Freddie’s Flowers expansion is a blooming disaster

Losses at Freddie’s Flowers have ballooned after it unsuccessfully tried to expand abroad.

The flower subscription service ploughed cash into launching trials in the Netherlands and California, but abandoned its efforts to concentrate on the UK and Germany instead.

The business posted a loss of £18.8 million in the year to August 2022, according to accounts filed at Companies House, despite sales rising by 15 per cent to more than £55 million.

The loss was almost four times bigger than the £4.8 million of red ink reported in 2021.

Freddie’s Flowers, which was founded by entrepreneur Freddie Garland in 2014, was one of the so-called ‘lockdown winners’ after the number of subscribers surged during the pandemic.

Growing pains: Freddie Garland’s flower firm has racked up an £18.8million loss

Its £25 per week deal for DIY bouquets, which buyers arrange themselves, became an affordable luxury for many who were stuck at home and was also a popular gift when social distancing meant many could not celebrate birthdays or other events in person.

The company scrambled to hire staff and raised millions from investors to ramp up the business.

The accounts show Freddie’s Flowers almost doubled the number of employees on its payroll to around 480 staff members on average in the year to August.

But last summer it was reported to be slashing jobs and looking at restructuring as sales plunged during the cost-of-living crisis.

Garland, 35, set up the company in a gazebo in his parents’ back garden after quitting his job at organic food group Abel & Cole.

His parents are both florists and he says he ‘practically grew up in their flower shop in Pimlico’.