1-800-Flowers.com, Inc.

Last updated

1-800-Flowers.com, Inc.
Company type Public
Nasdaq:  FLWS (Class A)
Russell 2000 Component
Industry Retail
Founded1976;48 years ago (1976)
Founder James McCann
Headquarters Jericho, New York, United States
Key people
Products
  • Flowers
  • Gift baskets
  • Plants
  • Food
  • Collectibles
Subsidiaries Harry & David
Website 1800flowersinc.com

1-800-Flowers.com, Inc. [1] is a floral and foods gift retailer and distribution company in the United States. The company's focus, except for Mother's Day and Valentine's Day, is on gift baskets. They also use the name 1-800-Baskets.com. [1] Their use of "coyly self-descriptive telephone numbers" is part of founder James McCann's business model. [2] [3]

Contents

History

Founding and early years

The concept of using the word "flowers" within a phoneword was originated by William Alexander in the early 1980s. The phone number, 1-800-356-9377, had been randomly assigned to a trucking brokerage in Wisconsin owned by Curtis Jahn and was used for that company until 1981. In an agreement with Jahn that would later be sharply contested, Granville Semmes and David Snow formed a Louisiana corporation that began to use that number to sell flowers in Louisiana, starting in 1982. [4] The use of the number would trigger a series of lawsuits. [4] Their business struggled and that company was dissolved, with its assets going to investors James Poage and John Davis of Texas. The new corporation struggled financially as well. [4] Its assets were acquired in 1986 by McCann, an owner of several flower shops in the New York City area since 1976, under whom the business saw success and growth. [5]

In 1994, the company bought Conroy's Flowers. [6] The 1800flowers.com domain name was registered on September 1, 1995. [7]

In May 2006, Alpine Confections Inc. brands including Fannie May Confections, Fannie Farmer and Harry London Candies were purchased for $85 million. [8]

In September 2007, it announced a partnership with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia to produce a line of floral products inspired by Martha Stewart. [9]

According to the Consumerist in 2008, customers reported unknowingly being subscribed to a "membership" called LiveWell after receiving rebate checks from 1-800-Flowers. [10]

It had 4000 employees as of 2008, with a market cap of US$119 million. [11]

In 2009, revenue was US$714 million. [12] Operating income was US$72.2 million, [12] net income was US$98.4 million, [12] assets were valued at US$286 million, [13] and equity was at 134 million. [13]

In March 2017, Fannie May and Harry London were sold to Ferrero SpA for $115 million. [14]

Acquisitions

See also

Related Research Articles

National Amusements, Inc. is an American privately owned movie theater operator and mass media holding company incorporated in Maryland and based in Norwood, Massachusetts.

Harry and David, LLC is an American-based premium food and gift producer and retailer. The company sells its products through direct mail, online, corporate gifting, and in their flagship location in Medford, Oregon, and operates the brands Harry & David, Wolferman's, and Vital Choice.

Coca-Cola Enterprises was a marketer, producer, and distributor of Coca-Cola products. It was formerly the anchor bottler for Western Europe and most of North America.

Fanny Farmer was an American candy manufacturer and retailer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Florists' Transworld Delivery</span> American Flower Delivery Corporation

FTD LLC (FTD), also known as Florists' Transworld Delivery, is a floral wire service, retailer, and wholesaler based in Downers Grove, Illinois, in the United States. FTD was founded as Florists' Telegraph Delivery in 1910, to help customers send flowers remotely on the same day by using florists in the FTD network who are near the intended recipient. It was based in Detroit, Michigan and then moved to Southfield, Michigan prior to its move to Downers Grove. It originated as a retailers' cooperative and began a process of demutualization in 1994. It operates two main businesses: The Consumer Business sells flowers and gift items through its websites and The Floral Business sells computer services, software and even fresh cut flowers to FTD and Interflora affiliated florists.

First Data Corporation is a financial services company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The company's STAR Network provides nationwide domestic debit acceptance at more than 2 million retail POS, ATM, and at online outlets for nearly a third of all U.S. debit cards.

ProFlowers is a flower retailer in the United States. It is an e-commerce company that sells products shipped from growers, suppliers and its own distribution facilities to consumers. ProFlowers was headquartered in San Diego, California. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of FTD Companies.

Fannie May Confection Brands, Inc. is an American chocolate manufacturer headquartered in Chicago and currently owned by multinational company Ferrero SpA. Fannie May manufactures a broad variety of products including enrobed, barks, caramels, squares, berries, twist wrapped, molded, flow wrapped, and boxed chocolates. Fannie May produces various candies without gluten, milk, honey, oil(s), wheat, and/or eggs for those with the relevant allergies. The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America certified many of Fannie May's products to be kosher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art Technology Group</span> Former independent internet technology company

Art Technology Group (ATG) was an independent internet technology company specializing in eCommerce software and on-demand optimization applications until its acquisition by Oracle on January 5, 2011. ATG continues to be based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and operates under its own name as a subsidiary of Oracle. The company is a provider of eCommerce software and related on-demand commerce optimization applications. ATG's solutions provide merchandising, marketing, content personalization, automated recommendations, and live-help services.

Actel Corporation was an American manufacturer of nonvolatile, low-power field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), mixed-signal FPGAs, and programmable logic solutions. It had its headquarters in Mountain View, California, with offices worldwide. In November 2010, Microsemi acquired Actel for $430 million.

James F. "Jim" McCann is an American entrepreneur who founded 1-800-Flowers, a corporation based on Long Island, in New York; 1-800 Flowers was one of the first companies to pioneer and popularize the use of both toll-free telephone numbers and Web sites to sell goods and services directly to consumers.

Actuate Corporation is a publicly traded reporting, analytics and customer communications software company based in San Mateo, California, part of the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley. The company’s software is intended for use in the finance, government, manufacturing, telecommunications, and healthcare industries, among others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phoneword</span> Mnemonic phrases represented as alphanumeric equivalents of a telephone number

Phonewords are mnemonic phrases represented as alphanumeric equivalents of a telephone number. In many countries, the digits on the telephone keypad also have letters assigned. By replacing the digits of a telephone number with the corresponding letters, it is sometimes possible to form a whole or partial word, an acronym, abbreviation, or some other alphanumeric combination.

Epicor Software Corporation is a business software company based in Austin, Texas founded in 1972. Its products are aimed at the manufacturing, distribution, retail and services industries.

A teledotcom is a domain name that not only spells a memorable word but also has a matching toll-free telephone number. This means the word that spells something will have a toll-free prefix and a top level domain extension after it. A teledotcom can be accessible by either phone or internet address.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Jordan Company</span> American private equity firm

TJC, formerly known as The Jordan Company is a private equity firm focused on leveraged buyout and management buyout investments in smaller middle-market companies across a range of industries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ACI Worldwide</span> American payment systems company

ACI Worldwide Inc. is a payment systems company headquartered in Miami, Florida. ACI develops a broad line of software focused on facilitating real-time electronic payments. These products and services are used globally by banks, financial intermediaries such as third-party electronic payment processors, payment associations, switch interchanges, merchants, corporations, and a wide range of transaction-generating endpoints, including automated teller machines ("ATM"), merchant point of sale ("POS") terminals, bank branches, mobile phones, tablet computers, corporations, and internet commerce sites.

Worldpay, Inc. is an American payment processing company and technology provider. In February 2024, it was separated from Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) to become an independent company once again. It is majority owned by private equity firm GTCR. It is headquartered in the greater Cincinnati, Ohio area. Worldpay, Inc., is the largest U.S. merchant acquirer ranked by general-purpose transaction volume.

Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. is an American privately held company that operates in the prepaid, gift card and payments industries. It sells branded physical and digital gifts, phones, prepaid debit, and incentives cards online and through a network of global retailers. Blackhawk's network reaches people through a number of different channels including in-store, online, mobile, and incentive. Blackhawk headquarters are in Pleasanton, California and the company was incorporated in 2006.

Things Remembered is an e-commerce retailer specializing in personalized gifts, messaging and engraving.

References

  1. 1 2 Quenqua, Douglas (December 22, 2009). "Bringing Bouquets and Gift Baskets Together". The New York Times .
  2. Elliott, Stuart (September 24, 1993). "The Media Business: Advertising -- Addenda; Teleway Shifts Accounts to McCann". The New York Times.
  3. Ketcham, Diane (September 13, 1992). "ABOUT LONG ISLAND; At the Other End of the 800 Toll-Free Line". The New York Times.
  4. 1 2 3 CURTIS P. JAHN and CAPITOL WAREHOUSING CORPORATION, Plaintiffs, v. 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, INC., FRESH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTIES, INC. and 800-FLOWERS, INC.(District Court for the Western District of WisconsinJuly 23, 2001), Text .
  5. Libetti, Robert (July 19, 2012). "How 1-800-Flowers Went From A Storefront Flower Shop To A $700 Million Business". Business Insider .
  6. Smith, Richard D. (January 8, 1995). "From One Little Shop, an 800-Flowers Garden Grows". The New York Times . Archived from the original on September 22, 2021.
  7. "WHOIS page". Network Solutions. November 6, 2012. Retrieved November 6, 2012.
  8. 1 2 "Sweet success: Fannie May back after bankruptcy". Daily Herald . Associated Press. November 28, 2010. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
  9. "1-800-Flowers.com, Martha Stewart Living in tie-up". Reuters. September 20, 2007. Retrieved November 6, 2012.
  10. "1800flowers Dupes You Into Signing Up For "LiveWell" For $11.99 Per Month". The Consumerist . Retrieved November 6, 2012.
  11. "Company Profile for 1-800-FLOWERS.COM Inc (FLWS)". Zenobank. Retrieved October 17, 2008.
  12. 1 2 3 1-800 Flowers.com (FLWS) annual SEC income statement filing via Wikinvest
  13. 1 2 1-800 Flowers.com (FLWS) annual SEC balance sheet filing via Wikinvest
  14. Channick, Robert (March 17, 2017). "Italian maker of Nutella buys Fannie May". Chicago Tribune . Retrieved October 13, 2018.
  15. Goins, Tony (March 11, 2005). "1-800-Flowers to buy Cheryl & Co". Columbus Business First. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
  16. "1-800-Flowers.com buys DesignPac Gifts". Multichannelmerchant.com. June 1, 2008.
  17. "FORM 10-K". Securities & Exchange Commission. 2010.
  18. "FORM 10-K". Securities & Exchange Commission. 2013.
  19. Wassel, Bryan (August 5, 2019). "1-800-FLOWERS.COM Acquires Shari's Berries For $20.5 Million". Retailtouchpoints.com. Archived from the original on November 6, 2019.
  20. Blair, Adam (August 3, 2020). "1-800-FLOWERS Finalizes $245 Million Personalization Mall Acquisition". Retailtouchpoints.com. Archived from the original on September 28, 2020.
  21. Blank, Christine (October 28, 2021). "1-800-Flowers acquires Vital Choice". Seafoodsource.com. Archived from the original on January 24, 2022.
  22. "1-800-Flowers.com acquires Alice's Table lifestyle operation". Retailcustomerexperience.com. January 14, 2022. Archived from the original on January 14, 2022.
  23. PYMNTS (May 2, 2023). "1-800-FLOWERS.COM Buys SmartGift to Expand Gifting Capabilities - PYMNTS.com 1-800-FLOWERS.COM Buys SmartGift to Expand Gifting Capabilities" . Retrieved November 13, 2023.