big grower
opposed to having them delivered, but it also gave the growers negotiating power by purchasing as a group.” The cooperative, which has played an enormous role in Kal-
amazoo for more than 40 years has certainly impacted Wenke’s business, Lorence says. There used to be up to 60 members in the cooperative, but it’s now down to 48 or so.
Long-Distance Synergy Wenke’s association with the Kalamazoo Flower Group
is only a small part of this varied business. Wenke’s also has two separate growing locations. “Half the company is located in Douglas, Ga.,” says Lor-
ence. “Not too many greenhouses have locations that are 1,000 miles apart.” There is a synergy between the two locations, and the
distance allows them to serve a wide geographic area. “The Georgia facility will ship to north Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and up into Tennessee,” shares Andy. “The Michigan facility will go to Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Kansas and a little bit of Nebraska.” Tennessee is that linchpin, Andy says, where they’re
able to provide more frequent delivery to customers and get a head start on the weather. Products are designed so that one location may have something that the other doesn’t, to offer customers a wider assortment.
Forgetting Fear One of the big changes that Wenke’s has been through
came directly from Wal-Mart. Twenty years ago, after attending a Ball Horticultural Co. seminar in Chicago, Lor- ence returned with a completely different mindset. During Wal-Mart’s presentation at the seminar, they defi ned themselves as a numbers-driven company. “Wal-
Mart was quite instrumental in changing growers’ focus as far as the standards we would be held to,” Dennis says. After the seminar, the Wenkes toured a Wal-Mart distribu-
tion center across the street from their Georgia location. “We saw boxes from all these suppliers going down these massive conveyors,” explains Lorence. “The computers were reading the barcodes and telling those boxes where to go and billing somebody for them. It was amazing.” After that tour, Lorence
made it clear that Wenke’s had to become a numbers- driven company as well. Rather than viewing the big boxes as competition, Wen- ke’s Greenhouses looked to them as the standard. And they wanted to beat that standard. “Boxes have helped to
force reductions in produc- tion costs and introduced plants to a large number of people who would not have gone to a garden center oth- erwise,” says Lisa. If anything, the big boxes
pushed the independent garden
centers. garden centers,” “There’s
a need out there for inde- pendent
Andy adds. “They have to go out there and market the
22 GPN 2010 Digital Resource & Buyers Guide
“There’s a need for
independent garden centers.
They have to market the
product, and we’re trying
to fit that bill from the
input side.”
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