BOURNEMOUTH’S ‘longest-running’ florist will be closing after more than 75 years in the trade. 

David Shires, the owner of SimOnis in Sea Road, Boscombe, will be retiring after around 51 years in the family-run business on October 28. 

Having always told himself he will retire at 70, he finally called it quits but will miss the people the most – but not the early starts. 

“I will not miss the business anymore; I got to the stage where I don’t enjoy it anymore and getting up at 4am every morning,” he said. 

“My favourite part of the job was when I used to travel up to Covent Gardens in the early morning.

“I would set off on a Thursday morning at midnight, do the buying, come back here and open the shop at 7.30am. 

“I did that for 10 years and had a real buzz going up there. I had a good supplier up there, could buy a lot of English flowers, get good deals, fill up the van and sell them.” 

Established 75 years ago by a Dutch man called Simonis, the shop was bought by David’s dad, a former coalman, 53 years ago “on a whim” when walking past it on a family holiday. 

David was then asked to take over the family business. 

“Dad asked if I wanted to come and work here, I thought the grass was greener. It wasn’t.  

“I started off just doing the deliveries, then did the buying. I was just the dog’s body.” 

He said the floristry trade is more “agro” than anything else these days. 

“Coming out of Europe and Brexit and the flowers coming from abroad, there is a lot of paperwork and everything has to have passport numbers. 

“I also feel I can’t get the deals I used to get because it’s all auctions now and we don’t have the local wholesalers anymore. 

“Everything is online and you can’t negotiate anymore.” 

After the final day, David plans to spend more time with his wife and 13 grandchildren and explore more of the country. 

He added: “I don’t want to do anything for about two or three months, but then after that, I perhaps would like to volunteer at the hospital and talk to patients that get visits because I've dealt with the public. 

“If there’s not a job, there then I'll perhaps phone up some nursing homes and perhaps find out see if I could go a couple of mornings a week and just talk to people.” 

Meanwhile, two of his staff, Janet Jones and Heather Woods, will also be moving on. 

Janet joined the business 55 years ago straight out of school and will miss the people most of all. She added she may get into volunteer work. 

Heather has been with the business for 22 years and described the team as “like a family”. 

“We really know each other. It will be strange to go.”