FTD plants the seed for online expansion overseas
Now that FTD Group Inc. has fully integrated all aspects of its acquisition of Interflora Holdings, a floral products and services company based in the United Kingdom, FTD sees a big opportunity in expanding overseas.
“We are tapping a market that is just now starting to embrace the Internet,” FTD CEO Michael Soenen told Wall Street analysts on the company’s recent year-end earnings call. “It is almost like the U.S. market was five years ago.”
Of the $143.4 million in international sales FTD posted in fiscal 2007, $101.8 million, or 71%, came from the Internet. The average size of an overseas order reached $64.78. “There is a big opportunity for us to leverage our existing product sets that we have developed in the United States and port them to the United Kingdom,” Soenen told analysts. “We have very limited development costs and we can rapidly expand.”
FTD, No. 50 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, acquired Interflora for about $122 million in 2006. With a base of about 1,800 member florists, FTD sees the acquisition of Interflora as an opportunity to expand the online floral business and to add new products such as wine. “800 of the florists actually have licenses to deliver wine,” said Soenen. “That is a new product line that we are hoping to see some traction from this year along with the traditional gifts businesses.”
FTD has plans to build more international gift basket sales eventually. ”We have 800 florists over there who have the ability to legally deliver wine, so we don`t see it being wine only; but we do think it is a gift basket strategy with wine and fruit and other items in it,” Soenen said. “It is something different than we can do here in the states.”
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