Jules on Moneyweb: Building Julep from Love

Ahead of Valentine’s Day last month, Jules sat down with Jimmy Moyaha on the Capitec Business SME of the Week segment to chat about all things Julep. Listen in below as they discuss how we started, why we deliver our flowers in boxes, and how we ensure fresh blooms arrive at your door every time.

Transcript: Julep Featured on Capitec SME of the Week with Jimmy Moyaha

Jimmy Moyaha:

SME of the Week is powered by Capitec Business Banking. Start out or scale up with Capitec, the business bank for everyone. Capitec is an authorized FSP (number 466669). Terms and conditions apply.

It is SME of the Week time, where we get to showcase all of the great businesses out there in South Africa that do a little bit better. This week's business is very aptly positioned for the month of February: Julep Flowers. I’m joined on the line by the company’s founder and owner, Jules Rosslee, to take a look at her business and see how she built it.

Julia, lovely having you on the show. Thanks so much for taking the time. Tell us about Julep Flowers—how did this business come about?

Jules Rosslee:

Oh, Jimmy, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be chatting with you. You're right, we're entering our florist silly season!

Julep is an online flower delivery and gifting business. It was started by my husband, Nic, and myself. Our team delivers boxes of fresh flowers across Joburg, Pretoria, and Cape Town. Because almost all of our orders involve two customers—a sender and a receiver—we really aim to give the best possible experience to both of them.

We do a number of things differently at Julep, most notably our product. We don't deliver traditional hand-tied bouquets; all of our flowers are carefully hand-packed raw in a long cardboard box.

How Julep’s Letterbox Flower Model Works

Jules Rosslee:

The receiver gets a beautiful gift box packed to the brim with fresh flowers that they can arrange themselves, with a bit of help and flower care tips from us.

In terms of how the business started: Nic and I both come from corporate backgrounds and started the business very early on in our relationship. With a bit of romantic, optimistic—arguably naive—faith, we wanted to build something we cared deeply about that brought joy to people's lives while having fun. That was where Julep was born.

Jimmy Moyaha:

Boxing flowers is quite an interesting delivery mechanism. Take us through what that does for the freshness of the flowers and why you went the boxed flower delivery route.

Why Boxed Flowers Ensure Maximum Freshness & Consistency

Jules Rosslee:

That’s such a good question. It wasn't something we thought of doing right at the outset. It came through research into how the global floral industry operates—from farm to wholesaler, florist, and customer—and seeing what international companies were doing.

We chose flowers in a box to solve two main industry problems:

Product Consistency: Traditional flower delivery can be frustrating because what you see on a website isn't always what you receive. Supply fluctuations and varying florist skills make it hard to create the exact same bouquet every time. As we scale, we want absolute consistency in our product quality.

Delivery: Bouquets jumping around in the back of a delivery vehicle often get damaged. By packing flowers tightly while they're fresh in bud, they are protected on their journey.

We receive flowers directly from the farm, pack them immediately, keep them cool along the way, and send them straight out. It’s a much more efficient way to guarantee a high-quality product. We were inspired by leading overseas florists like Bloom & Wild in the UK and UrbanStems in the US. In the UK, they even deliver via the postal service, which was an interesting data point for us!

Jimmy Moyaha:

So, Jules, does that mean you prepare the arrangements by hand once you receive the flowers from your farm suppliers?

Jules Rosslee:

Yes! Customers choose from our selection of curated flower arrangements on the website. Once an order is placed, we prepare the stems by hand—checking for quality, de-thorning, and stripping unnecessary foliage.

Then, we pack them beautifully in the box. When the recipient unboxes them, all they need to do is snip the ends, put them in water, and enjoy the fun part: arranging the stems themselves!