About Us
Flowers are the unifying symbol of joy, beauty, cheerfulness and healing
James and Joy Armitage cultivated their passion for flowers into what began as a small-scale business venture in 2009. James’ farming qualifications and experience helped him to achieve impressive growth of a range of flower varieties. His wife, Joy, quickly got involved and later took over the business. At present, the business is run by Joy assisted by her right hand lady Mary-Anne and with James assisting on a consultancy basis on the farming side.
Our Company
A happy workforce is a recipe for a successful business
The business has seen rapid organic growth under Joy’s tutelage from the start, the business has grown and continues to increase as the number of staff members increase every year. Vashto offers a full range of flowers and pot plants to a broad spectrum of customers. Their success can be attributed to a number of factors, including the seasonal flowers grown on the farm, the strategic and synergistic alliances formed with neighbouring and local farms to leverage supply and deliver scope, as well as sustainable scalability and the seamless supply of a large variety of fresh flowers to meet the needs of the South African market. Vashto also imports flowers in demand in South Africa from Zimbabwe and Kenya, and further provides flowers to a range of their customers, who export their products overseas.
Our employees are our biggest asset and we, therefore, treat them with the utmost respect. Aside from creating employment for our locals, we also ensure that their families are well taken care of. We provide living facilities at our farm for most our employees and their families.
Management
The three ladies are the backbone of the Vashto Flowers operation with the inspirational leadership of Joy Armitage.
MANAGING DIRECTOR
JOY ARMITAGE
OPERATIONS AND SALES MANAGER
MARY-ANNE SEPTEMBER
ACCOUNTS MANAGER
JEANETTE DEMBITZER
Vashto Market
Vashto sells to retailers, Spar and Woolworths, directly. They also supply a number of other wholesalers, who in turn supply Checkers and Pick n Pay. The business has three delivery vans that deliver to surrounding Spars and customers. Florists, function organisers, and the public are also welcome to purchase flowers and a courier is used to deliver to outlying areas that are not on the delivery route.
Future Growth
Vashto is in the process of establishing a BEE company, Fantastic Flowers and together we are going to seize the growth opportunity to grow a special variety of Ornithogalum that have been bred from tissue culture, allowing them to be strong enough to travel and facilitating a brilliant vase life. The Ornithogalum are known for their beautiful colours and spectrum of hues ranging from white, bright yellow to orange. Together with their plans for future expansion, this addition to the business, will scale business operations by optimizing their capacity, increasing their footprint in the international market and assist with the creation of additional employment.
Film Location
We are available as a film and advert location with a large variety of location looks. The most popular are the sunflower fields that we grow and develop for you to shoot your movie or advert. We just need 12 weeks notice period to get the field ready for your use.
