How Three Leading Ornamental Growers Came Out of Spring Poised for a Strong Future

Bell Nursery grows in an environmentally and socially responsible manner and is a Veriflora-certified sustainable producer

“The only time I’ve been in something this unpredictable is when I was in the Marines.” This is how Bob Dickman, General Manager at Dickman Farms in Auburn, NY, describes how COVID-19 affected his business this spring.

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Dickman’s comments led an insightful Town Hall that took place on the last day of Cultivate’20 Virtual, American Hort’s online gathering of all segments of the horticulture industry in July. Dickman was one of three panelists (joining him were Cole Mangum, Vice President of Operations for Bell Nursery in Elkridge, MD, and Jon Reelhorn, Owner of Belmont Nursery in Fresno, CA) in the discussion, which was moderated by Ken Fisher, President and CEO of AmericanHort.

“We had our first case in our greenhouse in March, and it was like being in a gun fight,” Dickman said. “My family met first, and we knew we had to all be on the same page to get through this together. We then began meeting with upper-level management, and after identifying all segments of our business that might be effected, we developed a communication plan.”

The reactions to COVID-19 varied across the company, Dickman said. Some employees were nervous, especially if they had older parents. Some thought it was no big deal. Some staff were upset that the business was deemed essential, and some pretended nothing was wrong.

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“We had to manage these conversations and help alleviate any fear, while maintaining an open-door management policy where any team member knew they could take to us,” Dickman said. “Employee safety was our number-one priority, and that was part of any business-based decision.”

Dickman says the experience helped him become a better manager and trust his team.

“We learned the importance of being surrounded by good people who feel empowered in the decision-making process,” Dickman said. “If you have one person that does everything, that’s a bad model.”

On the production side of the business, Dickman Farms was focused on growing and delivering a high-quality product, which reduced the need to follow up with customers in person.

“Fast forward, and we were up in sales this spring and sold everything we grew,” Dickman said. “We scaled back production at the beginning and were more profitable growing less. We’ll look closely at this moving forward as we plan for 2021 and decide whether we can dial back our buffer production.”

Coming out of spring, Dickman Farms ended up with a lot of new customers

“Our goal now is to retain them by making sure we have bullet-proof products that can succeed in the garden,” Dickman said. “But we’ll also be conservative in our approach to production, and will look for ways to adjust our pricing model if necessary.”

Provide a Consumer-Friendly Product

Cole Mangum was just coming out of college during the last recession, so this was the first real business threat he’d seen.

“One of the first problems we encountered was that states had different rules, so as a supplier in many markets, we had to manage a scattered landscape,” Mangum said. “We also benefited by being open at a time when a lot of other types of retail operations were closed.”

This spring, Mangum says Bell Nursery focused on containers and ready-made planters, as well as plants that can survive with less water or fertilizer.

“We also took advantage of using FaceTime video to walk through our greenhouse and keep our customers, our executive team, and members of our sales team who were working remotely updated on our products,” Mangum said. “This is something that has worked well, and we’ll look at how to keep using it moving forward.”

Because many of its customers didn’t advertise this spring, Bell Nursery opted to cut back on production.

“We ended up having tremendous sales. People got out in the garden when they didn’t have anything else to do,” Mangum said. “We didn’t have to advertise to drive up crowds, and we sold a lot of plants at full price. It was a strange experiment.”

Internally, Mangum it was critical for Bell Nursery to be both consistent in its messaging and communication, and to be flexible with its people.

“We wanted everyone to feel comfortable and important, and not just a number on a spreadsheet,” Mangum said. “Our long-term employees felt validation about working here, and everyone had to jump in and do something different each day. To see this was inspiring, and we discovered people with growth potential.”

Like many others in the industry, Mangum says Bell Nursery attracted a lot of new customers this year, and the best chance to keep them is to make sure the product you are offering is consumer friendly.

“If they had a good experience this year, they’ll probably try it again this year,” Mangum says.

Be Ready to Adapt

For Jon Reelhorn, surviving the recession of 2007 was a challenge.

“We were not prepared back then, and coming out of that experience, we vowed we would not be unprepared again if another problem like that came up,” Reelhorn said.

While Reelhorn says Belmont was in a better position this time, it was still important to be able to adapt quickly during a time of uncertainty.

“Fortunately, our employees were adept at shifting directions, even as some of our customers had to shut down,” Reelhorn said. “We put sterilized stickers on our carts and containers to make customers safe, and we had one our of employees focus exclusively on social media messaging.”

The extra effort made by his team has not gone unnoticed by Reelhorn.

“I’ve gotten better at recognizing a job well done,” Reelhorn said. “This experience has also shown me we need to keep helping our staff and invest in making them better leaders.”

The next challenge, Reelhorn said, will be continuing the momentum of consumers valuing our product into future years.

“We’ll increase our production and try to charge a higher price,” Reelhorn said. “But we’ll also likely grow less variety and focus on our best performers. If we do it right and focus on quality, that will help our sell-through.”

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