Bringing The Tropics Home

The home decorator is the target market segment for Green Valley Growers, Willis, Texas.

by SARA TAMBASCIO
Managing Editor

Owner Wayne Massey (left) and President Jim Hessler lead Green Valley Growers with a continuous improvement model and the consumer in mind.

When party planners go online searching for décor and design ideas, Green Valley Growers’ Tropical Splendor Web site might come up in the search. The site, www.tropicalsplendor.com, displays a beachy, blue sky photo on its home page, then leads visitors to fun facts on vacation spots like Cozumel, Tahiti, Hawaii and Jamaica, in addition to decorating tips to bring the tropics home – using plants. Green Valley Growers has made the Web site’s focus, and the focus of its business, about a lifestyle rather than about plants.

“I’ve kind of changed my thoughts on branding over the last few years,” says Jim Hessler, Green Valley Growers’ president. “I think less in terms of branding and more in terms of creating demand for products.” His hopes for the bedding plant industry are similar to the transformations that have taken place in the paint and plumbing departments at home improvement stores. Ten years ago, those DIY projects were considered work.

“Today, painting is decorating, and now it’s fun,” he says. “Replacing a toilet is decorating.” He explains that he sees the consumer driven not by specific new brands, but by activities they see as enjoyable and valuable, such as decorating. Patio-ready products and larger containers are all the beauty with less or no work. Green Valley has seen premium chrysanthemums thrive, while promotional items lagged.

“Imagine if our industry could pick up just 1 percent of what people spend on dining out – how many dollars that would generate for us,” he says. “The challenge is how do we help the public value gardening as much as they value as going out?” Green Valley Growers helps that effort through the lifestyle-oriented Web site, plant labels that match the look of the site and with a product range of 5,000 varieties, including blooming tropicals, palms, shade and fruit trees, citrus and flowering potted plants, in addition to annuals, perennials, ferns and grasses.

In Bloom
Hessler credits the large number of varieties grown to the location of Green Valley Growers. In an area of Texas called Piney Woods, the greenhouse is located on a heavily wooded area of rolling hills on the eastern side of the state, which receives five to six feet of rain per year. Hessler describes the area as a little bit of heaven.

The operation uses a mix of greenhouses and outdoor production, cold frames and shade houses, in addition to a good amount of natural shade. In this environment, Green Valley has been able to produce many items that are usually prime for growing north of Houston, including hostas, Japanese maples and peonies.

“That’s not supposed to happen here,” Hessler explains. “There are a lot more northern crops that we have because of the trees, slope and wind circulation. We’ve been able to create the perfect microenvironment for a lot of crops.” Above the obvious advantages for producing great plants, Hessler attributes the company’s quick growth to aggressiveness in seeking new customers and markets and sales in those markets. “If someone wants to try something, we’re very open to trying just about anything.”

Something Hessler brought to the company when he joined in 2003 was a lean process flow for production. Implementation has included pulling out what doesn’t add value and reducing footsteps and product movement, all without high automation. The first processes the grower investigated were in the office in the areas of order entry and assembly. From there, all the steps of the production process was documented and measured.

“When you sit down and force yourself to write down every single step, you realize it’s ridiculous – everything we go through,” Hessler says. “It can be a lot simpler than we make it.”

Team Green Valley
In addition to investigating lean, the success of Green Valley’s production rests on six team leaders. Each leads a different growing area of the operation and is responsible for his or her crop from delivery from potting until it’s at the loading docks – spacing, pest management, fertilizing, watering, pruning, staking and plant growth regulators included. With such an important job and in such a young business, finding the right personnel for team leaders is crucial.

“The training of the team leads is one of the most important things we do,” Hessler says. “The leads are really the key to the success of the operation, particularly the production side.” Leads are mostly home-grown, rising up from the ranks in the company. Texas A&M has been helpful with training and seminars, as have vendors. Team leads also help each other, meeting weekly to hammer out problems and come up with solutions together.

Other ideas are found each year the Friday before Memorial Day, when employees go into retail garden centers and work – sweeping floors, waiting on customers, watering plants – on whatever needs to be done.

“We’re here at the production facility and we know about growing the plants,” Hessler says. “You can lose sight of the challenges for the people who receive those plants and what happens at that end.”

In ten years, Hessler says he hopes he’ll be able to count more non-traditional outlets as his customers, citing the first steps taken by clothing chain Urban Outfitters toward a garden retailing business. Changing the value consumers see in gardening will remain the goal of Green Valley Growers. Premium prices mean less margin pressure. It all goes back to the home centers.

“If you go to the paint department, basic white paint is pretty price sensitive,” Hessler says. “It’s a commodity and I suspect neither the retailer nor the paint manufacturer makes a lot of money on it. But if I want to find Wildcat Purple paint to match the school colors of Willis High School, I probably don’t care as much what I pay for it. The retailer and manufacturer can make a little bit more money off it.” GG