that way,” he said. “People have increased their consumption of flowers, people are looking for joyful events, they want joyful things.”
