1-800-Flowers Company Description

1-800-Flowers.com

1-800-Flowers.com is the world's leading florist and gift shop (About Us: 1-800-FLOWERS). With its headquarters located in Westbury, New York, 1-800-Flowers.com was founded in 1976 by James McCann.

James McCann, CEO and founder of 1-800-Flowers.com, lived in Queens, New York with his family and had hoped to be a police officer and studied at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York in the 1970's. He eventually became a social worker continuing his way to becoming an administrator for a youth home. After careful consideration, James needed to supplement his income and went into business in 1976. He bought a small flower shop, Flora Plenty, using $10,000 borrowed from friends and family. In 1987, James acquired 1-800-Flowers.com by paying seven million dollars and spent an additional nine million covering the company debts and liquidating assets. He turned the company around by marketing flower delivery through telephone orders. He retained a twenty percent fee from each phone order placed with FTD. In the early 1990s, two events helped bring 1-800-Flowers.com to national distinction. To begin with, AT&T created an advertising campaign feature the company that aired repeatedly during the 1992 Summer Olympics. Second, at the time of the first Persian Gulf War, many advertisers were pulling out of CNN, unaware that CNN's war cover would draw additional viewers. 1-800-Flowers.com agreed to remain as an advertiser at found Ted Turner's request. In 1993, FTD launched floral phone service which meant they were directly competing with 1-800-Flowers.com. In 1995, 1-800-Flowers.com was one of the first retailers to establish its owner Internet sales site. In 1999, the company went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol FLWS and changed its name to 1-800-Flowers.com to match its web site address. In September 2007, the company announced a partnership with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia to produce a line of floral products inspired by Martha Stewart.

To increase profitability, 1-800-Flowers.com added product lines to include flowers, gift baskets, plants, gourmet food and collectibles. In 1999, an agreement with AOL was established to provide gardening products. In 2000, they added a specialty boutique and continued on with the addition of natural toys through the acquisition of The Children's Group in 2001. In 2002, 1-800-Flowers.com started offering food and gift baskets through the acquisition of The Popcorn Factory which is a catalog retailer of popcorn tins and snacks based in Lake Forrest, Illinois and then added cookies and baked gift items through the purchase of Cheryl & Company in 2005, which is a multi-channel company which sells gourmet cookies based in Westerville, Ohio. Finally in 2006, they acquired a candy line through Fannie May Confection Brands which is a chocolate and confectionary company