Five Years of Flower Vending Machines at the GARDENIA Trade Fair in Poznań: From Our First Presentation to the Largest Booth in Our History

We have been associated with the GARDENIA Fair for many years, but a particularly important milestone for our Flower Vending Machine project came in November 2021. That was when we presented our Flower Vending Machine at our trade fair booth for the first time.

It was a completely different stage of the project compared to where we are today. For many florists, selling flowers through a vending machine was still a new concept, and conversations at our booth usually began with basic questions: how it worked, whether customers would actually buy flowers this way, whether this solution could operate alongside a traditional flower shop, and whether it had the potential to gain traction in the Polish market.

Today, we return to Poznań with our largest-ever exhibition space of 120 square metres. Over the past few years, the Flower Vending Machine has evolved from a new solution presented to Polish florists into a project developed across multiple markets under the name BouquetMat.

Our Booth Grew Alongside the Project

Our presence at the GARDENIA Fair had been growing for years, but after the first presentation of our Flower Vending Machine, that growth accelerated significantly. With each passing year, we had more models to showcase, more features to present, more examples of successful installations, and more market experience to share.

The latest editions of the fair reflect the successive stages of this journey. 2023 marked a major success for Flower Vending Machines in the Polish market. 2024 saw us open up to customers across Europe. In 2025, the project continued to expand beyond Europe. In 2026, we are increasing our booth to 120 square metres to showcase the latest developments, solutions, and innovations for the floral industry.

This is not just a story about a larger booth. It is the story of a project that has matured year after year, continued to advance technologically, and reached an ever-growing number of entrepreneurs..

2023 – BouquetMats Become Part of the Polish Market

In 2023, the nature of the conversations we had at the fair changed significantly. Fewer and fewer people were asking what a BouquetMat actually was, while more and more wanted to know which model to choose, where to install it, how to organise restocking, and how to combine vending machine sales with a traditional flower shop.

For me, this was an important sign. The market was moving beyond curiosity towards real business decisions.

BouquetMat was no longer seen as a technological novelty but was increasingly becoming an additional sales channel for flower shops. For many business owners, it offered the opportunity to sell flowers when their traditional shop was already closed. Over time, however, it became clear that the transformation was much broader.

A BouquetMat also influences how the product range is prepared, how work is organised, how ready-made bouquets are produced, how stock is managed, and how locations are selected. It changes the way business owners think not only about sales hours but about their entire business model.

2024 – Expanding into the European Market

A year later, interest in the project was increasingly extending beyond Poland. We were receiving enquiries from many European countries, so we decided to use the GARDENIA Fair as a meeting point.

We invited people to Poznań with whom we had previously been in contact via email and phone. Ultimately, around thirty international guests from various European countries visited our booth.

For BouquetMat, this was one of the key milestones in the project’s international expansion. Many of these visitors later became our customers and partners, and some continue to develop their markets together with us to this day.

That experience further reinforced my belief that trade fairs are most valuable when we do more than simply wait for visitors to approach our booth and actively use them as an opportunity to build relationships.

2025 – Expanding Beyond Europe

In 2025, we took another step forward. Our booth was now attracting customers from outside Europe as well.

The project we had presented to Polish florists just a few years earlier as a new way of selling flowers had become an international solution. For us, GARDENIA had become a place where we could meet customers and partners from across the world over the course of a few days.

That is why the recent editions of the fair stand out so clearly in my memory: 2023 – Poland, 2024 – Europe, 2025 – expansion beyond Europe.

2026 – Our Largest Booth Yet and New Innovations

This year, we are expanding our exhibition space to 120 square metres.

The market is evolving rapidly. Just a few years ago, the very possibility of buying a bouquet after a flower shop had closed was something new. Today, we are discussing a much broader sales system that includes traditional flower shops, BouquetMats, online orders, reservations, Click & Collect, and the management of multiple sales locations.

A BouquetMat is increasingly becoming more than just a standalone machine. It is becoming part of a broader sales model.

And these are exactly the kinds of developments we want to discuss in Poznań.

BouquetMats Have Changed More Than Just Sales Hours

The most obvious change is simple – customers can buy flowers even when a traditional flower shop is already closed.

However, the implications go far beyond that.

The way products are prepared, production is planned, ready-made bouquets are managed, stock is replenished, work is organised, and locations are selected is changing. Customers are changing too, gradually becoming accustomed to the idea that access to flowers does not have to be limited by shop opening hours.

This is an important shift for the entire industry, as it shows that flower sales can operate in ways that were difficult to imagine just a few years ago.

And this is exactly the topic I want to explore at this year’s GARDENIA Fair.

Join Me for My Presentation

On Thursday, October 8, at 1:30 PM on the Main Stage in Pavilion 8A, I will be giving a presentation.

“Flowers Are Still Selling. So Why Are Flower Shops Finding It Increasingly Difficult?”

This presentation will not focus exclusively on BouquetMats, but they will be one of the key examples of the changes that have already taken place in our industry.

People are still buying flowers. Special occasions, emotions, and the desire to give gifts have not disappeared. At the same time, more and more flower shop owners are talking about rising costs, staffing difficulties, price pressures, and the growing challenge of maintaining profitability within the traditional sales model.

I will discuss changes in customer behaviour, the economics of running a flower shop, multichannel sales, technology, automation, and how dramatically the way floristry businesses are managed is changing today.

BouquetMats illustrate one of these changes particularly well – customers want to buy flowers when it suits them, not only when a flower shop is open.

It may seem like a simple change, but its implications for the entire sales model are significant.

Meet Us at the GARDENIA Fair

Visit our booth throughout all three days of the fair:

📍 Poznań, MTP – Pavilion 8A
📌 Booth No. 25
📅 October 6-8, 2026

You will have the opportunity to see our solutions in person, discuss different BouquetMat models, discover our latest innovations, and explore specific ideas for expanding your sales.

We also have invitations to the GARDENIA Fair available. If you are planning to attend and would like to visit our booth or join us for Thursday’s presentation, get in touch with us. We will be happy to provide you with available invitations.

A lot has happened since the first presentation of our BouquetMat in November 2021, leading up to the largest booth in our history in 2026.

And I believe the most exciting changes in this part of the industry are still ahead of us.

See you in Poznań!