Isles of Scilly Flowers.com

Managing Director Francis Hoskin set up the business two years ago and it has gone from strength to strength.

Based at his family farm on St Mary’s, Francis now uses broadband at the core of his ‘flowers by post’ enterprise.

He says ‘Broadband is the bee’s knees as far as I am concerned!

‘Because of broadband, I can run a successful business from here, selling the flowers we grow and despatching them worldwide.

Our website has a full eCommerce facility, so the customer orders his flowers and pays online by credit card. All normal communication with the customer is by email. This has really streamlined the operation and keeps down our costs, whilst maximising our sales.’

Francis has built an email database of several thousand people and he now uses this as the basis for his marketing activity, sending out messages to tie in with the key times that people buy flowers, such as Xmas and Valentines Day.

Francis says ‘Without broadband, we simply couldn’t operate. With broadband, we have been able to build a successful business and find a market for our flowers direct, safeguarding the future for our family farm.’