A Wirral businesswoman has put her West Kirby florist shop on the market to enable her to focus on her growing set and costume design business. Jenefer Baker has instructed Blacks Business Brokers, the national business transfer specialist, to find a new owner for Lavender Blue Floral Design with a guide price of £35,000 to take over the lease.
Lavender Blue, which is located on The Crescent in West Kirby, has been owned and operated by Miss Baker since 2009. Prior to that the premises had housed another floristry business for many years.
In parallel with Lavender Blue, Miss Baker has recently established another business that provides set and costume design services for photographers and independent filmmakers. She now wishes to sell the floristry business in order to focus full-time on her new enterprise.
According to Miss Baker there are several ways a new owner could grow the business, which turned over £77,407 in its most recent financial year and currently employs one part-time member of staff in addition to herself. One way of increasing footfall would be to follow the lead taken by many of Lavender Blue’s West Kirby neighbours and increase its opening hours from five to seven days per week.
She also says there is demand to increase the area covered by the shop’s delivery service and to subscribe to a third-party relay service such as Interflora. Weddings represent another area that, according to Miss Baker, has so-far been under-exploited.
She said, “I get inundated with wedding enquiries but turn a lot of these down to concentrate on my new business. The current turnover comes mostly from day-to-day shop sales for gifts but there is a whole other market ready for the taking for a business owner that wishes to take on more weddings and events.”
Lavender Blue sources its flowers direct from suppliers in Holland and has a reputation for stocking unusual varieties. It also sells a range of locally made gifts and cards, the majority of which are unique to the shop.
Eve Pawsey, marketing facilitator at Blacks Business Brokers, said, “This is a fabulous opportunity to take on a successful, profitable business with a great reputation in a brilliant location. Importantly, there is also real potential for a new, fully hands-on, owner to grow the business and increase revenues significantly.
“As well as focusing more heavily on events like weddings, and increasing the opening hours, the website presents further potential for a new owner. Currently this just provides information so there is a real opportunity to add e-commerce functionality and take orders online.”
All enquiries should be directed to Blacks Business Brokers on 0333 370 0000, quoting reference 6617.