Behind every bouquet is a business built on precision, trust, and people. For Jaya Arunasalam, Co-Founder of BloomingBox, flowers are only part of the story. Her journey from hospitality into one of the Gulf's leading floral and gifting companies has been shaped by operational excellence, strong partnerships, and an unwavering commitment to delivering meaningful moments. In this week's 10 Questions, Jaya shares how resilience, technology, and family continue to shape both her leadership and BloomingBox's growth across the region.
Question 1
For those who don’t know you, who are you, and what do you do?
"I'm Jaya, one half of the pair behind BloomingBox, a flower and gifting company that grew up in the UAE and now reaches across the Gulf. I run it alongside my partner Tariq, and the two of us built the whole thing from the ground up. I didn't come to flowers the usual way. I spent years in hospitality and travel before this, and a lot of what I learned there carried straight over: sourcing, timing, logistics, and holding a standard. That's really what my job is. When someone sends flowers or gifts to a person they care about, my part is everything behind the gesture that must work for it to land, on time, and perfect."
Question 2
What is so special about your job?
"What makes this special for me isn't the flowers on their own; it's what we've built around them. Tariq and I started BloomingBox with a purpose, not just a product, and watching that idea grow into something real is a rare kind of privilege. Today that means a team of 134 people across the region who show up every day to make something beautiful happen for someone else. Being responsible for that, for their livelihoods, their growth, the standard we hold together, is the part I take most seriously and find most rewarding.
Flowers are a business of emotion and timing, but underneath it is a group of people who care, and getting to build with a partner I trust while looking after a team this size is what makes the job feel like more than a job. That's the special part: purpose, partnership, and people, all in one place."
Question 3
Are there any specific challenges or obstacles you’ve faced at work, and how did you overcome them?
"This past March was a real test. Tension around the Strait of Hormuz sent oil prices climbing and threw regional logistics into disorder almost overnight. For a business built on imported flowers with a shelf life measured in days, that is close to a worst-case scenario. Air freight schedules wobbled, some flights were disrupted or rerouted, and freight costs jumped just as demand stayed steady. Flowers don't wait for the world to settle down. Honestly, a lot of how we handled it came from lessons Covid taught us years earlier: don't depend on a single sourcing lane, keep close to your freight partners so you hear about problems early, and keep your teams informed so nobody is guessing.
So, this time we moved fast and stayed calm. We leaned on more than one sourcing route, adjusted order timing to protect freshness, and made sure everyone on the ground knew exactly what was arriving and when. We took the hit on some cost, but we kept the product beautiful, and the customers looked after, which is the part that matters. The proud bit isn't that nothing went wrong. It's that our customers never felt it."
Question 4
What are the threats in the industry, and if so, do you have any solutions for them?
"The threat I watch most closely is the supply chain itself. Flowers travel enormous distances from farm to hand, and every link in that chain, from growing regions to air freight to last-mile delivery, has grown more fragile and more expensive in recent years. Fuel costs, geopolitical disruption, and rising input prices all land on a product that can't be stockpiled and can't wait. When the chain stutters, florists feel it immediately and so, eventually, do customers. I don't think the answer is to pass every increase along and hope people keep paying simply.
The healthier path is resilience: building more than one sourcing route, forming genuine long-term relationships with growers, floral suppliers and freight partners rather than transactional ones, and bringing more of the chain under your own control where you can. The floral industry runs on trust and freshness, and both depend on a supply chain that holds together under pressure. Strengthening that, collectively, is the change I'd most like to see."
Question 5
How has technology, such as e-commerce platforms or digital marketing, affected your industry? What strategies have you employed to stay competitive?
"E-commerce is the whole game now. BloomingBox was built digital-first, so rather than reacting to the shift, we've leaned into it. We've invested heavily in our own systems, including building a custom ERP and integrating our operational database directly into our planning, which lets us see procurement, order volume, and average order value in close to real time. That visibility is what keeps us competitive. When you can spot an average order value dip or a supplier cost swing early, you can act on it before it eats into your quarter. The risk with platforms is dependency, so we treat our own channels and data as the strategic core and use third-party platforms as reach, not as the foundation."
Question 6
Who (in or outside the floral industry) is an inspiring example to you? And Why?
"I tend to draw inspiration from builders rather than big personalities: the people who quietly create something durable, who care about the craft and the people around them in equal measure, and who don't confuse noise with progress. The closest example is right next to me. My partner Tariq Abu Samra and I have built BloomingBox together, splitting the company cleanly along our strengths and trusting each other to hold our own end.
That kind of long-run partnership, where two people can disagree, decide, and keep moving in the same direction for years, is rarer than any single visionary figure and worth far more. Beyond that, I have a lot of respect for anyone who treats the customer's experience as something close to sacred and never lets the standard slip, all while looking after the team members who make that experience possible, no matter how big they grow."
Question 7
How do you handle stress or difficult moments in your life?
"I deal with pressure by getting to the root of the problem rather than sitting in the feeling of it. My instinct in a hard moment is to slow down, break the situation into its actual parts, find what's genuinely weak or missing, and act on that first. Panic is expensive, and clarity is cheap, and years of running operations taught me that the calm person in the room is usually the useful one.
I've learned not to carry every problem at once, but to take them in order, because most things look less overwhelming once you've named them properly. And when a day has been genuinely tough, family is the real reset. A difficult day at work feels very different when you come home to a one-year-old who has no idea what a supply chain is and just wants to show you something."
Question 8
What has been the best (floral or non-floral) news for you lately, or of the last year?
"Nothing in business comes close to this: my daughter Nicole has just started walking. She arrived last year and completely reordered my sense of what matters, and watching her take her first proper steps has been the highlight of my whole year, floral or otherwise. On the work side, it's been a strong stretch too, with the company growing well and pushing into new markets across the Gulf, and those wins genuinely matter to me. But honestly, they feel like a footnote next to a small person wobbling across a room on her own two feet for the first time."
Question 9
Which is your favorite flower/plant, and why is it good for you?
"The Dahlia, without much hesitation. I'm drawn to its geometry, the way the petals layer out from the centre in an almost perfect pattern. It's bold but precise, structured up close, and comes in just about every colour. That mix of order and beauty in one flower is what does it for me."
Question 10
What are you doing this weekend?
"I'll be with family in Prague. I've been travelling back and forth quite a bit this summer, and this weekend is one of the good ones."
Jaya's take is a reminder that successful floral businesses are built just as much on relationships and resilience as they are on beautiful products. From navigating global supply chain disruptions to embracing technology while keeping people at the center of every decision, her story offers valuable insights for anyone working in the floral industry. Know another industry leader whose journey deserves to be shared? We would love to hear from you. Send your recommendation to edwin@thursd.com, and it could be featured in a future edition of our 10 Questions series.
All pictures courtesy of Jaya Arunasalam.
