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27/10/2025
Craig Musson has helped pioneer Australia’s flower market
There are few things that spark joy like fresh flowers, and at the heart of much of this happiness lies a humble Australian family-owned business.
Craig Musson is the owner of Wafex, Australia’s leading flower company boasting offices worldwide, with a presence across 26 countries.
For the past 34 years, Craig has been a driving force in the Australian flower industry, building a global network to ensure flower freshness, variety and timeliness.
In the process, he has quietly helped develop Australia’s thriving native flora industry, breeding some of today’s most highly sought after Waxflowers.
What was once a bush-picked native flower, is today a hero of bridal bouquets and arrangements thanks to Craig’s patience and commitment.
Yet a global business was certainly never on the radar when the Zimbabwean first settled in Australia.
“I’d studied agriculture in Australia at Victoria’s Dookie College before venturing back to Zimbabwe to work with my father-in-law in the flower industry,” Craig explains.
“I soon realised a future in Zimbabwe would be challenging, so my wife and I moved to Perth – it was 1991 during the middle of a recession and I couldn’t get a job so my father-in-law sent me a few boxes of flowers to see if I could sell them, and that marked the start of my business career.”
It’s from these humble beginnings that Craig has built an enviable business that’s well and truly blooming.
Craig has built a significant, dynamic business with a global presence.
Today, Wafex is a vertically integrated flower company that specialises in all points of the value chain, from flower breeding through to the delivery of flowers to front doors globally.
The branded flowers now dominate supermarkets and florists worldwide, and the business includes farmland, importing and exporting arms, and offices in the USA, Kenya, Ecuador, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.
“When I first started there were very few flowers being imported in Australia, such were our strict quarantine laws,” Craig explains. “In Winter there were literally no flowers at all to sell in Australia, yet the demand was there, so I went through the arduous processes required to get shipments in, and thanks to supply from my father-in-law and friends in Zimbabwe I was able to sell 10 boxes of roses and chrysanthemums.
“Ten boxes became 20, which became 100, which became 200, and very quickly the business took off.”
During the second year of business one of Australia’s largest export businesses filed for bankruptcy, and Craig saw further opportunity in his fledgling business.
“I had nothing to lose so I contacted the receiver of that business – it had a large wax flower farm and while I didn’t want to buy the business, I simply asked if I could sell the crop – which they agreed to.”
“Very quickly I was an exporter as well as an importer, which was a great balance as it helped mitigate the risk of exchange rate movements, and seasonal variations.”
With the Australian climate not ideal for the bouquet staple – the rose – Craig explains that Kenya and Ecuador are the world’s leading suppliers of roses due to high altitude growing conditions.
And so came the need for people on the ground, with Craig setting up offices across the globe to create a genuine, hands-on path to connect the global flower customer base.
Today, he leads a team of almost 200 staff – including his two adult children who are involved in the business – working with 300 customers and over 500 growers.
Cultivating Australia’s Waxflower evolution
Australian natives are a unique and celebrated bouquet offering, with Waxflower, otherwise knowns as Geraldton Wax, a strong performer.
Craig remains hands-on across the business, and there’s nothing more satisfying than waxpicking season.
Craig had been working closely with Western Australia’s agriculture department, which had been breeding wax for over a decade, until it put a call out to the industry.
“Basically in about 2008 the department said it needed industry to fund wax breeding, and to my disappointment growers refused to continue to fund the program.”
Undeterred, Craig assembled a cohort of private breeders nearing retirement, and formed Helix, a secondary business with a goal to help fund breeding, and to commercialise new wax varieties.
“We wanted to have the best varieties in the world, plus a royalty stream that would continue to flow in every year and fund further breeding.”
“We didn’t want just ten varieties, we wanted ten varieties plus a pipeline for the next 50 years - that’s the model we wanted to establish.”
However they faced a fresh hurdle upon the release of their varieties.
“We found growers were very conservative, and hesitant to take up our new varieties, and so once again we took matters into our own hands and purchased farmland to grow the wax ourselves.”
Such was their confidence in their product that Craig said they planted 30,000 plants in their first crop.
This vertical integration also helped fast track varieties into the market, with breeding a notoriously slow process – it takes eight years to breed a product, and three years from cutting to a cut flower.
“Having our own farms, varieties and developing the Helix brand started to pique the interest of growers, not just in Australia but across the world, and thankfully it’s been a model that’s really worked in our favour.”
“We became vertically integrated not by choice but by necessity, we had all these great wax breeds and potential, yet no one wanted to take the risk and grow them, and we’re very proud of the progression we’ve made in the industry.”
Today 70 per cent of Helix’s wax is exported, with 30 per cent kept locally – and with freight export rates still elevated since Covid, Craig said he’s delighted the Australian market is embracing natives such as Waxflower.
A Waxflower field
“We took a bush-picked native flower and today, 20 years later, our white Waxflower has evolved from a filler, to a hero in bridal bouquets.”
“It’s also great for our growers, they’re growing high value new varieties hybrid varieties and it’s nice to see our growers being profitable.”
Opportunity ripe for the picking
Craig admits developing a global business wasn’t necessarily part of his plan, with his business built on recognising and leveraging opportunity.
“Throughout three decades in business what I’m perhaps most proud of is the strong relationships the business has formed – I have staff who have been with me for 30 years, and customers who have been with me since the early days.”
“The flower industry is not easy, we’re selling a perishable item, so it’s 24/7 – it’s taken a very strong team to grow to the point that we have.”
Rabobank a unique investment tool
As a Rabobank Deposits client, Craig chooses to save with a bank that supports his fellow farmers.
Rabobank Deposit customers, typically a business, or high-net-worth client who invests significant funds with Rabobank through tailored deposit solutions, benefit from a dedicated relationship manager and a personalised banking experience designed to meet complex financial needs.
Having invested funds in Rabobank deposits, Craig is thrilled with the strong relationship focus of the bank and describes saving with Rabobank “an enjoyable experience”.
“The team makes it very easy, it very much feels like you’re not dealing with a mass corporate entity where you’re just a number – rather, Rabobank feels like a community bank.”
“They feel genuinely interested in our story, and in our business, and I feel rest-assured I know the team members by name – I know that if there is going to be an issue it will be resolved with a single phone call.”
“Due to the very nature of my work, I obviously have a strong Dutch connection – Holland is the flower capital of the world!” Craig smiles.
A Wafex wax farm, ready to pick.
“I’ve had some sort of Rabobank connection – customers and suppliers – for thirty years now, so I knew the bank’s strong reputation globally.”
And with Rabobank deposits supporting Australian agriculture, Craig is proud to help contribute to his fellow farmers.
“I know what it’s like to be on the other side, when I started my business from my garage I struggled to get finance, so I’m very happy to be supporting a bank that is helping inspire, nurture and support agricultural talent.”