Continental Flowers celebrates grand opening of new Florida facility
Continental Flowers celebrates grand opening of new Florida facility
Continental Flowers, a grower, importer and distributor of cut flowers, celebrated the grand opening of its new distribution center Oct. 21 in Doral, FL, coinciding with the Wholesale Florist & Florist Supplier Association’s Floral Distribution Conference Oct. 21-23.
“Our new facility is a modern and efficient distribution center that gives us double the capacity of our previous facility, which is only 10 blocks away in the same Doral area,” Eric Fernandez, Continental’s director of mass markets and business development, told The Produce News. “It gives us the capacity to move more cases, set up a fully outfitted production line, eight tractor-trailer ready doors — the last facility could only accommodate two — and state-of-the-art network and server room for our various tech programs. Moreover, it only occupies half the property and thus we can double the warehouse again — soon.”
Continental Flowers’ new distribution center in Doral, FL, more than doubles the former facility, allowing for future growth.Fernandez explained that Continental Flowers has ownership stakes in five farms in Colombia — four of the farms with one family in Bogota and one farm with another family outside of Medellin — and partnership relationships with about 50 additional farms. “One of them has been with us for close to 40 years —we are very proud of that,” said Fernandez.
The company plans to continue to grow in both the wholesale and mass-market segments of the floral industry. “Mass markets is growing faster as we continue to improve our bouquet and consumer bunch programs, along with building a great mass-market team,” Fernandez said.
This year also marks Continental Flowers’ 41st anniversary in the flower business.
“In 41 years we have grown to serve many segments in the floral industry, yet we have not lost our tradition of our family serving our customers, which we also think of as family,” company founder and President Bill Fernandez said. “We are proud to count on a large staff of excellent employees that include 50 in Miami and 450 in Colombia — many have been with us for more than 25 years. We feel that this continuity has contributed to our dependability and success.”
