Birmingham florists bloom into success

A BIRMINGHAM duo are arranging their way to success with their flowers and botanical company.

Katy Pegg and Vicky MacGregor-Dignan, from Sutton Coldfield, are the pair behind Bloom Collective. After both studying Fine Art and going on to complete a course at Birmingham’s Botanical Gardens, the co-owners were eager to create a company that felt fresh.

After setting up Bloom Collective in late 2015, the duo started gaining local attention in their hometown after selling their range of flowers, plants and botanicals at market stalls. However, they eventually decided to put serious effort into their social media presence and haven’t looked back since.

Co-owner Katy said: “We both felt like the florists in our local area felt slightly stale and old, we wanted to do something that felt a bit fresher. We are very creative people and with flowers you can create art and let your imagination run wild, but also create a business out of it.”

Both Katy and Vicky run Bloom Collective alongside their teaching careers. Katy is a teaching assistant at Hill West Primary School in Sutton Coldfield and Vicky is an art technician at Alderbrook Secondary School in Solihull. However, they are eager to eventually open their very own florist in Birmingham city centre.

Katy and Vicky are adamant that Bloom Collective has only grown at such a speed due to their social media accounts, including a very popular Instagram. Katy said: “Instagram has helped massively within setting up Bloom Collective and creating our brand. It has helped us connect with other likeminded people.

“We have met so many brands and customers through being active on it, it has worked out well.”

The duo have recently seen great success with their ‘flower drop’ idea, where they create bouquets and other botanicals and deliver them to people across the Midlands on the last weekend of every month. Katy said: “The flower drop makes us different and its great meeting with people we connect with online.

“We think that other companies that deliver flowers aren’t very personal, but we put the effort into creating them and delivering them to their door in person. It has been really successful so far and every month, we have more and more people getting involved.”

Bloom Collective are following the trend of many other Birmingham based independent companies who are finding that a pinch of personalisation is the way forward and Katy puts a lot of this down to the ‘Pinterest generation’.

She said: “There is definitely more of a need for personalisation now. I think with the likes of Pinterest and Instagram, where people can explore so much more than they used to, people expect things of better quality now and more individual and creative.”

However, creating their individual bouquets and plants for their followers, who have now become customers, requires a considerable amount of hard work. The duo often become inspired by the seasons and the world around them.

Katy said: “We work from home and are both passionate about fresh, seasonal produce. So, we spend our free time looking for inspiration around us and online. We then head to the wholesale market and spend our mornings admiring the flowers and plants and deciding what would look great together. It is weeks of work before a flower drop.”

The duo behind Bloom Collective are now setting up workshops to teach others their florist skills. Katy and Vicky will put on their first ever event in time for Christmas with a wreath workshop where people can create their very own botanical masterpiece for their front door in time for the exciting season.