Freddie’s Flowers losses double after firm shuts London warehouse

Freddie’s Flowers has incurred a more than doubling of its pre-tax losses after the firm closed its warehouse amid an outsourcing of operations.

The London-based flower subscription business, which began operations in a gazebo in the garden of a residential street, posted a pre-tax loss of £2.1m in the year to August 2025, compared to just under £1m the previous year.

That came despite a 5.2 per cent increase in turnover during the year to £37.6m, led by a 33 per cent jump in demand for gifts and vases.

The company put the widening loss down to the closure of its Hounslow-based warehouse in favour of moving flower packing operations to a third party, which led to a one-off cost of £1.3m. But it said the decision would “pay back” within twelve months.

“Expanding our customer base and continuing to spread the joy of Freddie’s Flowers remains our core ambition, with a focus on profitable growth, Freddie’s Flowers said in accounts filed to Companies House.

“In the year we have further grown our gift offering, which has been a big success with both subscribers and guests.”

Taking tulips to Amsterdam

Freddie’s flowers has seen rapid growth since it was established a little over a decade ago by founder Freddie Garland, whose parents ran a flower shop.

But the firm has struggled to turn a profit, cutting staff and abandoning much of its overseas expansion plans in a bid to cut costs.

The company previously expanded to Germany, the Netherlands and California in a bid to transform itself into a global flower business – but it later pulled out of the Netherlands and California and overseas sales now account for only around a sixth of its total turnover.

In 2024 the business cut around a quarter of its staff, with total headcount falling around 60 per cent since its peak in 2022.

Freddie’s Flowers turned heads in the City in 2020 after it unveiled plans for a highly unusual bond offer, in which prospective investors were given the choice to be paid interest in flowers instead of in cash, following in the footsteps of high street chain Hotel Chocolat, which offered investors bimonthly distributions of chocolates.

The company raised $60m in a funding round in August 2021.