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Opportunities for small businesses have been few and far between during the last few months but one Hamilton florist has gone from strength to strength through the pandemic.

Michelle Kyle of Michelle’s Flowers has been working with flowers for over a decade.

Her business, now based in Haddow Street, has grown during lockdown when a number of local clients decided to send bouquets to friends and family to cheer them up when they couldn’t physically meet.

“It’s been going really, really good,” Michelle said.

“10 years ago, I had a shop in Blantyre but I had to let go of it because I was ill.

“I’ve had some customers but with lockdown I was getting busier with the flowers. That’s when I decided to go back into it and open a wee shop.

“At the moment, everything is done online – rather than face to face – or over the telephone. The customers have put a lot of faith into me because they’ve not seen it. They trust me and trust my judgement.

“I’ve been advertising on Facebook and I’ve got a wee room so I can do more flowers. We’re having a wee open day on Saturday – I’ve got the hand sanitizer, we’ll be wearing masks and social distancing will be in place.”

It’s not all been plain sailing though. The UK-wide coronavirus lockdown meant a number of suppliers had scale back or complete close their operations which made getting some varieties from abroad difficult or impossible.

“At first we had supply problems. The market had closed down for a couple of weeks and then they were only taking pre-orders which was a bit of a headache.

“Now, it’s not back to the normal as we know but it is getting better.“There are a lot of other supplies that are quite hard to get into just now because a lot of stuff comes from China so some of the stuff is very hard to get.“I’ve got a lot of experience so I just try and work out what I can do with that.”And with coronavirus restrictions in place, there has been a change in the kind of clients looking for bouquets.She added: “The weddings have all been cancelled until next year, it’s just been people sending each other cheer up bouquets and I’ve done a few funerals as well.“ I think people are supporting local businesses at this time and shopping local rather than going to the big places.”Michelle is a third generation florist following in mother and grandmother’s footsteps – as well as her aunt and cousin.That history and experience in the industry is one reason why Michelle is hopeful for what the […]