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00:00Yeah, I've just had a mailing. I own Jersodiak Forest in Gosport.
00:05We've gone about to celebrate our 50 years of the name Jersodiak Forest, which my parents started back in 1975.
00:12Wow, 1975. So yeah, really long time then.
00:15Yeah.
00:16So yeah, can you tell us a bit about the history, how it all started, how it came about?
00:20Well, it's that my mum was always just in the flower trade. That's how she carried on with it.
00:31It's just like my nan and grandad. They just started off down at Fortham Road on the corner of St Luke's.
00:38And then they bought this place back in about 1978 and converted it from an old pub into a flower shop and fruit and veg.
00:45Ah yeah, so you must have kind of grown up in the flower business as well.
00:48Yeah, yeah, I did, yeah. Since 1982.
00:53Were you kind of involved in it as a child? Did you help out in the shop?
00:56Yeah, I did, yeah.
00:59So yeah, 50 years is obviously a long time. Is there any kind of secret to that longevity, do you think?
01:05No. No, just hard work.
01:09Have you got quite a few loyal customers, repeat customers from the community?
01:13We have, yeah. It's because my mum and dad just built up a good clientele.
01:19And then also that I still get my mum's customers in which are just still loyal.
01:26But also that myself and my family have just built up our own clientele of new customers and stuff like that.
01:34Yeah, fantastic. And I'm alright saying your mum's from this area as well.
01:38Yes, she was, yeah. Just born and bred from this area, yeah.
01:41And that helps obviously a lot of people. Yeah, yeah.
01:45Fantastic, fantastic.
01:47Yeah, so yeah, obviously you've got 50 years coming up. So was it the 24th?
01:50The 24th of March, yeah.
01:52And do you have any plans to celebrate that?
01:54Yeah, we're going to have tea, coffees, cakes here.
01:57And we're just hoping that our customers, friends and family can share just memories of us.
02:03So we can do a little collage of just memories just in our window.
02:09So our customers can read and then a few weeks or months after the event is that we want to turn it into a little book.
02:15So more families have got something to look forward to and read when they're older.
02:20Perfect, perfect. So you're kind of hoping for people to share some messages on Facebook or their memories of the shop?
02:26Yeah, yeah, yeah. Facebook or bring pictures in themselves.
02:32Just a picture on Facebook, just Instagram or just anything really.
02:38Or just coming in and just talking about their memories of the shop and my mum and myself and the family and that for all those years.
02:49It's just amazing that we can just celebrate 50 years.
02:55Because, you know, just not a lot of family run businesses can obviously achieve that milestone.
03:02So just hopefully that I can continue on and just pass it down to my family.
03:06Yeah, yeah. And how have you found it? Obviously, there's been lots of talk about, you know, it's a difficult time for businesses.
03:11How has it been the last few years?
03:13Scary. Yeah, really scary because flowers aren't a necessity.
03:17Yeah.
03:18Obviously, compared to what you need to pay out for, you know, it's to put a roof over your head and all your life, you know, just putting that on the table for you.
03:26It's for your own family, so flowers aren't really a necessity.
03:30But, you know, it's a ball pool together.
03:33We've, yeah, we've come through.
03:35Yeah, yeah, yeah.
03:36And we're hoping for it to continue.
03:38Yeah, absolutely. I guess that's where you can kind of, on that little, little customer base that you're available for.
03:45Yeah, yeah.
03:46Fantastic.