Past Vacancy - Oxfordshire — The Freelance Florist

Naum Flower (part of Naum House Ltd)

Oxfordshire

DATES REQUIRED TO WORK

Permanent, Full-time Role - routine days will be Monday to Friday, however due to the nature of the industry, you will need to have a flexible approach to working hours.

LOCATION OF WORK

Oxfordshire, Near Banbury

TYPE OF WORK COVERING

We’re looking for a highly skilled, creative and experienced florist with a minimum of five years full time professional experience to join our small but expanding team.
The position is full-time and permanent, with a six-month month trial period.

Job Description
At Naum Flower, we grow the most ravishing cut flowers as the foundational elements of our creative and innovative floral design, with the goal of connecting our audience to the rhythms and beauty of nature. Our work includes arrangements in a range of scales, bouquets and installation work, with an expanding clientele list - from private clients, luxury brands, to fashion/jewellery/interior design/gallery/ retail environments and restaurants.

This is in opportunity to work in an exceptional historic setting in a garden that once provided flowers for the Queen's Coronation and wedding, alongside a growing team based between Oxfordshire and London. This person should embrace the entrepreneurial spirit and be curious to learn about building a company and running a business, though with the job security of an established business. The role would suit someone with go getter spirit who is brimming with new ideas and has a desire to build a creative luxury brand that espouses sustainability and harmony with nature through the expression of floristry. The right person will enjoy new challenges and seeing ideas through from concept to execution.
At the heart of our business is the cutting garden where we grow our flowers, and which is organically certified by the soil association. The method of how we grow is as important to us as what we grow, and we are looking for someone who is equally as passionate and curious about seasonal flowers, regenerative farming principles and soil health as we are and who is up for experimentation and would be excited to work in this environment!

Key Responsibilities
The florist will be responsible for arranging the bi-weekly arrangements for our regular clients as well as the bi-weekly local delivery and installation of these arrangements (early morning). They will also assist with picking flowers and assembling buckets of blooms for our weekly subscription clients. Additionally, they will be required to create made to order arrangements, events and floral installations as needed for a rapidly growing business. We are currently investigating the opportunity of a floral studio/retail space in London, in addition to the flower studio in Oxfordshire.

Person Description
You should be an unflappable, positive, ambitious, highly responsible and well-organised person who can manage their own time and others, with a clear career path in floristry. You will need to be physically fit and able to manage the often intense physical demands of the role as well as flexible hours to adapt to clients requirements around installation and delivery times which are often out of typical business hours.
This will include managing existing contracts and commitments; planning floristry for events and private clients; initiating new projects and project managing these from inception to delivery.
You will ideally be down to earth and have a great work ethic – as we are a small team, everyone is expected to carry their own responsibilities in terms of behind the scenes work, including cleaning flower buckets, looking after tools and keeping the flower studio clean and tidy!
Additionally, whilst this is not a gardener role, there will frequently be times/hours in the working week, that this person is required to work in the cutting garden with instruction from our head gardener.

Essential Skills
Excellent, highly creative floristry skills - making arrangements from bud vases to large arrangements in different scales.
Excellent technical skills in making bouquets in different scales.
Exceptional visual skills - bringing your creative flair to the role while also being committed to working with the parameters of seasonal flowers, stylistically adapting according to the seasons, to what is in the garden and the needs of each project, as well as being able to take clear direction from visual briefs from our creative director.
Management & planning skills – proven experience in managing contracts; including good time management & efficient working practice; planning floristry for events and private clients; initiating new projects and project-managing these from inception to delivery.
Budgeting & Numeracy skills – proven experience in drawing up costings & quotes; budgeting for contracts & orders; keeping accounting records and ensuring profitability of contracts and orders; ideally with experience in MS office & excel spreadsheets.
Photography skills – a key part of the role involves helping to tell the story of our brand through photographing or filming our flowers and arrangements on the job for our website, social media and for all related business needs. Similarly, this person will be up for staging and experimenting with flowers to create additional content for our promotional needs.
People skills – experience and adeptness leading a team of freelancers on site for an installation; ability to direct and deliver under pressure for high profile clients. Looking for a fun, friendly and great team player who will enjoy working as part of a team at Naum Flower and with the wider garden team on the estate.

Desired Skills
Digital skills – experience putting together proposals to send to clients; working with images & creating moodboards in response to client briefs and procuring work; proficiency in Adobe Suite or similar and illustrative skills would be a plus.
Floral Installation experience in a variety of contexts; knowledge of sustainable floral mechanics for varied contexts and situations.

The role will be primarily based in Oxfordshire, however travel to London and additional locations, will be required as the business demands. Our ideal candidate will have a full clean UK driver’s licence and will be a good driver.

Routine days will be Monday to Friday, however due to the nature of the industry, you will need to have a flexible approach to working hours – occasional weekend and evening working will be required as demanded by floristry events and orders, or by the demands of the cutting garden.
28 days paid holiday per year including bank holidays.

Reports to: The creative director/founder and senior director of the business.

Additional information

Please apply with CV, covering letter and a portfolio of your work to charlotte@naumhouse.com
Successful applications will be invited for interview at Naum Flower.
Closing date for applications: Friday 16 June – early applications will be welcomed. Suitable applicants could be invited to interview prior to the closing date.

A bit about us

Naum Flower is an organic cut flower & floristry business based in North Oxfordshire.

RATE OF PAY

Salary: Circa £30000 - £35000 per annum depending on experience.

CONTACT

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This employer cannot access your member profile so please send information by email, as requested please apply with CV, covering letter and a portfolio of your work.