Morrisons is more than doubling the number of flower stalls in its supermarkets and taking on 180 professional florists to create fresh bouquets to meet rising demand.
The Bradford-based supermarket chain said it wanted to offer jobs to floral arrangement specialists who might have lost work during the coronavirus lockdowns, when some high street stores were forced to close. It will now employ 300 florists in total, across more than 100 flower stalls.
Jane Watson, the flowers manager at Morrisons, said: “We work with some of the best growers in the world and have some of the best stems. So we wanted to have the best florists in store to make bouquets for our customers. It’s been a difficult year for the flower industry, and we hope this also provides good job prospects for florists looking for work.â€
Flowers proved a hit during lockdown, with plants and flowers among the top three most common items bought, according to figures from Barclaycard. Recent Google data showed online searches for flowers were up 277%. Morrisons is currently selling more then 4m flower stems every week.