We are your one-stop-shop for all things flower export.
Since 1991 our company has been established in Nairobi, the heart of the Kenyan flower trade market. Our customers are located all over the world and are of multiple dimensions with a focus on importing wholesalers.
We process and trade flowers from fully air conditioned cold rooms directly at the JKIA after buying the flowers directly from growers all around Kenya. We offer our clients the most complete cut flower experience, guaranteed.
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They say every great brand has an even greater origin story. Our founder, Sharon Singh, realized her passion for flowers after a short internship in a flower shop in the UK. "It took less than 4 weeks for me to realize that I want to end up in this industry. I don't know how, I don't know where and I don't know when... but one day, I want my life to revolve around flowers." Shortly after that, Sharon had a vision, and she will tell it herself:
I knew I wanted to sell flowers, so I took the first step of leasing a small corner shop in Nairobi in 1985 - it was called The Black Tulip. We started dealing with local flowers, and very quickly found a gap in the market: most of our competitors didn't invest any time into the presentation. Whereas we, on the contrary, received a beautiful product and packaged it accordingly. With that, we started to attract a few walk-ins, spread around with a word of mouth and entered the embassies' circle with our complimentary flower bouquets until we eventually grew our network all around Kenya.
It wasn't long before we realized the gap between the local and the export flower quality... and since kicking off, quality was our priority. Eventually, we found ways to source flowers directly from farms, and satisfy our customers with the best quality they could get in town, even though we had higher prices. We kept growing our little corner shop until 1990. That's when a friend of mine, who happened to be working with the PIA (Pakistan International Airlines) suggested that I take a trip to Dubai and consider exporting flowers.
That's how I landed in export... I took the first order, it was a small order, and it was a different business. I wasn't sure where to take Black Tulip from here - the workload was larger, but so was the opportunity. I spent a year in Dubai analyzing the risks between both: the B2B and the B2C business.
It was the 90's, you couldn't run a business remotely!
It was impossible to maintain an international business from abroad. We didn't even have phones at that time! As orders started to increase, I moved back to Nairobi, gave up local retail sales and shifted the focus to exporting fresh cut flowers globally.
With the company's growth, technology grew, which allowed us to export to different countries all over the world. I made sure to source only the finest quality and that reputation cascaded over the industry. Within a few years, I had the most prominent airlines and farms on my side, which made it almost effortless to cater to any client's requests.
Starting with the UAE, the export business grew across the region, growing to serve countries and eventually to different continents. Saskia, my daughter, grew up around flowers - be it phone-calls, exhibitions, cold rooms, deliveries, you name it! It was only a matter of time before she joined me in Azalea Blooms. She was officially a part of the team after completing her two degrees in law school.
Sharon and Saskia have come to be known as the ‘mother-daughter duo’ in the floriculture industry. Together, they continue to grow Azalea Blooms with the embedded focus on their 3 fundamental pillars.
Committed to exceptional standards.
We pride ourselves on the outputs – particularly because they are going into another business’ supply chain.
Strength is rooted in our experience.
Ideally, the standard should be consistent greatness. Excellence will always be our standard.
Our initiative on and off the ground.
We have a responsibility to follow through the highest standards for the community that fuels us.
When the numbers came in, Azalea Blooms was able to stand strong, and with that, the industry started to accept me, Sharon Singh, as an independent source of strength, as a business owner and as an industry leader. I will leave you with my father's advice:
Initially, you have to work very hard to earn that name.
Then, there will come a time where that name will earn for you.
...and that's exactly what happened.
We might be continents apart, but we are all on the same page. We have been operating for over 3 decades, and as time passes and our familiarity increases, so does our professionalism, our support to each other and our learnings from one another.
At Azalea, we believe in individual strength for the cumulative power.
Azalea Blooms, like any other business, has a responsibility to give back - whether it is on an individual, a local or a global level. Our commitment to establish a more responsible supply chain within the floriculture industry is growing in parallel to our team and company.
We believe in the well being of our people.
We are continuously supporting smaller farms while staying focussed on our commitment to be better employers.
We believe in a better tomorrow.
We make an effort to focus our value chain on companies that share our drive for a positive environmental impact.
We believe in transparent logistics.
Whether we are sourcing one box of roses from one farm or a container of flowers from ten farms, we do so with genuine transparency.
