Failure to land a £14m-a-year contract was blamed by floristry firm JZ Flowers for a sharp profit drop in 2018.
JZ Flowers, which employs up to 1,500 people at peak times of the year, produces around 12 million stems of flowers every week, for some of the UK’s biggest supermarket names.
The business, based in Newport, East Yorkshire, earlier this year announced it had signed a new £64m deal in Ireland with Aldi to supply 33m fresh flower stems to stores across the country.
However, newly-filed accounts have revealed JZ Flowers turnover dropped from £124.6m to £114.6m in 2018 – a dip of eight per cent.
Profits before tax also fell from £5m in 2017 to just over £4m.
JZ Flowers said despite winning a five-year contract with its largest customer during the year, the company had missed out on a £14m-a-year order in 2018.
It said that was to blame for the drop in turnover and profits.
Directors said: “The company also successfully secured a three-year contract to supply seasonal products to its second largest customer…
“However, the tender for a three-year contract to supply of the core range lines, annualised in the region of £14m, was unsuccessful.
“In the light of the above, the group’s turnover has fallen to £114.6m.”
JZ Flowers said the weak value of the pound, and constant uncertainty surrounding Brexit, had meant 2018 was a year of “stagnant growth.”
It did however say it hoped 2019 would see “moderate growth” for JZ Flowers.
In 2018, profits before tax fell to just over £4m – down from £5m in 2017.
Earlier this year, JZ Flowers’ owner Newport Buildings submitted plans to expand the firm’s facility in East Yorkshire, close to the M62 at North Cave.
A statement submitted with the plans said: “Since the original purchase of the site further land acquisition has taken place and a decision taken to move Intergreen from Spalding in Lincolnshire to Newport.
“Intergreen is a duplicate of the JZ Flowers facility and provides for the production, packaging and distribution of bouquets solely for Tesco.
“Collectively, JZ and Intergreen provide 27 per cent of the UK supermarket floral bouquet requirement.”
In the run up to peak times such as Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, flower production at the site increases to 48 million stems.
JZ Flowers are the sole flower supplier to all of Aldi’s national supermarkets, while Intergreen deals exclusively with Tesco.
The expansion, if approved by East Riding Council, would create a further 10 jobs.
