Fleurop–history

Why were people looking for a way to send flowers to other cities or even countries?

Simply because there were more and more individuals whose friends or relatives did not live so close that they could have delivered the flowers to them personally.

You could put them in a box and send them by mail. But since flowers did not necessarily survive long journeys, one began to think about sending only the order to the florist at the place of delivery.

Fortunately, telegraph and telephon developed at that time.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, a number of resourceful individuals in the flower trade decided the time was ripe for a flower delivery network.

The originator was Berlin florist Max Hübner, who introduced the so-called «Deutsche Blumenspenden-Vermittlung» (German Flower Gifting Service) in Germany in 1908. He discussed the idea with his colleagues, who swiftly grasped the potential inherent in a service of this kind. A total of 98 flower shops joined up within the first year.

A short time later, the idea came to the attention of florists in the United States who, in 1910, founded the Florists' Telegraph Delivery (FTD) network.

In 1925, the FTD expanded its network to include an international service, the Florists' Transworld Delivery network.

A few years after its establishment in the USA, the FTD decided to reinvent Mercury, the Roman messenger god, as the symbol of swift floral deliveries and official corporate logo.

Today, the Mercury Man is a global presence and has become - even if somewhat modernized - one of the most iconic company logos worldwide.

The British flower trade embraced the idea of transmitting flower orders by telegraph in the 1920s. An innovative florist in Glasgow and a tree nursery owner in Essex applied for membership in the American FTD as foreign members.

Their request was granted, and by 1923 no fewer than 17 British florists had become FTD partners, enough for the US organisation to decide to set up the British Unit, a branch organisation operating under the umbrella of the FTD. The name was changed to Interflora British Group in 1953.

In the meantime, Max Hübner - the florist who had launched the first flower gifting service in Berlin in 1908 - was living in Zurich.

He had met, courted and married a Swiss woman, Klara Krämer, and was running the Krämer flower shop there. The shop is still doing business today. Hübner was determined to expand the flower delivery network further.

By 1927 he had secured the collaboration of 3,064 florists in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Holland and Belgium. In the same year, Fleurop (the name is derived from «flores Europae», meaning the flowers of Europe) was founded as an internationally oriented organisation at a gathering in Zurich's Kursaal.

Max Hübner was unanimously elected as the first president of the European Fleurop organisation, and Zurich was chosen as the location of its first head office.

Interflora Inc. was founded in Copenhagen in 1946 to boost business in the wake of the Second World War.

This floral delivery network with its global operations was created through the merger of Fleurop (for continental Europe), the Interflora British Group (for Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa) and the FTD (for North and South America and Japan).

The fleurin was introduced at that time, an in-company currency created to simplify the internal payment system. Initially based on the Swiss franc, the fleurin has been pegged to the euro since November 2003.

The founders also decided to establish the Mercury symbol as the company logo; it has become a familiar sight all over the world, albeit with some graphical modifications. Interflora Inc. operates from its headquarters in Southfield (Michigan, USA).

Fleurop Austria and Fleurop Switzerland decide to collaborate and found Fleurop-Interflora Austria GmbH with headquarters in Vienna.

Reason: the Swiss market is saturated, in Austria there is great growth potential. As Switzerland is constantly investing a lot of work and capital in the latest technologies and effective marketing measures, a joint approach creates a win-win agreement.

The internationally renowned flower delivery network has modernized its logo.

This change is part of a decision by the international Interflora-Fleurop group to unify the global presence of its national companies and thus give the brand a stronger global expression.