Eden Prairie, Minnesota, USA: Temperature-controlled logistics company CH Robinson is gearing up for a surge in fresh flower deliveries for Mother’s Day on May 12. The company says that Mother’s Day flower orders lead to a jump in truckload demand as high as 3,000% when compared to the rest of the year.
“A huge swing in demand for temperature-controlled capacity is not something many logistics companies could tackle,” said Mike Moyski, vice president, Temperature-Controlled & Flatbed, C H Robinson. “We are proud of our ability to quickly scale to meet our customers’ needs and reduce complexities that can lead to delays. With florals, the clock on freshness runs down quickly.”
Jose Rossignoli, president of Robinson Fresh, a division of C H Robinson, said: “Last year floral sales surged to $8bn dollars in the US – up 48% since 2018. As the sector continues to expand, C H Robinson is excited to leverage our temperature-controlled air, consolidation, and surface transportation expertise and scale to support that growth and our customers’ growth.”
The full journey of a Mother’s Day bouquet:
- Temperature-Controlled Air: Direct from the field, florals are delivered to one of CH Robinson’s Latin America facilities where experts are on the ground to support airfreight capacity from Latin America directly to Miami. Once picked, the flowers are immediately cooled to 34 degrees to prevent them from blooming and will remain at that temperature throughout the full journey
- Refrigerated-Warehouse Processing: Once the florals depart Latin America, they are transported to a 50,000 sq ft temperature-controlled warehouse located at the Miami International Airport. At the inbound processing site, the stems go through customs, agricultural inspection and are quickly moved to CH Robinson’s floral site where they undergo labeling, air-cooling and consolidation before shipping to their final destination
- Temperature-Controlled Surface Transport: After packaging, the florals are loaded from tarmac to truck where C H Robinson leverages its relationships with over 7,500 retail customers combined with its temperature-controlled network – the largest in North America – to distribute the flowers to locations across the nation.
