Merotto Fiori: customised offerings in a volatile market with Floriday

Italy is the land of romance. Federico Merotto (co-owner of Merotto Fiori) has noticed that more and more couples from other European countries are coming here to get married. His specialised sales staff help wedding planners find exactly the right flowers for exactly the right place. 

More precisely, Merotto Fiori serves the entire traditional market, with dedicated teams working with florists, garden centers, agricultural stores, wholesalers, and, as said, wedding planners. Floriday is a useful tool for this. "With just a few clicks, we can see the entire range, fitted to the trends we see in the Italian market, including from growers we don't yet know. This helps us to better meet our customers' wishes."

Cash & carry

It is busy at Merotto Fiori's cash & carry, about sixty kilometres north of Venice. On a normal Friday morning, Italian customers drive in and out. Flowers and plants from all over the world are sold here, for example from the Netherlands, South America and Thailand. Next to that, they offer a varied and high quality selection from Italy itself – one of Merotto Fiori’s key strengths. These are cut flowers that arrive via the company's own hubs in Tuscany and San Remo. 

"Our lorries driving from and to these hubs are purely a logistic flow. By using these hubs, we can guarantee an continuous interesting range of products in stock", Federico explains. "With other lorries, we drive to our customers. They contain flowers and plants that they ordered in advance. We also fill the lorries with extra plants and flowers for them to choose from: think of it as a cash & carry on wheels."

Customer, quality and grower

The quality of the products is important, as is the relationship with the people he works with. "Providing the very best service to the customer is our top priority. We achieve this with satisfied employees who are always willing to go the extra mile. For the company and for our customers." Equally important to Federico is maintaining good relations with the growers.

"We work with them respectfully, preferably for the longer term and with ongoing orders. They have to plan their cultivation. And we are loyal to them so that they can actually sell their flowers and plants", says Federico. "In doing so, we always look for the best match: farms that can deliver the right quality together with us." Floriday fits in nicely with this.

Different growers, different channels

Federico is pleased with the arrival of Floriday. "We now have access to a wider range of growers that we didn't have access to before. Floriday also makes the range of flowers and plants much clearer. With just a few clicks, we can see what's available at that moment – suitable for our specific request and in line with the trends we see in the Italian market – including the price tag." Floriday is a welcome addition to Merotto Fiori's purchasing channels for direct purchases from growers. The company also buys through the Royal FloraHolland auction clock, via exporter and importer partners and directly from growers by telephone.

Why did you choose three different purchasing methods? "It's very simple: not all the growers we like to work with are on Floriday. Another factor is that sometimes a purchase and its delivery are complex and we still need to contact the grower by telephone. Royal FloraHolland provides logistical support up to the delivery location we specify in the Netherlands. We arrange the onward transport to Italy. In that case, it also helps to have telephone contact with the grower in addition to digital contact."

Rapidly changing demand

Merotto Fiori is a true family business: Federico literally and figuratively grew up among plants and flowers. He has been the owner, together with his father, since 2023. The company has been in existence for almost forty years and focuses primarily on customers in north-eastern Italy. The market has changed significantly since its inception. "In the past, people used to buy flowers much more often for funerals and cemeteries," Federico cites as an example. That is declining. Young Italians care less about that.

"People now buy flowers and plants more often for their homes, to give as gifts or for parties or weddings. The challenge for us is to keep our range in line with this, together with our regular growers." The range was much smaller in the early years of Merotto Fiori, he recalls. "Now the market is more diverse. And demand is also changing more quickly, even during the year. That's why easy access to a wider range of plants and flowers, including up-to-date product knowledge and insight into trends, is necessary."

Saving time

Time is an important factor in the work of a floriculture wholesaler. Responding to increasingly diverse customer requests, arranging logistics from grower to cash & carry and buyers, maintaining good relationships with customers and growers: the days fly by for Federico and his team. Help with purchasing and saving time is therefore more than welcome.

Visit farms

Floriday provides that help, as does the Match & Connect team at Royal FloraHolland. This team brings growers and buyers together at international floriculture trade fairs and organises study trips to farms. At the end of last year, Federico travelled with a number of other wholesalers to farms in Kenya. "Very educational and interesting: I had never been to that country before, even though we have been doing business there for years.’ During the visit, he spoke with owners and employees of farms and learned about their work processes, the challenges they face and how their prices are determined. ‘This created mutual understanding, which benefits our services and communication."

Federico is enthusiastic about this type of contact with growers. "While we explore new markets such as Asia, one of our goal remains to strengthen and expand our partnerships with growers connected to Royal FloraHolland. The fact that Royal FloraHolland supports this with a broad network in the global horticultural sector certainly helps in this regard."