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We thought a trip down memory lane today would help you, our valued client, understand our family’s commitment to excellence.
We know you have a choice in where you make your purchases, and we value your support of our family owned and operated business.
Here is a short insight into our history.

As youngsters Eddie, Michael and David Kraft used to run around their family’s floral
shop squirting each other with water
pistols disguised as flowers. Today, they are carrying on a family business started five
generations ago in 1850 as partners of St. Matthews-based
Nanz & Kraft Florists.
Though they have branched out with stores on Brownsboro Road and Dixie Highway, the
Kraft brothers now occupy offices in the Breckenridge Road
location where they had their first jobs as kids helping with
flower deliveries, sweeping floors and well, wreaking the kind
of havoc boys know best.
“I can’t tell you all of it,” Eddie Kraft said of the mischief
he and his brothers caused as kids.
It was enough to make their father, Edward Ramsey
Kraft, admittedly a little nervous when he took his boys
under his wing and showed them the ropes. Ramsey Kraft,
who retired a year and a half ago, said he couldn’t be more
proud of the way his sons have carried on his customer-first
mentality.
All three brothers said they learned the importance of
customer service from their dad, who learned it from his
father. Playing off the customer is always right mantra, Eddie
recently had some buttons for his employees to wear that say
“Yes we can.”
The word no isn’t part of the Nanz & Kraft vocabulary,
explained Eddie, who handles advertising and oversees the
branch stores, greenhouse and gift shop.
Through various moves – the original business was started
downtown near where Spalding University is now – and
industry changes, customer service has been the thing the
Kraft family has prided itself in. The Krafts trace back to
the German immigrant who founded the business by marriage.
Harry Kraft Jr., the Kraft brothers great-great grandfather,
married the daughter of Henry Nanz’s son and became
a business partner. The rest has been a century-and-a-half
of family history. The Kraft name was incorporated into the
business’s moniker in 1958.
“You do feel the pressure,” Eddie Kraft said. “You don’t
want to be the one to drop the ball. You want to see it go to
the next generation.”
Grandpa Kraft is already scouting out that next generation,
which ranges in age from 2-and-a-half to 12. He said he
recently had a heart-to-heart with all six grandchildren and
told them he’d like to see someone carry on the flame.
David Kraft, the youngest of the three brothers at 38, said working in the family business means he gets to see his family
more than he would otherwise.
“It’s great,” said David, who oversees the company’s extensive
Internet operation. “I get to see my family every day.”
On the flip-side, it also means working through differences
and scheduling time to be together as a family without
talking business.
“Sometimes we have to force ourselves to have meetings,”
Eddie Kraft said.
Michael Kraft, who handles purchasing and oversees the
design center, said having three owners, each focusing on a
specific area, streamlines business. Each brother brings a different
level of expertise and skill set to the table, Michael
noted
That they all share the same last name that customers
have come to know and trust for generations is an added
bonus, Michael Kraft said.
“You get to see people who have asked for my grandfather
and asked for my father now ask for us,” he said.
You could say Michael and his brothers have come a long
way without going very far.

We are delighted to have been featured on Leslie Lyons website in May…

5.07.09 Nanz & Kraft Florists

http://www.iliveinlouisville.com/