The Changing Landscape of the Large-scale Flower Industry, a Founders Foray into the Technology World

A lot of planning goes into the flowers people buy in stores. According to Jeff Yanes, President of Operations for Pure Beauty Farms, it takes a year and a half. Yanes joined host Adam Morrisey for a conversation on the intriguing world of the flower industry and a brand-new social venture he’s launched in Miami, FL, Lyfe Social.

Pure Beauty Farms is a family-owned wholesale plant nursery based in Miami that supplies over 3,000 different plant varieties to home improvement garden centers, independent garden centers, retailers, landscapers, and theme parks.

While plants are a seasonal crop, and Pure Beauty Farms can supply products throughout the year under any weather circumstance, the pandemic brought a different challenge to the business: employment. Staffing was never an issue in the past, but Yanes said it has been challenging to staff his operations for the past couple of years adequately. “It has become quite difficult and forced us into automation,” Yanes said. “We’ve automated pretty much everything that can be automated for our type of facilities.” From automated tractors to sorting and rack loading, most operations are done through RFID systems and robotics to limit the number of workers required to utilize the staff where needed.

How does someone involved with the plant industry for most of his career move into entertainment and nightlife? Yanes said he saw the shift in how people interacted differently through online social media apps. But, ultimately, humans still crave personal interactions and in-person gatherings. “I developed an app that lets you know what’s hot in real-time and lets you know where your friends are via check-ins,” Yanes said. “A friend with the app will go to a venue, check-in, and then whoever follows that friend gets a notification.” Yanes sees this app as a tool to connect people to the community to engage with each other. The Lyfe social app is available on The Apple App Store and Google Play.