The Crate was born from a love of all things that tell a story, an idea shared between founders (and childhood friends) Claire Ryan and Steph Hutch, with the aim of making people happy.
We started The Crate after both moving back to Dublin from London in 2016, having worked parallel to each other in the fashion industry for years; Claire in PR and buying, and Steph in visual merchandising and graphic design.
Moving back to Dublin was like moving to a new city, having both grown up here, we returned with a new gaze on a place that had evolved so much since leaving. We saw huge potential and support in small business in Ireland.
Both sharing a love for flowers and floral design, we started The Crate in Claire’s parent’s garden shed. We went to the Smithfield flower market weekly, selecting different flower varieties, experimenting with them, testing their vase length, recognising their seasonality and developing our freehand style of arranging.
We knew from the beginning that we wanted to focus on flower delivery, and simplifying the offering on hand. So often we found it can be overwhelming ordering flowers for all the different reasons, and not knowing what is an appropriate style to send. We wanted to pair this back for our customers by offering one style of seasonal arrangement that changes weekly. You never get it wrong, and you never get the same flowers twice. We carried out market research while building our online shop and gaining such valuable insight into why people send flowers. The connection in sending flowers is something we put a huge weight on.
During the pandemic we recognised this so deeply, and know how much it means to people to be able to send something beautiful to a loved one that you cannot see.
We also realised the big celebrations don’t stop just because you’re apart; birthdays and babies and engagements and new homes, but also we’ve seen so many little tokens of kindness being sent; a pick-me-up bunch for a friend, a well-done from a manager to a team member working remotely, flowers for a would-be wedding, or a gift subscription for parents to count off the next few months until they can see their nearest and dearest.
It’s such an honour to be able to deliver all of the little gestures of love and thoughtfulness for people and it’s given us such an intimate understanding of why we do what we do. Beyond the flowers that forever hold their beauty, it’s delivering the connection between people that we both are truly passionate about.
Claire & Steph x
