gems

gems has been selected as a 2026 Industry Icon in Consumer Products by The 2026 List, brought to you by Industry & Influence, recognizing its approach to building a floral business around the people who grow, deliver, give, and receive its flowers.

A bouquet can say thank you, mark a milestone, offer comfort, or turn an ordinary afternoon into a moment someone remembers. For gems, those human exchanges are central to the business. The company’s purpose is expressed in a simple outcome: making people smile.

Founded in 2003 and based in Miami, gems brings together fresh flowers, retail expertise, and a philosophy of care that reaches beyond the transaction. Co-founder and CEO Carlos Oramas has helped shape a company where the experience of employees, customers, and communities matters alongside commercial growth.

Making Flowers Part of Everyday Life

Through its supermarket floral offerings, gems brings flowers to shoppers nationwide. That presence places an expression of care within an everyday routine, making a bouquet something people can discover during a regular grocery trip.

The company’s floral capabilities span merchandising, branding, fresh-cut flower distribution, shopper marketing, and product innovation. These disciplines connect the product itself with how it is presented and understood, helping retailers tell a story around flowers and the occasions they serve.

The appeal is easy to recognize: flowers can be part of a celebration, a gesture of support, or a purchase made simply to brighten a room. gems builds its consumer message around those familiar reasons to give and enjoy them.

A Company People Can Love

“We want to make a company that people love,” says Oramas. The statement places relationships at the center of the company’s ambition. In the story shared with Trending Today, that philosophy extends to employees who want to feel valued, customers who want to feel understood, and communities that benefit from a company’s participation.

On its culture page, gems emphasizes humility, flexibility, gratitude, improvement, and doing what is right. Even its lowercase name has a purpose: the company describes the small “g” as a reminder to keep attention on the people it serves.

Its website highlights recognition from the 2026 USA TODAY Top Workplaces program and the Sun Sentinel’s 2025 Top Workplaces program, connecting its public message about people with recognition of the workplace behind the brand.

That culture accompanies measurable business momentum. gems earned a place on the 2025 Inc. 5000, ranking No. 2,515 among America’s fastest-growing private companies. The recognition adds a commercial dimension to a story often told through generosity and connection.

Floral Expertise From the Andes

The company’s farm in the Andes is another part of that story. gems describes growing conditions that support year-round flowering and help flowers last, alongside farming practices intended to reduce waste.

Its farm page cites more than 50 years of floral expertise and a selection of more than 40 crops and over 376 varieties. Those figures describe the breadth of knowledge and plant diversity behind the bouquets that ultimately reach consumers.

For a shopper, the flower is the visible result. Behind it are choices about growing, design, and delivery. By telling that wider story, gems gives an everyday product a connection to the people and expertise responsible for bringing it to market.

One Bouquet, One Smile

The 1 Million Smiles Initiative makes the company’s purpose tangible. What began with giving flowers to people has become an ongoing effort to encourage kindness and connection. The initiative’s published tally has passed 61,000 smiles, with each donated bouquet, whether a single stem or a bunch, counted as one smile.

The campaign invites others to get involved through its website, where people can request flowers and materials. The invitation turns a company-led effort into something a wider community can take part in, with a clear action at its center: give someone flowers and create a moment of care.

That mission will also reach a national television audience through an upcoming Trending Today episode premiering this fall on Bloomberg and Fox Business. Filmed at gems’s Miami headquarters and along Miracle Mile in Coral Gables, the feature follows Oramas and the team as they surprise residents and visitors with bouquets. It also explores the leadership philosophy behind the business.

“Through the 1 Million Smiles Initiative, we’ve seen firsthand how one simple act of kindness can brighten someone’s day, inspire connection, and encourage others to do the same,” Oramas says in the announcement of the feature.