OUR HISTORY

Delivering quality & service since 1979

CJ Love employs over 20 people, runs 5 delivery vans, offers customers the option to buy from a 15,000ft² warehouse or a cutting edge webshop with direct links to auctions and suppliers around the world.

Not bad for a business that started 40 years ago with one man and his van. Here’s how it all started…

1979

Where it all began

‘CJ Love’ is born when Clifford James Love starts a company operating from a van selling plants and a few flowers. Cliff visits Covent Garden Market early every morning to stock up then travels round the local area selling to garden centres and flower shops.
 
Cliff’s very first customer was Bijou who is still a valued customer 40 years on.


CJ Love About us Cliff Love
imported dutch flowers

1984-85

First steps – importing from Holland

’84 – Daryl Mercer joins CJ Love as Saturday boy and Cliff’s first member of staff!
 
’85 – CJ Love starts importing from Holland from a supplier called HIP for the first time. Initially, CJ Love bought twice a week from Holland whilst still supplementing with flowers from the market on a daily basis.
 
Over 35 years later, HIP are still one of CJ Love’s suppliers.

1988-89

The business starts to grow

When the Love family move to a bigger house in Sidcup, Cliff moves operations to this new base, effectively now running the business from the back garden.

CJ Love purchases a second van and Darryl starts a new delivery round, specialising in flowers and venturing farther afield into London, Kent and Essex.

Gavin Lindsey joins the sales team and takes over Cliff’s  delivery round.

CJ Love About us Cliff Love
CJ Love Kent wholesale florist supplier

1993

3rd Member of Staff Joins

Paul Crowson joins CJ Love as Sale Manager and starts another flower van round which really cements CJ Love’s presence in Kent. At this stage, the vans still go to market daily to stock up on English flowers as well as buying from HIP.


1994

‘The Yard’

This is an exciting time for CJ Love as, just before Mother’s Day ’94, having outgrown Cliff’s garden, the company moves to their current site in North Cray Road. The ‘unit’ is effectively a large, glass greenhouse about 50ft x 20ft in size, standing in the middle of a field. This greenhouse is now the basis for our main warehouse section, although it’s not glass now!

CJ Love - History - Delivery Vans
Cj Love - History - Old Cash & Carry Warehouse

1995

More Vans & More Space

CJ Love’s expansion continues as fourth van joins the fleet and a sundries delivery round is introduced. This proves very popular and more space is required…

The warehouse is extended to accommodate a chilled flower room of around 30ft x15ft, a covered section for plants and storage area for sundries adding around 7,000ft² to the site.

1996

Increased Imports from Holland

Up until this point, Cliff has been buying carnations, spray cars and other imported flowers via the market but the volume required now means that import flowers can be sourced directly. Unsurprisingly, sales go up as prices and quality improve.

Wholesale dutch flowers auction
CJ_Love Daniel Love head buyer

1997-98

Cliff’s Eldest Son Joins

’97 – Cliff’s son Dan joins the growing empire as a Saturday boy, learning the trade from the grass roots up. Dan is currently head buyer at CJ Love.

’98 – As things get busier, Gary Playford join the sales team and Nigel Baker is brought into the accounts department.

2000-2002

Fresh imports 6 days a week

2000 – The new millennium dawns and CJ Love join forces with two more Dutch companies and are now receiving deliveries from Holland 6 days per week.

A second plant van round is introduced.

 

2002 – Sam Dooley, who is now our Sundries Manager, joins the sales team and is based at the warehouse.

 

About us - Sam Dooley

2005

Love’s goes digital

CJ Love set up their first website, a very simple affair but a web presence nonetheless.

A webshop is launched allowing customers to order online for the first time. At first the webshop is simple but within a short time there are direct links with Holland and the shop becomes more interactive.

 

2006

Wholesaler of the Year

CJ Love wins the prestigious ‘Wholesaler of the Year’ award at the Spring Florist Event. The team were especially proud of this award as it was voted for by florists – the people who matter – and was a testament to all the hard work the team were putting into the business.

 

2007-2008

Overnight deliveries

2007 – As internet and warehouse sales soar, the flower vans and one of the plants vans are phased out over a period of a year. This enables CJ Love to offer overnight direct deliveries to shops. To this day we still offer seasonal plant and seasonal sundries van sales throughout the year to keep that personal touch!

2008 – Adapting to the overnight direct-deliveries, Jon Banks joins CJ Love.

2011

CJ Love buy from auction

Cliff’s youngest son Matthew Love joins as part of the sales team. In 2014, Matt moved into the overnight section.

A remote buying link to the auctions in Holland is established, purchasing flowers directly at major auctions. This strategy ensures greater control over stock and competitive prices.

flowers plant warehouse wholesale supplier
webshop cj love app

2012

Web Shop Improves

CJ Love invests heavily in the development of the web shop with AlfaPro, a specialist service provider of floral sales software. The 2012 version is a huge improvement, customers can buy flowers, plants and sundries directly from Holland and access a much wider selection from around the world.

2015

Web Shop gets even better

Continual improvements to the web shop have rendered it almost unrecognisable to the one created just 3 years ago. Every customer has complete control over their own account from their portal and can browse, order and pay.

Wholesale plants flowers sundries app - live webshop
New CJ Love website screen shot

2019

NEW WEBSITE LAUNCHED

As CJ Love go from strength to strength, the new website is launched.
 
The new website offers easy access to our online buying platform and gives customers more information about our suppliers, up to date news and a fresh new look for the ever growing business.