Aiken creating beauty in a box
Published:Friday | July 3, 2020 | 12:11 AMVanessa James/Gleaner Writer
They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but Kerry-Ann Aiken is the creator of it using her carefully arranged floral boxes. It was an idea to be different and stand out for Mother’s Day a year ago, but has thrived and is even managing through the coronavirus pandemic. Aiken is extremely proud of her achievement – KW Bloom Box.
Aiken is a wedding and events planner, but had to close her doors since March due to the pandemic. “The name KW Bloom Box came from my event company which is called KW Event and Rentals. So I was just trying to keep it along those lines so that people would make the association, ” she explained.
“Even with the pandemic, the business has not stopped; people are still sending out presents, people are still buying succulents,” she said, “These are our peak times – Mother’s Day, Christmas time, Valentine’s Day, of course, and we did pretty well for Father’s Day this year,” Aiken finished.
“We started with a product that almost nobody else had – the acrylic boxes that we put the roses in. They come in different sizes – nine, 16, 25, 36 and 49 – that’s how many roses come in each, with the bestsellers being the nine, 16 and 25.”
Signature item
These boxes have become the signature item for her business and are the base for the name of the store. Aiken relishes the special occasions on the calendar as that is when business blooms.
Within these bloom boxes are flowers beautifully arranged to fit each customer’s budget and desire, and all Aiken needs is a day’s notice to put it all together. She told The Gleaner that along with the boxes, she does regular floral arrangements, with the design usually based on the buyer’s budget and preferred colour scheme.
“It goes up depending on what you want or how much they want to spend. I would send pictures so they have an idea of what they will be getting, so that everybody is satisfied, “ she shared.
Based on her process, a relationship is created which guarantees customer satisfaction. Customers can have arrangements using orchids or purchasing succulents, with the option of switching vases and choosing their desired plant to go with it, once the product is available.