Moffatt's Flower Company

As a child growing up with his parent’s glasshouse tomato business – Steve Moffatt says intensive horticulture was the last thing he was interested in when it came time to get a job.

Steve says while all his mates spent their summer weekends outside and at the beach – he and his siblings were inside picking tomatoes. But somehow he gravitated to the lifestyle. (He’s a musician, a bit of an outdoor adventurer and coast to coast athlete.)

Steve’s been involved with the roses since 1974, drawn back to what he grew up with after four years in the banking industry.

The tomato glasshouses were converted to roses in the late 1950’s and nowadays there’s 2 ha under glass.

He says a lot has changed since his parent’s time – size, intensity, efficiency and technology. He says the whole philosophy has to be one of continuous improvement.

The business has been around for over 50 years. It is the first and largest rose grower in the country.

On any average week, their greenhouses produce between 6000 and 7000 red roses – that’s not including other blooms and the fact that they act as an agent for other growers.

Their on-line catalogue has 30 different varieties.

Moffatt Flowers covers 8ha at Halswell on the way to the Bank’s Peninsula. In intensive horticulture terms, this is a big business. Steve aims for 200 blooms per square metre, and they grow year round. All flowers are sold in the domestic market.

The glass house is computerised. Steve says the biggest running expenses are labour, followed by energy.

A big part of growing flowers all year round is having a glasshouse that they keep at the ideal conditions 24 – 7. Ventilation, incoming radiation, temperature and humidity are controlled through sensors in the glasshouses and fed back to the controlling computer.

They make sure they maintain adequate heat and have a backup if the first system fails. They have two boilers with one on line all the time. The worst thing would be for one to break down and there to be a lag between switching.

Each house is equipped with specialised lighting to maintain the right hours of daylight during the shorter winter days. Heat reflecting blinds are installed under the roof to minimise heat loss.

The boilers used to be coal fired but they’ve been modified to use wood – although they could still burn coal in the event of a shortfall.

The reasons for converting to wood were to try and get control of rising energy costs, to keep the sustainability of the business and change to ‘green’ fuel and thereby minimise the environmental impact.

The inside lights proved too expensive to use all the time. Steve says they go to the electricity spot market and look to see if it is viable to buy power to light up the glasshouses.

Steve says some of his workers have been with the business for close to 40 years.

He says staff are a hugely important part of the success of his business.

Pickers in the glasshouses are often casual workers – backpackers. He says they can be trained up quickly and they usually stay for 3 – 4 months.

NZ now imports a staggering four million rose stems from India every year to sell in the local market.

Steve’s got no issues with competition, but he is concerned about biosecurity and quality. Chilli thrips, which are a serious horticultural pest in parts of India as well as other countries, have over 100 different host plants, including kiwifruit.

Imported roses are also treated with chemicals to make sure they can’t be propagated, and their performance, the all important vase life, suffers as a result, which in turn can put people off buying flowers full stop.

If you want flowers that will last the distance at home, make sure they’re grown in New Zealand, he says. “And put them in a clean vase!”

Fire (last January) and earthquake (badly hit last September, and less so this February) have meant a rebuild of much of the operation. Steve said there’s a lot of activity on at the moment.

One glasshouse was demolished following the damage caused by the September 2010 earthquake. They are currently rebuilding that and should have the glass back on and plants in the ground by June. Other glasshouses have suffered minor structural damage but are still functioning.

Steve reckons the return on investment for those who purchase a bunch of roses is astonishingly good. He’s on a personal mission to try to get men to recognise how much NZ women love receiving flowers. He says he knows from years in the business that there is nothing like an unexpected bunch of flowers to make someone happy.

The company is domestic market only – Steve has deliberately stayed away from export.

Supermarkets have been a recent focus.. He’s also recently hired a marketing expert to start taking the business to the wider community.