Wesley Berry Flowers

Wesley Berry Flowers is one of the largest floral, gifts, gourmet foods, and plants retailer in North America. The company is the parent organization of the floral brand Flower Delivery Express, or FDE.^[1]

Wesley Berry Flowers

Company type	Private company
Industry	Gifting
Founded	1946
Founder	Wesley Berry
Headquarters	Detroit , United States
Area served	International
Products	Flowers, cakes, gifts, and chocolates.
Number of employees	300
Subsidiaries	Flower Delivery Express
Website	wesleyberry.net

History

Founded by Wesley Berry Sr. in 1946,^[2] Wesley Berry Flowers began selling franchises in summer of 1985.^[3] The first franchise was opened at Sunset Corners shopping center in Troy, Michigan.^[3] In the 1980s, the company ran more than 1,000 television commercials a year.^[3] The company established 30 franchises across five states before selling most of them in the 1990s and launching an e-commerce business in 1994.^[4][5]

Today, the company operates one of the larger online floral businesses in the U.S. through FlowerDeliveryExpress.com and wesleyberryflowers.com, with a single franchise left in Canton Township, plus four brick-and-mortar stores in metro Detroit operating as Commerce Township-based Wesley Berry Flowers.^[5][6] As of the 2010s, Wesley Berry Flowers operated both physical and online floral businesses under FlowerDeliveryExpress.com and wesleyberryflowers.com, with one remaining franchise in Canton Township and several stores in the Detroit metropolitan area.^[5][6] In 2014, the company conducted a high-profile Valentine's Day flower delivery demonstration using drones, which was halted by the Federal Aviation Administration after determining that required flight authorizations had not been obtained.^[7] The experiment was among the earliest publicly reported commercial drone delivery attempts in the United States.^[8] By 2016, the company closed several local storefronts as part of a transition to an online-focused business model.^[9] As of 2023, the business continued operating primarily through its e-commerce platforms while maintaining its headquarters in Commerce Township, Michigan.^[10]

Recognition

Under the Wesley Berry Flowers name, the combined businesses ranked No. 2,269 on Inc. magazine's 2015 list of the 5,000 fastest-growing companies, with $52.6 million in reported revenue for 2014, up from $11.9 million in 2010.^[2]

The company's CEO Wesley Berry appeared on Fox Business Network to discuss drone delivery flights on February 18, 2014.^[11]

Philanthropy

Since its founding in 1946, Wesley Berry Flowers has supported many nonprofit organizations, including Children's Miracle Network, American Cancer Society, Make-A-Wish, Habitat for Humanity, Optimist International, Rotary International, National Breast Cancer Foundation, and American Red Cross.^[12] Working with the West Bloomfield Optimist Club, the company sponsors college tuition scholarships and providing Christmas gifts for underprivileged children.^[13] The company has honored Martin Luther King Jr.'s memory by giving away more than 168,000 roses on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.^{[14][15][16][17][18][19]}