Flowers have a short shelf life from the time they are picked to arriving at retail locations or florists. They require a high-quality cold storage environment to preserve the quality and appearance of flowers. Fresh flowers must be kept at strict temperature and humidity requirements throughout the entire process. Finding the right floral cooler is the first step in preserving the beauty and lifespan of flowers resulting in more sales and less waste.
This blog is a buying guide on how to find the right floral cooler for florists and retail store owners.
Floral Refrigeration
Not all refrigeration is equal when it comes to the preservation of flowers and floral displays. Due to the delicate nature of flowers, it is crucial to utilize refrigeration units specific to floral refrigeration as they gently circulate cooled air without damaging flowers.
Floral refrigeration also offers humidity control to slow flower dehydration, improving the lifespan of the flowers.
The combination of humidity control and gentle circulation is the main difference between traditional refrigeration and floral cooler refrigeration. Traditional refrigeration has no need to limit the amount of cold air released and therefore would damage the delicate petals.
The other factor is the humidity. Traditional refrigeration is manufactured to maintain low humidity levels to prevent products from mold and other factors.
Why Is Humidity and Temperature Important In Floral Coolers?
The storage temperature of flowers is extremely important to the shelf life of the flower. The ideal temperature range of fresh cut flowers is (33-35) and flowers in this temperature range tend to last longer and have twice the vase life of flowers stored above 35. Additionally, temperature fluctuations can greatly impact the freshness and quality of flowers. Which is why it is extremely important to have temperature consistency within a floral cooler.
Individual stems die the moment they are cut as the temperature around the flower increases, the rate at which the flower decomposes increases as it releases moisture. As this occurs, the flower dehydrates resulting in wilting, sagging, color degradation and petals that won’t open.
To delay the decomposition process of cut flowers, florists and retailers utilize refrigeration to store flowers at specific temperatures.
While noted above that the standard temperature for floral storage ranges between 33 and 35 degrees, the optimal storage temperature for cut flowers depends on the type and condition of the flower.
Retailers and florists must maintain proper temperatures and humidity levels. To do so, floral or flower coolers are necessary to control those environmental conditions.
Maintaining the health of your cut flowers is not all about keeping them cool.
To maximize the life of cut flowers, the humidity in which they are stored is key. Choosing the right floral cooler for your cut flowers should allow the flowers to be stored for weeks, as long as the flower was in good condition when it arrived.
To summarize, flowers require coolers specific to the storage of flowers that provide low temperatures, high humidity, and gentle circulating air. Without a floral cooler to control these environmental conditions, these things cannot be achieved resulting in premature deterioration of flowers and lost profits.
Types of Floral Coolers
There are many different types and options available for retailers (such as wholesalers and grocery stores) and florists. Floral coolers can be customized to meet the exact needs of each type of customers specifications and purpose. For florists, large floral coolers are needed to store bulk inventory of different flowers.
These large floral coolers are typically not customer facing and located in a back-room area. These coolers are best known as walk in floral coolers, flower coolers or florist coolers.
Floral coolers in retail stores, where customers buy directly from the store floor, glass doors and other features can be added for merchandising and display. These coolers are often referred to as self-serve floral coolers, self-serve flower coolers, or open air floral coolers and can be customized based on size, storage requirements, finishes, doors, windows, and other components.
Self-Serve
Self-serve floral coolers are a great choice for florist and retailers alike to display premade arrangements for customers to choose from. To ensure the success of sales, it is important to have a self-serve floral cooler that allows customers to easily see the flower arrangements available and easily select the bouquet of their choosing.
To accomplish this, floral cooler manufacturers, such as KPS Global®, design and manufacture floral coolers that provide an aesthetically pleasing display of flowers, with easy access by a variety of door options.
Florist Coolers
When finding the right floral cooler for florists there are a few considerations to think about. First, it is important to understand the storage space needed and the intended use. Many florists create arrangements for large events and need enough storage capacity to store the arrangements and the individual flowers. Florists can utilize one or multiple customized walk-in coolers that provides enough storage capacity, creates an efficient assembly process, and preserves the quality and freshness of flowers.
Retail Floral Coolers
For retailers, the right floral cooler should not only preserve the quality and freshness of the flowers but also provide an attractive display to customers. To create an attractive customer facing floral cooler, customers can utilize clear glass doors, various finishes, display shelves, lighting, and other components. Panels can also be angled to create a unique design that creates an easily viewable display for customers. The right floral cooler should be designed for easily accessible storage, merchandising, and display.
Customization Options
Customizing a floral cooler for your needs is feasible at most manufacturers. Custom floral coolers allow florists and retailers to design a floral cooler that best fits their need to ensure the flowers are maintained properly while also offering an efficient assembly design. Customizations include sizing, doors applications and more
Doors
Considerations in choosing a floral cooler door include:
- Available Space
- Customer Preferences
- Cooler Use
Sliding Glass Doors
Sliding glass doors for floral coolers offers florists and retailers options as they require less space to open. One downside to sliding doors for floral coolers is their inability to stay open without the need to hold it. This may make it difficult for customers to pull and select a flower arrangement and should be considered.
Traditional Swing Display Doors
Like their name, swing doors open out away from the cooler and often have a self-closing mechanism to avoid being left open. Leaving a door open to a cooler results in higher temperature and humidity levels increasing the amount of energy required to operate the cooler.
Open Air
Open air coolers for floral arrangements are a common choice among florist and retailers who display large selections of premade bouquets. Open air floral coolers allow customers to easily view and grab arrangements quickly. One factor that should be taken into consideration is the amount of energy needed to properly cool and maintain flowers with an open air cooler. Because these coolers are open they are known to utilize more energy than other floral cooler options, adding to the operational cost of your floral business.
Determining The Right Size Needed or a Floral Cooler
Floral coolers are available in a variety of sizes and are customizable to adapt to your space. When asking yourself “what size floral cooler do I need?” there are two considerations that must be carefully thought through.
- In what capacity do you plan to bulk order and store your flowers?
- What type of events or customers do you intend to serve?
Some florists may not offer premade bouquets in their store and may only need a walk in floral cooler for the bulk storage of flowers. Depending on the size of the florist, some may use multiple walk-ins as flowers need room to breath within the unit and require different temperatures and humidity based on the flower type.
Wedding and event florists often need larger floral coolers solely to store a single event.
For small local florists, or small retailers, who offer pre made arrangements for customers, a smaller walk in or self-serve unit may be sufficient.
Floral Cooler Cost
It is important to not be swayed by cost when selecting a floral cooler. Standard walk in coolers typically fall on the more affordable side and many florist and retailers have fallen victim to this. Due to the delicacy of flowers, it is important to store them in special conditioned floral coolers to prolong their lifespan. Choosing a floral cooler over a standard walk in cooler will save you money in the long run as it prevents the risk of wasted product.
The Benefits of Floral Coolers
As a florist or retailer, utilizing the right floral cooler is important as it preserves the lifespan and beauty of the flowers resulting in more sales and less waste. Due to the delicate nature of flowers, they are susceptible to deteriorate quickly if not stored properly. Floral coolers prevent flowers from premature wilting, dehydration, and deterioration.
Floral coolers control humidity levels that helps to restore flowers from travel and shipping as moisture rich environments aid in healing the flowers to their original state.
Due to the options and customizations available, floral coolers provide a great storage solution of bulk flowers but can also offer the opportunity of showcasing premade arrangements to customers and allowing easy access for picking.
Used Floral Coolers
While used floral coolers are not always bad, it is highly recommended to purchase a new floral cooler as they provide better energy efficiency as today’s technology such as fans, compressors, motors, lights and panel insulation are more efficient. New floral coolers should require less energy use resulting in lower operating cost for the unit.
Floral Coolers Near Me
Searching “Floral Coolers For Sale Near Me”? No need to keep searching. KPS Global offers custom floral coolers for florists and retailers across our five strategically placed manufacturing facilities. Our in-house team of experienced team versed in designing floral coolers to meet the needs of both professional florists and retail displays.
To learn more about KPS Global or our floral cooler solutions visit our website.
