Is buying artificial plants or renting real plants the right option for your business?
The most important thing to Floresy is providing quality services that meet our customer’s needs. We like doing things to make our customer’s happy.
Simply selling products doesn’t always achieve that. Selling products that are right for the customer does.
We enjoy running a transparent business where the quality of our products speaks for themselves. But in order to help our customers make smarter and more informed decisions, we have conducted some price comparison research. We want to show how the prices of our products compare to the options available if renting real plants.
Here is how we conducted our analysis of buying artificial plants or renting real plants:
The research
We choose two leading business that supply, install and maintain real plants for offices in the UK. These two businesses were chosen because their pricing structures allowed us to make a better comparison between their services and Floresy’s services. Both companies we chose have good reputations and many happy customers.
The analysis looks at the supply of five plants in attractive containers. The data includes installation costs and different types of maintenance contracts. When including Floresy products for the comparison, we have used like-for-like where possible plus planters most similar to those by the plant suppliers.
The data
All prices are sourced from the business’s website and are correct at the time of publishing this post.
Super Plants
We used Superplants example pricing for five 60cm tall ‘cubis’ containers each with a 1.5m tropical specimen. Included in the pricing is the initial installation fee of £55.00 (ex VAT). Prices are shown as annual costs. Superplants pricing is:
| Pricing Options / Products | Purchase Only Package (includes installation) | Maintenance Only Package | Rental + Maintenance Package |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contract Length | No Contract | 12 or 24 months | 36 months |
| 5x 1.5m specimens in 60cm pots | £702.50 (ex VAT) | £582.00 (ex VAT) | £1009.00 (ex VAT) |
InLeaf
We used InLeaf’s office plant prices instant quote to get the prices for five plants. The types or sizes of the plants was not specified but they supply a wide selection of plants for their customers to choose from (the tool is for a quick quote). All the packages include free installation except for the rolling 3-month contract package where it is charged at £65 per plant. InLeaf’s pricing is:
| Pricing Options / Products | Purchase Only Package | Maintenance Only Package | Rental + Maintenance Package 1 | Rental + Maintenance Package 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contract Length | No contract | Contract not stated | 36 months | Rolling 3 months |
| 5x plants (not specified) | £920.00 (ex VAT) | £390.00 (ex VAT) | £676.00 (ex VAT) | £1105.00 (ex VAT) |
Floresy
We created three combinations of five plants that were comparable to the real plant supplier’s offerings. The Floresy prices include VAT but exclude delivery.
‘Floresy Option 1’ includes Bamboo (150cm) including pot x3 and Schefflera (150cm) including pot x2
‘Floresy Option 2’ includes Kentia Palm Tree (180cm) and Square Fibreglass pot (60cm) x5
and ‘Floresy Option 3’ includes Draceane Tree (150cm) x1, Braided Trunk Ficus (150cm) x2, Schefflera (140cm) x2 and Cigar fibreglass pot (62cm) x5
| Plants and Containers | Total Package Cost (ex delivery) | |
|---|---|---|
| Floresy Option 1 | £735.00 | |
| Floresy Option 2 | £964.50 | |
| Floresy Option 3 | £1494.00 |
The Results
So what do all those numbers look like when considering the cost over a number of years? Here is a graph comparing the ongoing costs:
Depending on which products you choose, the initial cost of purchasing products from Floresy is comparable to the costs associated with both purchasing or renting real products when also buying a maintenance contract.
The benefit of buying artificial plants from Floresy becomes very apparent in Years 2 & 3 and beyond.
For larger numbers of plants, the initial cost of purchasing of artificial plants would take longer to pay for themselves when compared to the renting and maintenance of real plants.
InLeaf’s rolling contract option may appear the most expensive option. However, the value for customers in this option is where the need for the plants is temporary. Maybe in development show homes, for promotional or pop-up events companies.
Buying artificial plants or renting real plants
In order to answer the question of whether you should be buying artificial plants or renting real plants, you need to ask yourself four main questions:
- Do I have the funds to cover an initial outlay?
- Am I able to maintain the plants in-house?
- Are monthly overheads more important initial costs?
- How important are real plants to my business?
Initial funds may not be available for new businesses. Small businesses may not have the sufficient staff to cover plant maintenance. However, established businesses have the capacity to cover both the first two questions but monthly overhead are needing to be kept down.
Real plants may be crucial to your brand but if the ongoing maintenance cost is too great, consider a combination of real and fake plants to keep your overheads lower. But if those real plants are in hard to reach spaces within your office or business, artificial plants and flowers may be the best option as they do not require access for maintenance.
Everyone agrees that interiors with plants are better interiors. It doesn’t matter whether it’s at home, in the shopping centre, in the office or the hotels where we holiday. Plants make our interiors healthier and happier places to be. So whether you choose real plants, artificial plants or a combination of the two, the addition of plants to your premises will help make your customers happy too.
If you would like to speak with one of our helpful customer managers about how Floresy can help you make the right decision for your business, please call us on 0208 0770891 or you can send us a message.
