Raphi Aronowicz is the co-founder of Tonic Blooms, an Ontario-based flower delivery company. He sat down with The Peak ahead of the Valentine’s Day rush to talk about the business.
What is a common misconception about your industry?
People think it’s a simple, high-margin business, but it’s one of the most challenging industries. You’re dealing with a sensitive, perishable product that requires special handling, especially when temperatures are cold. They also have to look perfect.
What is the most in-demand flower?
Peonies, 100%. We have one bouquet, Coral Flamingo, that starts off deep pink and turns white as it blooms. It’s magical, but it’s such a limited season. We’re always experimenting and working with growers to introduce new flowers to customers, like butterfly ranunculus, which is now a very popular flower for us.
What does the flower supply chain look like?
Sourcing locally extends the life of the flowers, and scale helps us get better deals. Certain flowers, like roses, aren't grown at a high quality locally, so we mostly rely on suppliers in Central America.
How do you keep the quality high?
Many people think all flower companies are the same, but some are aggregators that don’t arrange or deliver the bouquets themselves. We’ve vertically integrated, meaning we source, process, arrange, and deliver the flowers. This gives us control over the quality and experience.
How do you prepare for Valentine’s Day?
As soon as one Valentine's Day wraps, we’re already thinking about the next: analyzing what worked, which flowers performed well, and what we can improve. Delivery is more efficient because the routes are so dense, but production is where the most effort goes. There’s no way to ‘scale’ floral arrangements, so we have to nearly triple the size of the team.
Do you know how many orders you’ll get on the day?
Some companies will make the decision to overbook and deal with customer complaints later, but we set a cap on the number of orders based on what we know we can fulfill. We also like to promote the idea of Valentine’s week to spread out the holiday.
Why do people send flowers?
Besides the obvious occasions — birthdays, anniversaries, and sympathy — we’ve seen a huge rise in corporate gifting. Companies are sending flowers to employees for onboarding, milestones, or client appreciation. Beyond that, I would say like 90% of the customer base is women sending flowers to other women for all sorts of reasons.
Did that surprise you?
When I first got into the business, I thought sending flowers was going to be mostly about romantic gestures, but that’s not at all the case. Flowers are a powerful communication tool. When you don’t really know what to say, you can say it with flowers.