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| Kadola (left) and Tan (right) cut a cake during the anniversary celebration. |
"People think the economy has been challenging for many businesses but success is relative," said Sukri Kadola, Founder and CEO, Bloem, 80% of whose business comes from corporate projects. "Of the last four years 2017 was probably our best in terms of business. Our popup at Robinsons really gave us the exposure to corporates."
Bloem also launched a Concierge service that includes reminders for key dates in clients' lives. "If you don't know your clients enough, it is just going to be another flower shop," said Kadola, Founder and CEO, Bloem. "Please bear with us when our team talks to you and asks a lot of questions. It is part of our service as a bespoke company.
"We want to understand our customers better. We will know their names and what they ordered last year."
Kadola also shared that the 2018 series of workshops, titled the Secret language of flowers, will be more personalised, and held at Blue Jasmine, which has a halal-certified ala carte menu.
The Thai restaurant at the Park Hotel at Farrer Park already uses flowers in cooking, said Blue Jasmine Executive Chef Bright Kan San. He said dried flowers are used with coconut milk and sugar to create an infusion for the rice in its mango sticky rice dessert to impart a deep blue colour to the rice. The flowers are also used to make drinks that change colour when lemon juice is added, he said.
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| Source: Blue Jasmine web page. Mango sticky rice dish where the rice is made with the butterfly pea flower. |
Bloem's new-look workshops will offer one-to-one coaching and go beyond the traditional creation of a flower arrangement, Kadola said. Bloem will differentiate its workshops through sharing the history of the flowers used as well as their medicinal benefits, for example. Kadola also said that the flowers chosen for the workshops will generally be less common as well. Four workshops a year are planned, with the dates to be confirmed on Bloem's Facebook page.
"I want to help customers understand what is beautiful, what is not; what is tacky, what is sophisticated," he said.
Bloem has also teamed up with the Foreign Domestic Worker Association for Social Support and Training (FAST) to teach its members flower arrangement on Sundays, charging only to cover costs. "It is about empowerment," Kadola said, noting that the skills could be used in the long term.
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| Table arrangement by Bloem. |
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| Flower arrangement by Bloem in the shape of a peacock. |
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| Bloem provided all the flower arrangements for the celebration, including these wall arrangements. |
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| Table arrangement by Bloem. The three pomanders hanging from the ceiling in the background are also Bloem creations. |
Details:
Like Bloem's Facebook page to get the latest workshop dates
Like FAST's Facebook page to learn about the latest activities for members
Read the WorkSmart Asia blog post on Bloem's store at Robinsons, The Heeren
Hashtags: #BlueJasmine, #parkhotelfarrerpark
