It’s not every day that we hit the proverbial “home run” on a new product introduction, but based on our customers’ reactions to our new florist-quality bouquet line we may have done just that!

Over the past several years, we have striven to create a hand-made bouquet program that would help our customers develop or enhance their walk-in business.  Our efforts, for various reasons, met with limited success.  The primary feedback we received from customers went something like this:  “But, UFE, we need MORE flowers in the bouquet at a LOWER price!”  The elephant in the room, of course, was that our customers were surrounded by mass market retail outlets - ranging from traditional grocery stores to warehouse clubs - who were capturing that business at price points we could not help our customers compete with.

That was then, this is now.  Team UFE has drilled down into this program and devised a product development, pricing, and shipping strategy that overcomes that seemingly insurmountable obstacle of competing with the “big boys”.  The result is what we call “The Pacific Coast Collection”.

In order to create the best chance for our customers to be successful and profitable with our new bouquets, we focused on these features:

PREMIUM QUALITY:  Our bouquets are produced daily, on a per-order basis. Each flower is inspected for quality upon arrival, upon being allocated to the production department, and during the production process itself.

EXTREME FRESHNESS:  All flowers are sourced directly from local California farms for just-in-time arrival to the production area.  Moving forward, we may tend towards the occasional imported flower to achieve certain seasonal looks (i.e. bronze poms in the Fall), but our primary goal is to utilize the fresh bounty produced right here in California.

PROFESSIONAL HANDLING:  At the end of the bouquet line, an experienced quality control inspector sleeves each bouquet.  Product is then placed in water treated with Floralife preservative and chilled to 36 degrees.  Wet-pack boxes are packed on the spot and moved to the precooler.  Bouquets for dry-pack  hydrate for an appropriate period prior to packing and precooling.

FLORIST-QUALITY CONSTRUCTION:  Each and every bouquet is hand-constructed, with an emphasis on correct flower placement and color combination for a balanced, professional finished look. Our core group of bouquet makers handle this program, some of whom have been with our company for over 14 years!  Your bouquets are, quite literally, in good hands with UFE.

COMPLEMENTARY INSERT:  Our production manager hand-selects the appropriate decorative insert to bring out the glorious colors of the fresh flowers.  We are currently tending towards very bright, saturated colors and will adjust as seasons and industry color trends change.

A bright orange and yellow Reversa insert causes the color of the gerberas and lilies to "pop" in this Big Sur bouquet!

CREATIVE FREIGHT SOLUTIONS:  UFE is constantly working to develop efficient and effective ways to bring our products to you.  Whether you choose to ship via our new Cold Chain method, via door-to-door DBS service exclusive to UFE, via commercial airlines, or on your own truck, we will package and ship your bouquets to maximize product safety and minimize cost.

DIFFERENTIATION:  Our goal is to provide you with a bouquet that allows you to compete on the price and “size” level with, well, anyone.  But our bouquet line will also allow you to BEAT the competition on looks.  Our bouquets will be filled with an ever-changing array of California flowers.  Just this week, our recipes call for a range of flowers that include millet, “Sunbeam” sunflowers, gerbera daisies, phlox, leucadendron “Red Blush”, and many other great flower varieties.  This is just the look you need to remind people they are purchasing from a professional purveyor of fine flowers.

RANGE OF PRICE POINTS:  Ranging from $3.50 FOB to $8.95 FOB, we have established price points that allow you to appeal to all segments of your market.  Regardless of your individual marketing plan, UFE has a bouquet to meet your needs.

MARKET SENSITIVITY:  Instead of pre-planning bouquet recipes a month or a season in advance, our model allows UFE to select whatever our best growers are harvesting on a daily to weekly basis.  You will receive in an ever-changing mix of product that features the BEST quality items currently on the market and the LOWEST cost of flowers for the bouquets (which means a higher stem count in the finished product).  Our market-driven process will produce the most favorable value proposition available in the industry today.

The team at UFE hopes that you will find this program to be as exciting and profitable as many of our other customers have, and we look forward to growing with you into the future!

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