Hey
I had the chance to sit down with Martin from Flower Bar to speak about his new partnership with Poptop Bars. This is an exciting new venture for Poptop and we can’t wait to see how it succeeds.
If you haven’t had the chance to check it out, take a look at our new exclusive mobile bar only available on Poptop. ‘The Botanical Boozy Bar’.
Before we get to the interview let’s learn a bit about Flower Bar:
- Bookings – 408
- Revenue – £100k
- Time active on Poptop – 3 years
Let’s get to the interview.
When did you set up your business?
I started in Poland and have worked in several places abroad honing my bar skills and building my business. The flower bar many know today was really established in 2016 and it has been growing ever since.
What has been the focus of your business for 2023?
We wanted to scale our business to be able to accommodate large-scale events. The dream for us going forward with our new partnership with Poptop is to do more events like festivals. Over the last few years, we have formed a great relationship with Poptop. The natural next step for us is to provide our services to larger parties and festivals.
How are you trying to expand your business?
We currently have around 5 teams, which allows us to do at least 5 events a day depending on the event size and timings. We’re pretty happy with our current team’s success and not looking to expand more due to how much training we currently do.
If we’re offered more large-scale events, we’d look into expanding our team, but as of right now, it’s not a priority for us.
What are your main goals for your business in the long term?
As I mentioned before, we’re really happy with where we currently are with our business. We cover the whole of the UK and we work 25-30 events on average a month, so we don’t struggle for work.
A goal for 2023 is that we can accommodate larger events such as corporate and festivals. We’re happy to maintain the same amount of business we currently have, but maybe reducing the amount of travel we have between events could help.
How do you effectively cater for a client’s tastes? What is the best way to communicate with clients?
We have a signature list of cocktails and for most of the events, these are what clients want. They’re the most popular drinks we do and they always go down well. We are able to easily accommodate a client’s tastes, especially if they have a certain idea in mind so we don’t mind changing them if we have to.
What is your favourite cocktail to make?
Oooh, there are a lot of amazing cocktails that I love to make but I’d probably have to go with one of my signature cocktails. ‘All the glitter is gold’ is our version of a popcorn whiskey sour. It has Tennessee whiskey, lime juice, popcorn syrup and some cloudy apples in it. But you can’t really go wrong with the classics, too.
The most popular cocktails we find are the classics such as pornstar and espresso martinis and a pina colada. You can’t go wrong with them.
What is the best way to prepare for an event?
Because we work so many events we’re constantly working, prepping for the next event. For the king’s coronation, we have 5 big events and at the start of the week, this usually involves setting up plans for timings, rotas for staff and if they need transport to the event. It can be busy and stressful but it keeps it exciting. For example, we have an open event, not ticketed, near Cheltenham which we’ve been told could have up to 8000 people. We’re the main bar service, so we need to be prepped well in advance to make sure it goes well.
What’s one of your favourite events you’ve attended?
That’s difficult because we do so many a year. We must’ve done over 2500 plus as we do around 250 events a year and I’ve personally been working for 20 years so it would come to quite a big number.
I’ve worked at footballers’ weddings and massive charity days, they have all been very exciting days to be a part of so it’s hard to choose just one.
What is the best advice you can give to anyone looking to set up their own business or a mobile bar/cocktail masterclass?
In our line of work, the key is to be creative and unique. There are different sets of rules that I believe most businesses have to follow. For bars, they need to have a creative flare to stand out.
How did the new bar come about?
Well, I think it’s a combination of several things. We have always done very well on Poptop. I think the Instant Booking system works very well for us. We have such a great team and are able to accommodate nationwide bookings, we’ve proven to Poptop we can handle a lot of bookings that come through the platform.
Poptop also has a wonderful team of people who we love working with. They’ve always been a massive help and joining forces will lead to even bigger success. It was a no-brainer when I was approached about doing an exclusive bar.
How did you decide on the theme of the new bar?
We wanted to keep it in the style of a flower bar but make it more suitable for corporate events. We went down a more ecological/botanical approach that I think works well and looks amazing.
What has been your key to finding success on Poptop? How do you want to continue to work with us?
Not to brag but I think we’re just good at what we do. We provide a high-quality service that comes through in our reviews and make more clients want to book us for future events.
We’re really happy with the success that we’ve had on Poptop which made us want to continue working with you guys. We’re really excited to see where it goes, but right now we’re focused on how the new bar does before we start planning any future bars.
For now, check out some of Martin’s amazing listings.