What retailers really want

High-quality, diverse varieties. Competitive pricing. And above all, communication, communication, communication. That’s just part of what your retail customers are saying they want from growers as they enter this year’s busy season.

Greenhouse Management and its sister publication Garden Center magazine surveyed more than 2,200 garden center retailers about what they want and need from their grower suppliers, and the trends that arose from their answers are interesting. So many respondents stressed the importance of open lines of communication when it comes to product availability, delivery, price, and even the occasional unforeseen mishap such as delayed crops or pest infestation.

Retailers also expressed a desire for more flexibility from their grower suppliers, especially when it comes to order amounts and overall diversity of inventory.

“We’re pretty small, so for some growers it means being able to bring in smaller quantities of things,” says Chuck Flaherty, owner of Seattle’s Magnolia Garden Center. “For other growers, it means offering maybe a wider assortment … What I see with a lot of growers is that they’re too specialized and then I can’t really afford to bring in much of their [product]. If it’s a conifer for example, unless they have a really wide line of conifers, I can’t really bring in anything from them because to meet their minimums, it’s very difficult.

“For a bigger company, that might not be a problem, but for us, it’s always a problem to get enough to make it worthwhile to ship from any of these guys,” Flaherty adds. “We’re not right in the growing area, we’re 150 or 200 miles from where most of the stuff is grown, so it has to make sense from a shipping standpoint to get the right products.”

There are plenty of positive experiences that retailers relayed with regard to their grower suppliers as well. Ella Maxwell, a horticulturist at Hoerr Nursery, Peoria, Ill., says she appreciates her growers’ merchandising support.

“I think the point-of-purchase materials that [growers] send with their plant material is great,” she explains. “Everything is well-labeled and gives planting instructions … and great descriptions of the varieties. I think the picture material they send with [the products] makes people want to buy it.”

Growers’ perspective
Greenhouse Management obtained growers’ input as well. We surveyed more than 7,000 greenhouse managers and owners to find out what they want in a successful retailer-grower relationship. (See below).

Much like retailers, many growers express the need for open communication with their customers.

“We really need to create a partnership, and that seems difficult to achieve that,” says Tom Demaline, president of Willoway Nursery in Avon, Ohio. “They [retailers] have to have a better understanding of what we do, and we need to have a better understanding of the retailers … and try to figure a solution out. Part of our survival is going to have to come from these quasi-partnerships versus just being a supplier.”

Corey Bordine, co-owner of Bordine’s in Michigan, points to the nature of business itself as the key.

“For any business to be successful, they have to stay in business, first and foremost,” he says. “So growers need to do a better job of understanding retailers’ economic model, and retailers need to do a better job of understanding growers’ economic model. That comes through honest discussions and trust and communication.

“It truly is, ‘How can we both be successful going forward in the marketplace?” Bordine adds. “I think that’s like number one, and everything else is a far second.”

Read on to see more of what retailers want in their relationships with growers, and what growers want in their relationships with retailers. We hope this information will help you strengthen your bonds with your respective suppliers and customers as 2013’s busy season gets underway.

Retailers speak out

Survey methodology
One hundred and seven garden center retailers responded to the survey sent out by Garden Center magazine, and more than 77 percent of those respondents completed the survey in its entirety.

Greenhouse Management sent its survey out to growers, all of whom are managers or owners of a greenhouse growing operation. One hundred and forty-five responded, and 69 percent of those respondents completed the survey in its entirety.

We also conducted separate, one-on-one interviews with both greenhouse owners/managers and retailers to obtain additional input outside of the survey results. Some of the quotes in this article come from these additional interviews and are not necessarily from the surveys themselves.

• “Because we can, and that is why we have no competition in our area. No one else grows their own material.”
• “We grow our own perennials since we aren’t able to find enough variety through growers.”
• “To ensure both quality and ‘hard-to-find’ plants.”
• “We have always grown plants from the beginning of business 60-plus years ago. Growing unusual and hard-to-find plants in different-sized containers keeps me ahead of the competition.”
• “To get the numbers and the varieties that I want.”
• “Better quality, more varieties and better margins.”
• “We grow a lot of heirloom vegetables, which are not available as plugs. Also, some plants are just so easy to grow.”
• “Many are species that I can’t get commercially, and I also want to know that these plants are acclimated to North Texas conditions.”

Satisfied:

• “Our vendors have quality and knowledge that helps us be a better and more efficient garden center.”
• “Quality is improving, as well as bar coding and shipping.”
• “The plant materials are retail-ready.”
• “The quality of the plants is always excellent.”
• “They only sell the best!”
• “Good quality, few mistakes, lots of variety.”
• Growers “fill in what I don’t grow.”
• “Excellent customer service and communication; many won’t send plants that are not up to their standards.”
• One grower “has the best list for the unusual and hard-to-find. They are the highest-priced, but it is worth it.”
• “They do a good job of keeping me informed.”
• “Our local growers keep us well-supplied.”
• “They grow a consistent product from year to year, and there are seldom surprises.”

Dissatisfied, or somewhat dissatisfied:

• “I would like more choices (from growers).”
• “One of our main growers for smaller trees has priced themselves out of being competitive, so we are replacing this vendor.”
• “Sometimes their quality varies from one order to the next, especially on bedding plants.”
• Growers “are for the most part unwilling to grow new introductions and exciting brands. They all want to be their ‘own brand.’ They are not willing to grow anything they deem expensive, even though we tell them that the costs will be recovered.”
• “We’ve had a few growers really decline in quality and go up in price for no apparent reason.”
• “The biggest issue would be the last-minute cancellations, when the order has been placed for months.”
• “All of our growers have their downside: Lack of stock on certain varieties/colors and varying quality between plant varieties and type.”
• “We could sell a lot more veggie varieties practically year-round if growers would supply them.”
• “I would like a better selection of product and more product information from them.”

Growers speak out

We also surveyed growers and asked them about their current relationships with retailers. Here are the results to some of the survey questions.

• “Most (not all) retail garden centers are not doing what they need to move into the new demographics they will be facing.”
• “If I knew more of what they wanted, I would sell more.”
• “Retailers refuse to understand plant branding. For some reason, they feel it is perfectly acceptable to market a branded plant on the same end cap as a generic and call them all the branded item. No one would ever sell a generic fertilizer as Miracle Gro, but they sure sell a regular petunia as a Wave petunia.”

We asked growers the following question: “What, if anything, are you doing to improve your relationship with your retail customers?” By far, the most popular response involved keeping lines of communication open. Here are some other answers:

• “We are attempting to push them (retailers) to have a local-only area in the garden center.”
• “We are trying to grow even better plants without raising prices.”
• “We are trying to make more personal contact (with retailers). We are offering education material and merchandising material to help them sell.”
• “We try to be flexible with delivery scheduling.”
• “We are sending newsletters to educate (retailers) on choices, what’s out there, healthy food products, and vegetable plants and produce.”
• “As the owner, I make most of the deliveries and have personal relationships with the buyers.”
• “Letting them know what’s new and offering them or their staff to attend trade shows with us.”
• “We’re offering hardier varieties and we are on hand to answer questions.”
• “We’re improving our technology to provide more information.”
• “We’re doing off-season contact and requests for feedback about what (retailers) want from us.”

Overall, what is the main thing you find lacking in your relationships with retailers?
Please select only one: