An Aberdeen florist owner has been left counting the cost following the closure of her wholesaler due to a massive fire.
Aleksandra Spala, owner of Azalea Flowers in George Street, gets 90% of her stock from J van Vliet.
But following its closure last month she has lost a member of staff and estimates she’s spending £2,000 a month buying extra flowers.
J van Vliet, in Aberdeen’s Ardarroch Road, was forced to close after a blaze at a nearby garage spread and damaged a large part of the roof.
Extra cost on flowers
The wholesaler has had to relocate its operations to its Scottish headquarters in Perth.
General manager Paul McBain has revealed more than £80,000 of stock, including £20,000 of flowers, were destroyed at the firm.
Aleksandra, who has owned the shop for 10 years, is having to buy extra flowers from elsewhere to fulfil her orders.
She said: “I supply four undertakers in Aberdeen and have to make sure I have flowers.
“We get a lot of orders that are last minute and we need to be well organised.
“I’m probably spending around £2,000 a month on buying extra flowers. But it could possibly be more.
“And if we run out of a certain flower on our website I need to stop online orders.
“At the moment I’m trying to adjust to what’s happening and work out what’s best.”
Pressure on online Azalea orders
Aleksandra currently has four members of staff but had one employee forced to leave as she could only work in the mornings.
She said: “Our deliveries used to come very early in the morning but because they are travelling from Perth they arrive in the middle of the day.
“I’ve had a member of staff leave because the flowers were arriving later and she could only work in the mornings.
“Van Vliet was also good for going to get top up flowers.
“We’ve got selection of designs on our website so if one type of flower run out we could go there and buy more.
“But without being able to do that we need practically close our website if something runs out.”
Garage fire forced closures
J van Vliet was forced to close after a fire broke out within the building of Stag Motors and Pittodrie Car Stadium last month.
Police evacuated scores of nearby homes amid fears the fire could spread or residents might be affected by smoke.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service investigation report said the main cause of the fire was a fault in a diesel heater and it began accidentally.
The blaze began in the shop room/showroom/display hall, the report said.
It added that the items that ignited first were structural fixtures and fittings and that petrol and oil products spread the fire “rapidly”.
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