Blossoming wedding sector leads to huge harvest for Newport confetti company
The blossoming wedding industry is set to lead to a bumper harvest for a Shropshire company which provides natural confetti.
Shropshire Petals, based near Newport, has started harvesting the various flowers that make up its crop, and the company is planning to bring in double the harvest of confetti this summer that it managed in 2016.
The move is in response to the bumper weddings industry, with the average wedding reported to be worth almost £27,000.
The business is estimating that it will pick 120,000 litres of delphinium, calendula, cornflower and sunflower petals over the summer – meaning that in total it will bring in more than 741 million petals from its Shropshire fields.
Marketing manager Ashley Corrigan said: "We have seen a huge shift in the type of confetti people are after for their weddings.
"A lot of venues and churches request biodegradable confetti as it's natural and there's no harm to the environment. A lot more people are opting for it rather than paper or rice – it's definitely on the up."
Flowers from the Shropshire fields used by the business usually provide for about 10,000 weddings a year, but this year's bumper crop is in anticipation of providing a colourful reception for brides and grooms at double that number of ceremonies.
Picking the crop by hand takes a major logistical operation, with about 50 temporary workers deployed in the fields and more brought in to dry and pack them ready to be sent to distributors.
Every year the company trials new types of flowers and petal colours to keep ahead of forthcoming trends, leading to this year's varied crop.
Flowers only bloom for six weeks of the year, from July through to the middle of August, meaning the window for harvesting is very short, especially with the volume expected to double this year.
That also means the weather plays an important role, with sun needed to help the flowers bloom, and some rain to help produce the right number of petals. Shropshire Petals said this year's crop appears to be doing well.
Based on an arable farm near Newport, the diversification into flower-growing has been an important part of the business for the last 11 years, with crops rotated between fields. Each year a bigger field is needed to accommodate the blooms for the confetti business.
Ms Corrigan added: "It is usually in different fields, but it is taking up more and more space at the moment."
