Learn Why Dedicated Associates Are Driving Success at Bonnie Plants

By Julie Hullett|August 18, 2022

Mike Sutterer, President and CEO of Bonnie Plants, says the company is unique because of its associates. Bonnie’s dedicated, hardworking group of employees invest time in the company to continue its mission — enhancing lives through the power of plants.

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Bonnie Plants takes pride in offering fresh, unique, and flavorful vegetables to its consumers, such as this ‘Sun Sugar’ yellow cherry tomato. Photos: Bonnie Plants
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Bonnie Plants has 87 facilities across 43 states.
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Bonnie and Livingston Paulk founded Bonnie Plants in 1918 with 2 pounds of cabbage seeds and $50 in their pocket, according to President and CEO Mike Sutterer.
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Bonnie Plants employee Travis Hammonds tends to his garden with his children at their home in Alabama. Hammonds says donating their extra harvest to their local food bank helps fight food insecurity in their community and teaches his children the importance of giving back.
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As part of its mission, this Bonnie Plants station grew food to donate to a local pantry.
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Mike Sutterer serves as the President and CEO of Bonnie Plants.
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Bonnie Plants employees are seen working on the e-commerce shipping line.
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Three descendants of the founders of Bonnie Plants attended the e-commerce expansion in Union Springs, AL, earlier this year. Pictured with President and CEO Mike Sutterer (second from left) are Leslie Harris (left), Johnny Adams (second from right), and Bonnie Paulk (right), a current employee.
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An employee at Bonnie Plants uses the TTA PackPlanter, which was developed for high-speed transplanting in a small frame.
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The PackPlanter is able to transplant into trays, packs, or pots in shuttle trays, according to TTA.
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Bonnie Plants is partly owned by ScottsMiracle-Gro, which offers a line of flowers called Brilliant Blooms. The flower shown is a ‘Wine Blotch’ pansy.
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Bonnie Plants moved its corporate headquarters from Union Springs, AL, to Opelika, AL, to partner closely with Auburn University. The ribbon-cutting at the new headquarters took place earlier this year.
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Employees are working in a new 45,000-square-foot warehouse dedicated to e-commerce, according to Director of E-commerce Operations and Fulfillment Sid Phelps at Bonnie Plants.
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The leadership team at Bonnie Plants gathered for a ribbon cutting ceremony earlier this year at the new e-commerce facility in Union Springs, AL.

Bonnie Plants has 4,500 associates during their peak season. When the historic freeze hit in Texas in February 2021, the frigid weather wiped out inventory at garden centers. Sutterer emailed his associates to enlist their help. Within 24 hours, dozens of Bonnie employees left their homes across the country to assist their customers in Texas.

They picked up plants at Bonnie facilities on the way to Texas to restock the stores. Bonnie associates blanketed the affected areas in Texas to get businesses up and running again.

“And again this spring, with an extremely compressed season in the northeast due to weather, we had many of our associates, who live and work in southern areas, leave their families behind and temporarily relocate to the north to help deliver plants to stores to keep up with the compressed demand,” Senior Vice President of Supply Chain Fernando Quiros says. “That commitment and dedication are incredible.”

Quiros has worked at Bonnie for six months but has experienced that culture first-hand already.

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“As I engage with our associates across the country, I am always blown away by their commitment to our mission, vision, and values,” Quiros says. “Our associates feel a great sense of pride knowing they add value to their customers and end consumers.”

Sutterer says the associates’ willingness to help customers in Texas and the Northeast make Bonnie unique.

“They sacrificed three to four weeks of their time to help our customers,” he says. “That is one of the things that makes Bonnie special — the passion and dedication of our associates. It means more to them than just growing and delivering plants. It’s who they are. Our mission is enhancing people’s lives through the power of plants.”

The founders of Bonnie Plants, Bonnie and Livingston Paulk, also lived the mission. Sutterer says the Paulks set aside acreage to give back to food pantries in southern Alabama.

Read the full cover story on Bonnie Plants here, and check out the slideshow above to see more.