A Family Affair ~Ital Florist.

We have no business being in the flower business.
It's a long story. Suffice to say, Dad is an accountant by trade and Mom was a teacher. So how did the flowers come into play?
Back in the mid 70's, with three small children, my Dad, like many men back then, needed a part-time job to make some extra money. He started working at a small local flower shop delivering flowers and making house calls for wedding and funeral orders. He was good at it. Actually, he was great. His natural ability to sell what happened to be flowers, was quickly earning him a handsome commission.

In 1976, he would leave his prestigious day job at the bank and embark on what many naysayers believed to be an absurd idea. He opened Ital Florist Ltd. I was 8, my older brother Italo, was 10 and the baby of the family, Evelyn was only 4 years old. It was bold. It was crazy. It was a great move. Today, 38 years later, Ital Florist and its group of companies, reigns supreme in the floral industry.

All of the hard work ethics, the honesty of keeping your word, the fairness towards employees and the overall class act that Mom and Dad passed on to us are still the definition of who we are and what we do.The formula is not a big secret. We work hard, we play fair and we succeed.
With Dad enjoying retirement and Mom having sadly passed on, Italo and I are now at the helm of this ship. The youngest of our sibling trio is successfully keeping the other family business of Teaching alive, making an extraordinary difference in young people's lives every day.

The partnership.
From the beginning it has always been a true family affair. We have no board room, unless you count the "lunch room", we don't have fancy offices, our meetings are very often held around the dinner table, notes are taken on napkins, decisions made after NHL games on TV. It works for us. A brother and sister team, in-laws too get their input, and we all know, we're in it together. Our motto; "What's the worse that can happen?" As long as we have each other's back and all our kids' best interest at heart, we will not fail. Failure is not an option.

My brother and I growing up were always game for a healthy competition. Neither of us like to lose. Not that we're sore losers, but we simply do not see losing as an option...ever. In High School and in University we made it on every sport team and student council possible. We were looked upon from our peers as leaders and we enjoyed taking on the various challenges whether they be academic or athletic. Teachers, principals and friends counted on us to be good examples and we made our parents proud.

We married our high school sweethearts, had big,traditional Italian weddings with lots of food, lots of dancing. We have 5 kids between us, most in University now. We expect a lot from others because we expect a lot from ourselves. We never settle with 2nd place. It's simply not in our nature.
Our parents were go getters. They never waited for the hand out and they certainly never expected someone else to do anything for them and all of this rubbed off on us.We run our business and our partnership with the same philosophy; we're on the same team, playing our positions well and going for the Gold.

Success is never achieved entirely alone. We could not do what we do best without our amazingly dedicated and talented staff, our understanding and supportive spouses, our wise father and our loving sister and so many more significant people on the journey with us.

Today, we are proud to say that we do have every business being in the floral business. Turns out, we're good at it too. Actually, great at it.

~We are your flower experts.

http://www.italflorist.com/about-us.cfm