Some flower shops in Europe surprise consumers by changing the design of their stores and the color of their walls every season. Under such circumstances, one store that is attracting attention is Tesco, the largest mass retailer in the UK. This store is known for fully introducing the sale of cut flowers with a guaranteed shelf life. Tesco Sales has a system in which if a flower dies during the warranty period, a replacement product will be issued. By introducing a long-life guarantee sales system, the number of repeat customers who were satisfied with the quality of the flowers and came to the store to buy flowers increased. Tesco sales increased approximately seven times in the first 10 years, and the waste rate fell below 6%. By introducing shelf-life guarantee sales, consumers who were satisfied with the quality of the flowers became repeat customers.
The reason for including a warranty period is scientifically backed. It has been discovered that reducing the amount of breathing time in cut flowers during flower transportation and storage will prevent aging. For general transportation and storage of cut flowers, temperature is controlled at 0.5-2.0℃ using a cold chain. In recent years, temperature and time have been integrated to ensure that the quality of cut flowers does not deteriorate during distribution and storage. It will be an indicator of 500℃ and time. For example, if it is set at 1℃, it will last for 500 hours, and at 25℃, the aging time will be about the same for 20 hours. Using this index, the guaranteed shelf life is 7 days for lilies, and 7 to 14 days for spray mums and carnations. Shops are well-versed in flower temperature management and sell flowers according to consumer needs. For stores, it is important to collaborate with reliable producers and distributors. In Europe, there seems to be a practice of entering into long-term cultivation contracts with producers to ensure reliable quality and logistics.
Chrysanthemums, roses, and carnations are well-known in the global cut flower market. In the Netherlands, which has the world’s largest flower market, Japanese chrysanthemums are rated 1.5 to 2.0 times higher than the average market price, even for the same chrysanthemums. In Japan, there are cultivators with such advanced technology. They had honed their technology to ensure high quality and to deliver exactly the amount they needed at the time they needed it. Currently in Japan, approximately 4.4 billion cut flowers and 760 million potted flowers are distributed annually. Another option is to utilize Japanese technology not only in Japan, but also in other countries. It might be interesting to start a cut flower business that targets 7 billion people around the world, rather than the 100 million people in Japan.
