Location, Location, Location
Over the years brothers Nick and Dennis Paul have established a great cooperative rhythm with their wholesale floral business. Established by their father more than 70 years ago Paul's Wholesale Florists now resides at the Washington Flower Center on Eckington Place in Washington, DC.
The complex was originally set up as a wholesale market place with multiple distributors for retail florists but with the evolution of the floral industry came transformation of the complex which now houses two traditional wholesalers (Paul's and Saubers) serving retail florists and independent design firms; two event production companies (Amaryllis and Oceana) serving DC's hotels and event venues; and a bouquet company serving supermarkets.
Through the years the "boys" have settled into their roles as Buyer (Dennis) and Seller (Nick) while maintaining the company's original mission to provide floral retailers the finest quality product at competitive prices.
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Dennis and (sister-in-law) June Paul
Nick sees the company as a holding house for the grower and quality control center for the retailer. He hates it when crops come in bad but he enjoys being able to tap into the companies various resources to correct problems and make things right for his customers — who are usually happy in the end.
The day starts at 3am for the Paul's. Nick says he doesn't mind the 14 hour days because he sees things changing in the industry and "Its getting exciting again". He says corporate work is picking back up and he wants to understand his clients' problems so he can do a better job for them. He says he learned long ago "Don't let things (opinions, problems, changes) offend you, just work to make every day better."
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Design Workshops Hosted by Paul's
Recently the wholesaler supported retailers by hosting continued education design workshops all Sunday in their space. Dennis feels that success for florists in the future is to focus on specific niches and for the creation of franchises with well defined structure and definite purpose.
Nick advises florists to work for themselves not the wire services (meaning to create their own business structures — that may include a wire service — but emphasizes marketing directly to their local audience) so they can pay employees well, provide benefits, and be competitive in order to achieve success. He agrees with his brother that florists would do better to focus on a niche rather than try to be everything to everybody.
Nick says what keeps him going after all these years is that he loves what the floral industry does for the public. It's nice to see a wholesaler be able to blend traditional values with leading edge philosophies and enjoy success in every way.
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