Dutch Petals

It was Good Friday and, while other businesses were closed or expecting a quiet day, the compact warehouse of Dutch Petals in Southampton Village was jumping as it readied weekend shipments to stores like

Durell Godfrey PhotosAt the Dutch Petals warehouse in Southampton on Friday, thousands of flowers from all over the world were readied for transport to retailers around Long Island.

King Kullen, Citarella, Schiavoni’s Market, and Schmidt’s.    There is no doubt that Valentine’s Day is the biggest day in the flower world, but Easter weekend is in the top 10 and rivals the busiest weekends in summer for this five-year-old business. Roses, daffodils, tulips, ranunculus, violets, primroses, green hydrangeas, hyacinths, and all manner of foliage filled the warehouse and its cooler to capacity.    That day, some 60,000 roses were cut, dethorned, bundled by machine, and put in clear sleeves. Plants were positioned just so in baskets and covered with moss, and various cut flowers were pro­cessed and sorted for hand-tied bouquets built bud by bud until the predetermined assemblage was achieved. By 7 a.m., two trucks full of flowers were already out making deliveries.  In the midst of this commotion, the company’s partners, Lisa Kee­nan, Luis Guillen, and John Fisch­etti, were promoting order. Ms. Keenan led a tour of the facility, which is on Powell Avenue, Mr. Guillen was overseeing operations, and Mr. Fischetti was on the floor addressing inventory and other financial considerations. “I was supposed to be a silent partner and now I’m here 50 hours a week,” he said.  “It’s a hard business working in perishables. There’s only this much money,” Ms. Keenan said, pinching her fingers together. “If you don’t do it right, you lose money.” Imported stock can be destroyed at Customs if the inspector determines that it has an invasive insect or some other problem. A plane might be stuck on a runway in Bogota. Once a driver managed to shear the roof off a Dutch Petals  truck by driving under a short bridge.  “That’s why we always plan five different deliveries at different times — so if something happens to one it’s not going to stop our operations,” said Ms. Keenan, who lives in Sag Harbor.    About seven years ago, Ms. Keenan moved from Chicago. She met Mr. Guillen at Rooster Flowers, where they both worked until spinning off on their own. Mr. Guillen is an East Hampton resident and Mr. Fischetti lives in Sag Harbor.   At the time they made their decision to start the business, all they had was an opportunity to purchase equipment at a great price and a suggestion from Thomas Reilly, who at the time ran operations for King Kullen supermarkets, that Mr. Guillen to come talk to him if they decided to go out on their own.  “We had no clue, no plan,” Ms. Keenan recalled. “We knew what to do, but not necessarily how to do it.”    Mr. Reilly offered them the opportunity to sell flowers in two of King Kullen’s Wild by Nature stores in Setauket and Huntington. Mr. Guillen found the flowers in Ecuador, Colombia, Holland, California, and even locally (including greenhouse orchids and sunflowers straight from the fields in the summer), based on the relationships he had built up with suppliers over the 15 years he has spent in the business.  Ms. Keenan set up the stands with presentation techniques she had studied in Europe, such as using galvanized steel buckets and clear sleeves, and oversaw the sales on site.

    When Rooster ultimately failed, the company took over the Bridgehampton King Kullen space and picked up the other South Fork businesses. Now it is also in the King Kullen in Hampton Bays and in Brooklyn at Union Market, in addition to several other stores and larger farm stands in summer.  At the same time, the owners are setting their sights on wholesale sales, weddings, and other events. Ms. Keenan said that their bouquets, which are assembled in the round in the European tradition, have earned a loyal following. Customers are now turning to them when they need flower arrangements in bulk, she said.    “We saw an opportunity when people started coming to us,” she said. Dutch Petals also can offer flowers at a lower price because they come directly from the suppliers. Ms. Keenan said the company’s tag line — “Fresh flowers have arrived” — comes from their dedication to taking the flowers from suppliers to customers as soon as possible. Often the blooms are cut in the field and on display in stores within a day or so of the order. The flowers are met at John F. Kennedy Airport and cleared with a customs broker. From there they travel by truck to Southampton to be cut, sorted, arranged, and wrapped. Ms. Keenan said other suppliers import their orders through Miami and then truck them up, but she believes her flowers last longer and look better because there is less lag time from field to delivery. About twice a year, Mr. Guillen visits Ecuador, where he has relationships with farmers and also checks out the markets to see if there are better-quality suppliers. In Holland there is a standing order, but Ms. Keenan tries to visit that country, too, once or twice a year. A Dutch broker places their order for tulips in an international flower market that attracts hundreds of buyers and suppliers from all over the world.    “There’s a conveyor belt that is two blocks long,” Ms. Keenan said. When the grower they like comes in, a Dutch broker clocks in to get, for example, 5,000 tulips for them. “Once they are bought, they are bar-coded for Dutch Petals and travel on the conveyor” to the broker’s receiving area. “They are boxed up and shipped to us that night.”  Even for mass production, tulip bulbs must be planted by hand. One grower has “30 people planting all day long,” Ms. Keenan said. “People don’t know what it takes to get that bouquet of flowers on their table.”  There does seem to be a payoff. Flowers so far are proving to be recession-proof, she said. Mr. Fischetti cautioned that “we don’t know what the economy will bring,” but Ms. Keenan said that people spending more time at home are looking for ways to brighten up that space.    “It’s a feel-good thing and it’s cost-effective,”  she said. Whether a little bunch of flowers, or a plant that provides lasting pleasure, she said, “more people are buying our flowers.”